Customer Profile

TV Azteca is one of the largest producers of Spanish-language television programming in the world, attracting 30%+ of the national broadcast market. Operating four television networks in Mexico — Azteca Trece, Azteca 7, adn40 and a+ — through more than 300 owned-and-operated stations across the country, the company also operates Azteca Web, an Internet company for North American Spanish speakers.

TVAzteca broadcast booth.

Business Challenge

TV Azteca continues to grow in terms of the number of programming hours they produce, as well as by expanding to create content for OTT and other digital platforms. With plans to make a gradual transition to IP distribution, cloud-based operations and 4K UHD, the company was looking to replace aging playout and master control infrastructure with flexible technology that would enable them to efficiently run their current business and easily evolve to meet future requirements.

While continually evolving to create the best television experience for their audience, the ultimate goal at TV Azteca is an end-to-end IP workflow.  The company wanted to take an innovative but practical approach to this transition, preserving their investment in legacy equipment, while gradually shifting into a purely IP-based operation.

A headshot of Pedro Carmona Ortiz
“Our ultimate goal at Azteca is an end-to-end IP workflow — from the camera to the screen of our TV viewers.  Imagine provided us with an innovative and practical solution that enabled us to maintain much of our legacy equipment, while allowing us to gradually shift into a purely IP-based operation over the next couple of years.”
Pedro Carmona Ortiz, Technology Director at TV Azteca

Technology Solution

TV Azteca worked with Imagine Communications to implement a scalable, software-based channel origination solution running on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware.  The system features 20 Nexio+™ AMP® media servers that support uncompressed and compressed IP and UHD/HD/SD SDI I/O. Reliably managing content from ingest to playout, the software-based servers provide a flexible infrastructure platform for cost-effective future enhancements and expansion.
Three Imagine Versio™ IOX SAN high-performance online storage systems provide a total of 528 TB storage, and allow scaling of storage and bandwidth without affecting existing media or interrupting on-air operations. Nine Nexio® Media Gateway appliances enable high-speed file transfer of large quantities of data to and from the shared storage system using standard Ethernet connectivity.

Business Value

By deploying agile, software-defined playout technology, TV Azteca now has a robust platform that provides exceptional reliability, flexibility, and format transparency to support their current broadcast operations, and cost-effective expansion as the business evolves.  High-performance, online storage provides a fast-turnaround editorial environment and a shorter time to air today, and the ability to seamlessly transition from a SAN implementation into a multi-use NAS appliance as TV Azteca moves to an IT-centric ecosystem.

TV Azteca is currently using Imagine hybrid baseband/IP media servers to drive 120 channels and is expanding to create content for OTT. With multiple paths available for migrating to Imagine’s cloud-native, microservices-based modular playout solution, TV Azteca is able to maximize their legacy equipment while making a gradual transition to full IP and cloud-based operations.

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President

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Steve Reynolds

Steve Reynolds is President of Imagine Communications, a global leader in multiscreen video and ad management solutions that broadcasters, networks, video service providers and enterprises around the world rely on to support their mission-critical operations.

Steve brings 25 years of technology leadership in the video industry to Imagine Communications. He has served as the CTO at Imagine Communications and Harris Broadcast, Senior Vice President of Premises Technology at Comcast, Senior Vice President of Technology at OpenTV, and CTO at Intellocity USA.

Steve earned a MS in Computer Engineering from Widener University and BS in Computer Science from West Chester University. As the Chairman of the AIMS Alliance and a member of SMPTE and SCTE, he has participated in numerous standards-making bodies in the cable and digital video industries. Steve also holds over 40 patents relating to digital video, content security, interactive television and digital devices.