TELUS Corporation is the largest telecommunications company in Western Canada and the second largest in the country. It provides a wide range of wired and wireless telecommunications products and services including data, Internet Protocol (IP), voice, video and entertainment services.
Three years ago Telus acquired its first ContentAgent
universal transcoding platform from ROOT6 Technology and has
subsequently installed a further two systems.
All three are in daily use in a variety of transcode operations
at Telus Executive Communications, the company’s in-house video
production arm based in Vancouver.
Used at the heart of an XDCAM file-based workflow, the ContentAgents are used to transcode material for IPTV and for previews. The main format used is Windows Media but the systems are also used for transcoding to Flash and H.264 formats.
The company is increasingly involved in digital signage with more than 90 sites throughout Canada and ContentAgent is also used for transcoding for this emerging communications channel. A further use of the system is for live large-screen presentations where Windows Media is the preferred file format.
Alex Pereira, Streaming Media Specialist at Telus, takes up the story. “We looked long and hard at available transcoding systems but ContentAgent stood out, primarily for ease of operation. We can simply set up repeatable workflows depending on the application and ContentAgent will automate the entire process.
“Also, we have an excellent relationship with ROOT6 Technology and have worked together on a number of occasions to implement specific features – they have a very wide range of expertise in this area which has proved very helpful.”