FACT SHEET: Solutions for Digital Media Companies Overview Completely Integrated and Customizable Media Services POST Telecom provides completely integrated broadcasting and OTT services for digital media companies. From contribution through head-end services to distribution, POST Telecom develops customized solutions for TV channels, TV service providers, TV and radio broadcasters, corporate communications and special events. By developing complete solutions, it offers customers an end-to-end SLA. By providing a one-stop service offering, POST Telecom can be responsible for complete implementations and get projects up and running quickly and cost-effectively. No two projects are the same. That is why POST Telecom has no pre-packaged offers and is not locked into any equipment vendor. This flexibility enables it to provide a unique solution for each project, ensuring exact compliance to specifications. In addition, POST Telecom is able to design streamlined solutions that save customers time and money. POST Telecom is part of the POST Luxembourg group (formerly P&TLuxembourg), which broadcasts its own IPTV service within Luxembourg and is one of Europe s most respected telecommunications companies. Over many decades, it has achieved broad technical expertise by operating state-of-the-art connectivity networks, communications services over satellites and datacenters. At the same time, it has direct experience delivering Internet, phone and TV content directly to consumers. This is why, with POST Telecom, digital media companies will find a media service provider that has an in-depth understanding of their business. POST Telecom s flexible technical expertise enables digital media companies to deliver the highest quality service. At the same time, POST Telecom s media business expertise helps them achieve the highest level of profitability. By contracting with POST Telecom, digital media companies can take advantage of many unique business benefits offered by the country of Luxembourg. Its media-friendly government is strongly supportive of digital technologies, providing a favorable regulatory and tax environment, investing in ICT infrastructure, supporting R&D and much more. Here are specific examples of Luxembourg s advantages for digital media companies: Streamlined procedures to get broadcasting licenses for companies that would like to start their European operations in Luxembourg Companies delivering broadcasting and TV services from Luxembourg can receive, depending on the type of content delivered, a super low VAT rate of 3% (until 2015) Luxembourg s IP regime provides for an 80% exemption on IP income Luxembourg law provides for strong data protection Page 1 of 5
Luxembourg is stable and politically neutral. Its central location in the heart of the EU ensures low latency connectivity and a direct link to European satellites. As well, Luxembourg has one of Europe s most productive and multi-lingual workforces. Luxembourg s leading-edge ICT infrastructure, business-friendly government and talented workforce are key reasons why major brands like BCE, SES, UPC, M7 and Netflix are located here. POST Telecom is one of Luxembourg s key points of entry for digital media companies. Its one-stop solutions help them set up business and profitably distribute content throughout the EU. Broadcasting POST Telecom has been an important player in TV broadcasting since the modern satellite communications era began 25 years ago. For reliable, secure data transport and satellite uplink/downlink, customers such as SES, RTL, ARTE and Globecast have long relied on POST Telecom. In 2006 to enhance the speed, security and capacity of its landbased network, POST Telecom launched its TERALINK backbone. A 4,000km fiber network, TERALINK now provides high-bandwidth redundant connections to key PoPs throughout Europe and end-to-end connections upon request. POST Luxembourg launched its own IPTV service in 2008 which now serves more than 30,000 customers and provides 250 TV channels. This has given POST Telecom engineers extensive hands-on experience that benefits new customers such as TDF (Telediffusion de France) and Europe-by-Satellite. It has also enabled POST Telecom to develop and perfect all the additional media services described below that are essential to integrated broadcasting solutions. Contribution Network To meet the unique contribution needs of every customer, we have the flexibility to customize each solution. POST Telecom offers point-to-multipoint connections between all the major European cities. It provides flexible bandwidth options to meet customer specifications, based on its MPLS or DWDM networks. Signals can either be compressed using MPEG or JPEG2000 over ASI or UDP, or uncompressed using SD/HD-SDI. Full signal protection is ensured by FEC and redundancy over two paths with seamless switching. 24/7/365 monitoring of video transport guarantees the highest possible uptime. Playout POST Telecom offers hosted playout solutions for SD or HD channels, with remote connections to servers. We can host customer playout servers or provide hosted, high-density, flexible servers offering standard features that include overlay and logo insertion. High availability is ensured through complete redundancy and 24/7/365 monitoring. Encoding To provide maximum flexibility for its customers, POST Telecom operates encoders from many different vendors. Engineers can operate these encoders remotely or host them in POST Telecom s satellite station: Page 2 of 5
