Mediaset España optimises live workflows and digital rights management with Unified Streaming

Several Unified Streaming solutions, with the collaboration of spanish expert Midia cruzada, have recently been integrated at Mediaset Espanha to improve key points of the Spanish media group’s workflow, including its streaming capabilities and linear programming.

Mediaset Espanha has selected the Unified Streaming technology to move from a push-based streaming to a pull-based protocol that creates content dynamically, or on the fly, only when it is needed. The Mediaset Espanha partnership with Unified Streaming aligns with the Spanish company’s optimisation of its multi-CDN (Content Delivery Network) strategy. Distribution across numerous CDNs keeps Mediaset España agile, diversifies risk and allows it to avoid vendor lock-in.

The Mediaset España pull-based origin, running in the Microsoft Azul cloud, facilitates this multi-CDN strategy. Improved CDN cache configuration has greatly reduced requests and exits from the unified origin to the CDNs. This multi-CDN approach, implemented in conjuntion with Crossmedia, will allow Mediaset to easily replace components if problems arise without, for example, having to re-code its content library.

Mediaset Espanha is also implementing Unified tech to enable the protection of premium content in its on-demand workflow and to package its entire video-on-demand catalogue, with and without DRM (digital rights management).

Unified Origin at Mediaset España

On the other hand, thanks to Unified Origin technology, Mediaset Espanha has gained the flexibility to stream to “all devices” in “all use cases”. Some smart TVs and set-top boxes are often equipped with older standards and legacy DRM (digital rights management) implementations, complicating the arrival of dedicated applications on these devices. Unified Streaming solves these idiosyncrasies “as easily as it adapts to the latest standards”.

The interoperability of Unified Streaming and Mediaset España has been tested on Azul with the help of Crossmedia through Kubernetes, a system for automating software deployment, scaling and management. With the integration of Unified Origin, failover (or the ability of the software to seamlessly switch to a solid backup system), has been characterised as “seamless”, as Unified Streaming itself points out.

On the cooperation between his company and Unified Streaming, the Mediaset España multiplatform CTO Manuel Jesús Guisado said: “The reason this has worked so well is because Unified’s support team is so laser-focused on packaging, and every packaging issue that was seen in testing, they solved.” On the other hand, Ewout Meijer, the Unified Streaming sales team lead, stressed: “Mediaset España’s goal of building a best-of-breed OTT solution aligns perfectly with Unified Streaming’s vision of providing broadcasters and operators with the tools to deliver the best and most personalized viewing experience.”