Digiturk goes HD

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Uysal, who heads production development and operations at Digiturk votes for HD.

Istanbul-based DTH provider, Digiturk transmits 160 ‘services'. Of these radio stations, TV channels and interactive options, around 100 are national exclusives. It also holds the rights to domestic Turkish football competitions up until the end of the 2009/2010 season. This is a likely contributor to Digiturk's rapidly increasing subscriber base, which now sits at 1.8 million.

The company has led the way in the implementation of previous technologies and was keen to continue this strategy.

"The main priority with the new system is HD," says Emre Uysal, head of production development and operations at Digiturk. "Our old Philips set-up is now at the end of its lifespan. The new integrated Harris installation we have gives us great flexibility between SD and HD, which is now very important."

Regulatory complications in Turkey have held up digital terrestrial transmissions, leaving satellite as the only possible source of HD content, according to Uysal. This situation has increased the value of early implementation for Digiturk.

"We will have HD football and are planning two other new HD channels as well, National Geographic and a movie channel. These will be the first HD channels in Turkey for now, but we will have competition at some point. It is important for us to be first. The combination of HD and the exclusive football rights form the backbone of what is a solid strategy for Digiturk," claims Uysal.

At the heart of the new installation is a host of Harris software and hardware including the H-Class D-Series Playout automation application, 10 NEXIO XS servers and a Platinum router among others. The cost of the new infrastructure is estimated at US $18 million. The anticipated ROI of three to four years has been stretched due to the system being in partial use for most of this year. This time was also used to allow the operators to familiarise themselves with the new software.

"It took us two months to do the physical install, but we worked for 10 months to get it operational. It was more complicated because we had to adapt the new Harris systems and the legacy system around each other. Because we already have an existing system and workflow, the operation of the Harris system is different than if it were standalone," explains Uysal.

Harris took more of a back seat position during the planning period, instead delegating the work to its local master distributor, Bilgi Elektronik.

Engineers from Digiturk and Bilgi worked together on the planning, design and implementation. This process was complicated by the continued active presence of the legacy system.

"Essentially, it is a turnkey solution but we have been able to customise it around the old hardware. We are running the old systems as well but we are phasing them out over the course of the next year. They don't cost much in maintenance so it is cost effective to run them both for now. We knew from our past experiences that it can take a long time, not only to train our operators on how to use the equipment, but just to figure out how we want to work with the equipment as standard," continues Uysal.

"Operators tend to resist a new system to begin with. We had a little resistance here but now they are happy to use it. This system is much more intuitive and has a more visual interface compared to the old DOS style. So it is less labour intensive for the individual and offers us more flexibility as a network. The NEXIO XS servers, for example, mean we can switch between SD and HD very easily. They save everyone some work."

The Digiturk order is the first integrated HD installation Harris has undertaken in the EMEA region. The flexibility of the system allows broadcasters to adjust the volume of HD output as they see fit, without committing to a dedicated HD set up. A broadcaster can therefore increase its commitment to HD transmission (within transponder limitations) in a more composed manner, as and when it sees fit. This soft approach may be the best solution for the region's broadcasters who have so far been reluctant to commit wholeheartedly to HD technology.

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