Broadcasting7.05.2017

DEOD TV in South Africa – The technical details

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Discover Digital recently launched DEOD in South Africa, an online video service that offers live streaming, on demand content, and movie rentals.

Multiple packages and price points, ranging from a R49-per-month subscription to the R189-per-month DEOD Premium service, are available.

In addition to offering its own content, DEOD has opened its platform to partners – with Sun International the first South African company to climb on board.

Discover Digital managing director Stephen Watson said they have also signed up telecommunications partners in Zimbabwe and Zambia.

DEOD declined to reveal who the partners are at this stage.

CDN and DRM

Watson said that in partnership with EOH in South Africa, and its telco partners in Zimbabwe and Zambia, they have rolled out content delivery infrastructure across sub-Saharan Africa.

Its CDN infrastructure in South Africa is hosted in Teraco’s data centres.

DEOD uses Microsoft PlayReady and Google’s Widevine digital rights management technologies to protect content on its platform.

Video and audio quality

DEOD features more than 16 adaptive bitrate profiles so that videos may be scaled to resolutions as low as 480p on slower Internet connections.

The maximum video resolution for streaming on the platform is currently 720p, as 1080p is very bandwidth intensive. However, they do have plans to support higher resolution formats in the future.

Only stereo audio is currently supported, and DEOD said audio quality is never degraded over slower connections – only video quality is adjusted automatically.

When it launches HD quality video, it will add higher-quality audio options, said DEOD.

Another feature DEOD plans to add is the ability to select your audio track on non-English content.

Now read: Netflix refuses to pay the FPB’s R795,000 licensing fee

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