Regional operator Kabelnoord has been a fixture of the Dutch cable TV market for more than 40 years. It has grown from six analogue channels to a full multi channel DVB-C offering alongside internet and telephone services. In 2018, the company began the search for a way to quickly and easily add more interactive services so it would remain competitive with its market rivals.
Having experimented with a multi vendor IPTV solution in the past, the Kabelnoord team were keen to avoid integration headaches this time around. “A turnkey solution was attractive to us,” says Wybren Lieuwes, Kabelnoord System & Network Architect, of the decision to select a fully end-to-end solution from 24i, including set-top boxes from sister company Amino.
A full interactive service
Kabelnoord’s interactive service went live in 2019, offering subscribers the ability to watch live TV, pause, restart, catch-up and manage their own network PVR service via the STB or using apps for laptops, mobiles and tablets.
“It’s a turnkey solution with STBs and also the backend, handling transcoding and everything else that’s needed to get this interactive addition to our linear broadcast. Of course, with whitelabel apps, we didn’t need UI development and that automatically brings speed. We wanted to get things up and running in a few months, so speed was important.”
