[Republished here from digitalmediaworld.tv with permission]

One of Norway’s largest broadcasters, on its path to IP, has made a substantial order for arkona’s BLADE//runner IP gateways, A/V processing, video compression and audio shuffling.

One of Norway’s largest broadcasters is currently on its path to IP production and delivery. As part of this migration, they have been assessing gateway and other systems that meet their particular requirements regarding density, processing delay and latency, signal distribution and flexibility.

The broadcaster has recently made a substantial order from arkona technologies for their BLADE//runner products for IP gateways, A/V processing, ultra low latency video compression and audio shuffling.

“This order serves as recognition of the quality of our systems…”

Rainer Sturm, CEO of arkona technologies said, “This order serves as recognition of the quality of our systems. We have been experiencing a major uplift in sales since we started building up our own distribution channels in early 2023. The large base of existing installations of our products, which had previously been marketed and sold through an exclusive OEM arrangement, continues to grow rapidly around the world under our own arkona name.”

The broadcaster’s order was placed through arkona’s partner in the Nordic region, Danmon Group (Denmark). Wiggo Evensen, Sales & Partner Manager at arkona said, “We started immediately to focus on marketing arkona for projects in the Nordics. We have been working hard to develop the control options that had been missing from our systems, and which had initially been a weak point, but once we started working independently from the OEM company, this issue has effectively been solved.

Integration with Third Party Systems

“arkona now integrates directly with most of the third-party SDN (software-defined networking), orchestration and broadcast control systems that our clients work with. We have also been developing the unique internal control possibilities of our AT300 blades – for example, the open source-based telemetry solution, which is free of charge, is excellent. Into the future, with our NMOS IS04/05 and Ember+ support, we don’t anticipate any further control issues in marketing our solutions.”

Evaluation Report Findings

The Norwegian broadcaster’s evaluation report comments favourably on the Arkona AT300 gateway’s high density in both video and audio, with robust buffering capabilities for signal alignment. It notes that its FPGA-based design results in ultra-low processing delay, which is invaluable in IP-based workflow where managing delay is critical.

… a strong choice for our ultra-low-latency requirements …

The report also states, “The Arkona AT300 delivers impressive density for JPEG XS, coupled with low processing latency between compressed and uncompressed signals, making it a strong choice for our ultra-low-latency requirements. As our platform will rely on JPEG XS for signal distribution across the WAN, the AT300’s ability to handle these signals at scale without introducing significant alterations is crucial.” Comments about flexibility mention the quick boot times between FPGA firmware changes, allowing dynamic repurposing of hardware, a valuable feature for our evolving needs.”

Dedicated Audio-Only App Stands Out

A further reason for choosing arkona’s BLADE//runner platform was the dedicated audio-only app with audio routing, shuffling and processing capabilities, achieving extremely high density when focused on audio streams. While it is useful to have basic audio shuffling capabilities in all apps that handle video as well, this dedicated audio-only app stands out in both density and performance of audio processing.

For More Information and Pricing

arkona technology’s solutions are sold and supported in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Singapore by Magna Systems & Engineering. To discuss how arkona’s BLADE//runner could fit your needs, please contact us.