Reference no: EM131238620 , Length: word count:2500

Project - Channel4

Channel4 is an Australian free-to-air television broadcaster that delivers 4 digital channels of video content into the Sydney and Melbourne metro markets. With the massive changes in the media landscape in the past five years, Channel 4's management realizes that it must move to make their operations more cost-effective so as that more money can be spent making quality content that will increase ratings and thus advertising revenue streams. Consultancy company, Bradley, Sturgiss and Wright (BSW), was commissioned to undertake a review into Channel4's operations in a bid to increase their profitability. One of the key findings was that:

"Significant savings could be made by removing duplicated networks and moving to a converged IP environment, based on commodity hardware and skills".

Your role is to analyse the current network and business requirements to propose a new reference architecture using the methodology learned in ISIT925. The level of detail in the reference architecture should be sufficient for inclusion in a tendering document that companies can use to submit competitive bids to under take final design and installation.

Background

Since the mid-2000's the profitability of broadcast television has dropped dramatically. This is due, in part, to 'new media' and the four-fold increase in free-to-air television channels, which have fragmented audiences. In addition, the rise of peer-to-peer sharing (such as bit-torrent) has changed audience viewing habits as viewers now expect to watch content as soon as it premieres overseas or alternately in bulk at times that suit them.

With approximately two thirds of all Channel4's content is sourced from the US and other overseas content produces, piracy is having an increasing impact on their ratings. However, another key finding of the BSW report was that

"Local and 'Australian Made' content premiering in Australia during prime-time is relatively immune to piracy. This is especially true of Channel4's target demographics and an increase in quality content of this type will increase profitability"

Thus Channel4 is looking to spend savings gained from operational efficiencies on local co-productions between Channel4 and independent producers. Channel4 operates four free-to-air television channels (Channel4, C4forKids, WOW and QTV). However Channel4 outsources all its play out capabilities to Media Hub and all its Terrestrial DVB Transmission to Broadcast Australia which has regularized and reduced their day-to-day operating costs.

Finally, BWS also recommended that all SAP, Scheduling, Records Management be moved to a Cloud provider which will reduce the cost of these systems, as well as increase redundancy and uptime. While the logistics of this migration are beyond the scope of this project, Management have requested that ongoing data-requirements of this should be factored into your design.

Your role is to analyse the current network and business requirements to propose a new reference architecture using the methodology learned in ISIT925. The level of detail in the reference architecture should be sufficient for inclusion in a tendering document that companies can use to submit competitive bids to under take final design and installation.

Attachment:- Project.rar