Czech public broadcaster Czech Television (Ceska Televize) has gone live with Synamedia's virtualized Digital Content Manager (DCM) and completed its transition to transmitting all programs in the DVB-T2 format.

Czech Television went out to public tender in April 2019, selecting Synamedia and local systems integrator LICA CZECH for the on-premise virtualized headend solution and related systems integration services. A key requirement was to meet the broadcaster's October deadline for starting regional broadcasting on this platform.

Synamedia and LICA CZECH fulfilled a strict precondition to demonstrate that they could handle the complexity of switching the new headend from a national to regional mode of transmission using the DVB-T2 standard, with a short reaction time and with little or no interruption to viewers.

Prior to the switchover at the end of October, the public broadcaster used a third party's headend for its national DVB-T2-based transmissions while continuing to transmit regional programs using DVB-T signals. Synamedia's virtualized DCM is now fully integrated with Czech Television's playout automation system. It virtualizes the entire video headend, providing HEVC encoding and statistical multiplexing capabilities in a single solution. It is also capable of fulfilling other tasks including MPEG2 or H.264 encoding, DRM, packaging and advertising.

Michal Kratochvíl, Executive CTO, Czech Television said: "Synamedia and LICA CZECH worked closely with our internal team on this exacting systems integration and solutions project. They moved quickly to successfully meet our strict October regional transmitting deadline."

"As a public broadcaster, Czech Television needed a reliable, flexible headend that could support a full transition to DVB-T2 - including the ability to splice in regional programming with minimal fuss. Together with LICA CZECH, we were able to meet their specific requirements. Now viewers across the Czech Republic can enjoy both national and regional programming using the advanced DVB-T2 standard," said Julien Signes, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Video Network at Synamedia.