Content Delivery Network ("CDN") services and/or multiplatform multi-device server/encoding services

Descriptions

S4C is the Welsh language television channel and one of the UK's five public service television broadcasters. It is an independent broadcasting authority established under the Broadcasting Act 1981, and regulated by the Communications Act 2003 and the Broadcasting Act 1990. S4C provides a broad range of high quality and diverse programming in the Welsh Language available on digital platforms including Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin. In addition S4C is available to watch live on the S4C website via broadband and the ‘Clic’ catch up service as well as on mobile devices such as the iphone and ipad.Applicants will tender to supply either or both of the following:a) A Content Delivery Network ("CDN") that is suitable for the delivery of all of S4C’s live streaming and on-demand catch up services. This will deliver to PCs, mobile devices, platforms such as i/OS, Android, Symbian and games consoles such as PS3, wii, xbox etc. It is essential that the CDN solution offered has adequate capacity to ensure a good quality of experience for our viewers, without loss of connections, buffering or freezing;(b) Provide adaptive/multi bit rate encoding and streaming into all required forms from one master media file in order to achieve the above delivery requirement. The contract will be for a period of 2 years with an option to extend for an additional 12 months.S4C will review the contract and the successful company’s performance after the first year and retains the right to terminate the contract at the end of the first year following such a review. This review will be in addition to any regular reviews which are provided for in the contract.Requirements•Ability to deliver of 15Tbytes/month•Ability to cope with peaks of 2000 plus concurrent connections @ 1Mbs and occasional spikes of 10,000+•Minimum of 250GByte storage•Flexible geo blocking capability for live and on demand content•Support for H264 and FLV•Support FTP access with multiple accounts •Access to raw video server logs – containing start, stop, session information such as FMS logs, Wowza etc•The ability to create from one master media file the many versions necessary for streaming and VOD delivery onto PCs, Android, i/OS, Symbian O/S, connected TVs gaming consoles such as PS3, Xbox, Nintendo Wii etc •The scalability necessary to keep up with future capacity growth and proliferation of new devices as and when they achieve significant market share.Highly desirable requirements•Ability to support multiple devices without the need for specific encoding, e.g. provide automatic HTTP Live stream chunking for iOS devices •Client list showing provision of similar services together with satisfactory references from 3 such clients•Ability to guarantee high service availability on 24hr x 365 day basis•Staff with the required level of experience and qualifications to carry out the contract requirementsDesirable requirements:-•Ability to create FTP accounts as necessary •Ability to create live publishing points as necessary.