Statistical SD/HD H.264 4:2:0 8 bit encoding for a satellite broadcast High density SD/HD H.264 encoder HD H.264 4:2:2 10 bit contribution encoders Support for up to 32 audio tracks Multiplexing Today s customers need powerful, flexible multiplexing technology to meet the complexity of new network architectures. The expanding demands of end users and the growing number of new types of digital video content lead to rising video resolutions and data rates. To support these fast-moving changes, POST Telecom offers digital media companies the flexible, modern multiplexing technology they need to rapidly implement new video services. Distribution POST Telecom offers several high-performance options for distribution, including: Satellite Uplink POST Telecom s uplink station is located in Luxembourg, in the geographical center of Western Europe. This places it in the center of many satellite beams, thereby significantly reducing the necessary uplink power. From this ideal geographic position, satellites that cover Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America are easily reached. The teleport contains three 9 m, five 3.8 m and seven 2.4m antennas with uplinks and downlinks in the Ku and DBS-Band. With the experience gained from operating its own equipment over many years, POST Telecom can implement projects on very short notice with high service availability. Its excellent infrastructure provides multiple backups for electricity, fiber connections and uplinks. Plus, a NOC supervises all the infrastructures and services from end-to-end, 24/7/365. IPTV Network The IPTV network that POST Luxembourg operates locally is a very cost effective channel to provide digital content to end users. This benefits established firms that want to extend their existing product portfolio, as well as startup companies that are looking for a young multilingual audience in a fastgrowing market. The cost-of-entry is very low compared to starting a satellite business. TERALINK Network POST Telecom s 4,000km high-bandwidth fiber network transports digital content throughout Europe. Thanks to its central location in Luxembourg, the entire EU emarketplace is served with high performance and low latency. The network delivers redundant connections to 16 key Western European PoPs. This enables digital media companies to reach larger audiences by exchanging services with other platform operators. Page 3 of 5
OTT Services As part of the POST Luxembourg group, POST Telecom customers can have completely integrated OTT services. These include: Tier II to Tier IV datacenters IP transit services High-bandwidth connectivity (TERALINK) Encoding and streaming services POST Telecom understands the streaming business, and is unique in being able to provide Telecom services along with storage and Cloud services. Plus, the highest level of security and complete redundancy are assured. Now, from one experienced service provider, digital media companies can choose from a comprehensive set of OTT services. This saves time and money and gives them flexibility to achieve customized implementations. Encoding, and more POST Telecom encodes in adaptive streaming formats (ABR) in H.264 for live feeds and file assets, from small Internet clips to large movie files. Assets uploaded via ftp can be encoded in any resolution for any device. Plus, POST Telecom is able to create catch-up/n-pvr assets based on EPG data. Storage The broadcast industry is demanding content storage that has greater capacity and higher quality. While availability and integrity remain essential for storage, companies are now looking for scalability and higher performance. Successful content storage management requires a vendor like POST Telecom that can deliver integrated services to meet these criteria. In addition, POST Telecom is committed to being out-front in mastering and implementing the latest technologies. That is why it uses advanced technologies such as active-active replication on single or multiple datacenters, auto tiering, SSD and more. Streaming POST Telecom can stream up to 20 Gbps from Luxembourg to the internet, via the major Internet exchange points or Tier 1 providers. It can also rely on third party CDNs. POST Telecom maintains the highest level of security and provides complete redundancy. It supports all major streaming formats: Progressive Download Smooth Streaming SS HTTP Live Streaming HLS Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP MPEG DASH Page 4 of 5
Summary POST Telecom combines 25 years of media service experience with a can-do attitude that embraces the latest technologies. It is part of a group that operates its own IPTV service, enabling it to understand all aspects of the broadcasting business. With IP transit, high-bandwidth connectivity and satellite uplink/downlink capability, POST Telecom takes contributed content and distributes it throughout Europe with high performance, redundancy and security. Its comprehensive solutions include head-end services, storage and Cloud services. Now, digital media companies can have completely integrated, customized media services from one vendor with an end-to-end SLA. Page 5 of 5