Switzerland's Canal9 Migrates to HD with Grass Valley Solutions

“The move from SD to HD is of huge importance to Canal9 because we are absolutely committed to giving our viewers the best quality of service possible,” said Stéphane Sassano, CTO, Canal9 Association. “Grass Valley’s solutions have made the transition simple. Their intuitiveness and ease-of-use has given us the time and freedom to be creative. We couldn’t be more pleased with our new HD system—it’s met all our requirements head-on.”

The strength of Canal9’s new Grass Valley system lies in its consistency, with a seamless integration from ingest through playout. Additionally, the open nature of the technology means that Canal9 has a large choice of formats to work with.

The K2 Summit production client is the only media client that supports end-to-end SD/HD workflows in DVCPRO, MPEG-2, AVC-Intra, H.264/AVCHD, and DNxHD formats. It integrates with GV STRATUS to offer an ideal solution for live events, production and news. GV STRATUS offers a wide range of software-centric tools for the full nonlinear production workflow, offering support for ingest, editing, content aggregation, logging, transfer and playout. It combines with EDIUS to offer powerful editing functionality. GV Edge integrated playout is a robust, software-based playout system with a purpose-built, high-availability architecture for mission-critical, 24/7 playout applications.

“We’re delighted to be making the announcement today with Canal9, supporting them in making the shift from SD to HD,” said Said Bacho, Senior Vice President of EMEA, Grass Valley. “We understand that our customers want to push the envelope in terms of quality output without breaking the bank, which is why we develop our solutions in such a way that they require minimal manpower to use. This project with Canal9 really shows how Grass Valley is leading the way in delivering live production solutions which offer both quality and value.”

Joel Antonin, (Co-CTO), Canal9, commented: “It’s been a real pleasure working with Grass Valley on this project. Its support from planning through to installation has been invaluable in helping Canal9 ensure that it will continue to deliver best-in-class services to its viewers across Switzerland.”

Grass Valley® is changing the way live television is made and delivered. Recognized with 18 Emmy® awards for technology innovation, Grass Valley’s product portfolio—from image acquisition to playout—offers a complete end-to-end workflow of flexible, future-proofed solutions which enable broadcasters and content owners to build multiscreen, multiplatform futures. By simplifying and enhancing the way content is produced and distributed, Grass Valley gives customers the freedom they need to be creative in the studio, the field, and the newsroom. Merging optimizations of IT technologies with best-in-breed media systems, Grass Valley’s next generation solutions deliver higher quality and greater efficiencies. Customers include world-leading broadcasters, teleproduction facilities, service providers, government, religious, educational, corporate, and independent video professionals. Grass Valley is headquartered in San Francisco, and maintains local presence across the globe with offices throughout North and Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific regions.