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Sydney - 26 February 2009 - Macquarie Hosting, a division of Macquarie
Telecom, today announced it has signed a complex
business hosting deal with
leading Australian digital communications specialist The Switch Media Group.
Under the deal, Macquarie Hosting will provide the fully-managed, high
availability hosting solution required to support Switch Media’s mission
critical video-on-demand and video content management applications.
The applications are accessed by all Switch Media customers including The
Walt Disney Corporation, The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), a
number of Australian political parties and The International Business
School. The applications are used to deliver rich content such as video,
Webcasts and e-learning applications across multiple digital platforms to
customers.
For the ABC, content is captured and edited by Switch Media before being
uploaded to its video management platform for consumer access via the ABC’s
iView program. Upload often occurs within seconds of the content appearing
on free-to-air TV.
The Macquarie hosted servers act as a digital content vault for Switch
Media, allowing the company to both store content and manage peaks in
traffic to it while maintaining a secure, low latency download experience
for customers.
The Macquarie Hosting partnership forms part of Switch Media’s plans to
diversify its services in the Australian and Asia Pacific markets and
capitalise on increased take-up of video-on-demand and IPTV services.
According to a report from the Australian Communications and Media
Authority, industry experts believe IPTV, the primary channel through which
video-on-demand is delivered, will become a mainstream reality in as little
as 18 months to three years time.
Switch Media recognised that to maintain high network reliability for its
existing customers and prepare for the inevitable growth in data volume that
future customers would create, it required a more robust end to end hosted
communications solution.
The solution Macquarie Hosting developed met these needs, providing
proactive monitoring and management from the TV aerial to the servers and
Internet pipes.
“There is no question that video-on-demand will become ubiquitous as
electronics manufacturers, broadcasters and content providers all scramble
to develop the means for audiences to access and consume this content as
quickly and comfortably as possible,” said Christopher Stenhouse, Managing
Director, Switch Media.
“A significant market opportunity exists for Switch Media to be the
provider of choice in this space but only if we can deliver the guaranteed
smooth and reliable viewing experience our customer’s audiences expect.
“We chose Macquarie Hosting for its proven experience working with
digital media companies and because it had the accredited, scalable
infrastructure we need to support our business growth both in volume and
geography. The Macquarie Hosting team also provides us with a very personal
relationship and truly understand our business, which is critical to ensure
that we get the timely support we need,” Stenhouse said.
The Switch Media servers will be housed in Macquarie Hosting’s ISO 27001,
PCI and DSD Certified data centre, the Intellicentre.
“With clients across a breadth of sectors and the IPTV and
video-on-demand markets exploding, we expect Switch Media’s business to
continue to grow at a rapid rate and look forward to supporting this growth
in future,” said Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Hosting Macquarie
Telecom.
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