Case Study
Sri Lanka Rūpavāhinī (TV) Corporation
The Challenge
The Sri Lanka Rūpavāhinī (TV) Corporation (SLRC), also known as Jathika Rūpavāhinī, is the national television network of Sri Lanka. It produces and broadcasts programmes in three languages – Sinhala, Tamil and English.
The requirement was for the live delivery of 6 events from the Sri Lanka vs England Cricket Tour, with the first live event taking place just three days after our initial conversations.
The backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic, along with the uncertain status of live sports broadcasting, meant that The SLRC needed a fast, flexible and reliable solution.
The Solution
Due to the unpredictable schedules of sport during the pandemic, The SLRC had to broadcast the cricket matches at short notice. Unlike traditional broadcasting infrastructure, cloud-based set-ups can be deployed in a matter of minutes and spun-up/down as needed, to accommodate schedule changes and overruns.
This is particularly beneficial for long-form sports such as cricket, as matches don’t adhere to a consistent duration.
The SLRC approached our team following referrals from Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and Dialog TV (DTV), a direct broadcast satellite pay TV service provider based in Sri Lanka. The initial request was to pick up and transport a feed from BT Tower and our team advised delivery of a main and backup h.264 encoded linear Zixi feed to the broadcast partner.
The infrastructure deployment was set-up remotely and BT Tower pick-up details were provided the day before each match. As The SLRC is an established broadcaster, the necessary hardware set-up was already in place to enable all content to be received in a Zixi format.
Initially booked for 36 hours of content, the flexibility of Livelink meant that when test matches overran or (as was the case in one instance) were rained off, adjustments to scheduling and capacity could be implemented almost immediately.
The Results
By utilising Livelink, The SLRC were able to cost-effectively deliver live matches to Sri Lanka via IP, scaling infrastructure up or down and only paying for what was needed.
Livelink enabled The SLRC to remain fully responsive to the fluctuating timescales of test-match cricket.
Despite teams working across different time zones and in different languages, the ease-of-use of the platform ensured the seamless delivery of content without the need to over-book capacity.
The successful delivery of these matches adds to a growing number of projects in Sri Lanka. The Cerberus Tech team has found the response to IP in the region very encouraging.
The cost-effectiveness and technical reliability of IP delivery is extremely attractive for live sports broadcasters, needing a fast turnaround without compromises.
- Seamless delivery with scalable, cloud-based infrastructure.
- Cost-effective alternative delivery method.
- Last-minute schedule changes easily accommodated.
“We are very satisfied with both the IP delivery of live feeds and coordination provided. We consider Cerberus Tech a reliable technical service provider and look forward to working with them for such future events.”
Palitha Gallage
Deputy Director General (Engineering), The Sri Lanka Rūpavāhinī Corporation