Cobalt, Starfish Partner On Transport Stream Splicing

Cobalt Digital today announced a partnership with Starfish Technologies, a U.K.-based broadcast technology company, to provide transport stream splicing using the Starfish Technologies TS Splicer software and the Cobalt SCTE-104/35 insertion system.

The companies say the new solution creates an affordable, automated ad insertion or media replacement system for broadcast, IPTV, satellite, and cable TV applications.

Designed to be a complete replacement for ad insertion or content blocking applications, the TS Splicer combines the functionality of an integrated ad server, SCTE-35 opt-out signal decoding, input stream switching, and transport stream splicing. It takes in transport streams with SCTE-35 triggers and inserts advertisements based on the embedded control signals. The fully configurable TS Splicer performs a technically clean media switch with minimal propagation delay.

Cobalt offers a range of MPEG encoders and decoders, as well as a series of frame synchronizers and scalers, with SCTE-104 injection support. Compatible units include the BBG-1002 Series of standalone encoders, 9902 and 9904 Series openGear cards, and the new 9992-ENC-HEVC (H.265) card, which offers upgradable multi-channel MPEG-2/AVC encoding.

“Ad insertion is a vital part of any content distribution system, and we are excited to work with Starfish Technologies to add transport stream splicing to our offerings,” Chris Shaw, Cobalt EVP of sales and marketing. “This partnership adds further functionality to meet the needs of our customers.”

“Starfish are delighted to be working with such a highly respected supplier. Forming this partnership allows both Cobalt Digital and Starfish Technologies to share their expertise and develop leading solutions which will undoubtedly benefit a wide range of customers,” added Peter Blatchford, sales and marketing director, Starfish Technologies.