MediaHub has won the major regional business award at the NSW Business Chamber Awards for an unprecedented second consecutive year.
MediaHub Australia is a "joint venture company established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the WIN Television Network (WIN TV)", and, impressively, is "a large-scale, multi-client digital media, play-out and distribution facility, currently delivering over 170 channels to the Australian metropolitan and regional markets".
Now, for the second year running, MediaHub has won the NSW Business Chamber Award for the Macarthur Region Regional Business of the Year. MediaHub also won in the category of Excellence in Innovation which it previously won in 2014.
MediaHub chief executive Alan Sweeney (pictured below) said: “To win the ultimate Regional Business of the Year award two years in a row was a particularly pleasing win and reflects the incredible work that all MediaHub employees do. It has not been achieved before. We now go to the State Awards in November with buoyed optimism.”
{loadposition alex08}
So, what did MediaHub have to do to win again?
Well, to win the Excellence in Innovation award MediaHub had to prove innovation and an innovative approach to an existing practice or problem.
Sweeney continued: “The Australian media landscape and the way people consume television content is in a fast-paced state of evolution and none more so than in the past 24-months. We have seen the establishment of digital free-to-air television with more free-to-air television channels than ever before.
“This prompted MediaHub to innovate its product offering by building new systems and increasing storage to accommodate these new channels as well as ensure the changeover of existing channels to HD was seamless to the television viewing public.”
Behind the scenes over the last twelve months, MediaHub said "this was the commencement of a massive shift in technology, ultimately revolutionising the way MediaHub does business and positioning it to significantly increase its product offering."
Sweeney added: “MediaHub was originally established as a partnership between the ABC and WIN TV to manage channel playout services — i.e. transmit television content from the television stations to the audience — around Australia.
“Since establishing in 2010, the company has expanded significantly with most of that growth and diversification happening in the past 24 months in line with Australia’s fast-moving changing media landscape. We now provide over 320 broadcast and live streaming services for both television and radio to local, national and international audiences.”
MediaHub notes that its services are "provided in a 24/7 operation and have grown over the past 24 months to now include media asset management; archive storage and management; video on demand and transcoding services, audio description (for vision impaired television users), closed captions (for hearing impaired), virtualisation, live television and radio streaming, and digital content distribution".
Sweeney concluded: “Our business growth has come from considerable investment in new technology which allowed us to increase and dramatically diversify our range of services and in turn has attracted new clients.
"Our investment in new cutting-edge technology has not only prompted business growth with new clients and new services, it has also contributed to significant efficiencies throughout the organisation, with the ability to create and integrate new long term channels in weeks rather than months, while pop up channel requirements can now be met in hours rather than days.”
MediaHub notes that it "embraces the future of broadcasting, including delivery for IPTV, mobile content and other handheld devices and provides the opportunity for clients to deliver cost-effective services to their audiences".
It also "offers clients a centralised digital media handling facility, including presentation, master control (MCR) functions, media asset management and archive storage, where content is received, prepared and distributed as required. This includes content from external sources such as studios, outside broadcasts, international feeds or production environments".
MediaHub Australia at a glance:
- A true tapeless environment
- Receives and delivers SD and HD content in multiple formats
- Capacity to store and forward content and associated metadata
- Broadcast breakout facilities offering the delivery of unique simultaneous live programming to local, state and territory markets
- Staffed “24/7” ensuring the ability to respond instantly to service delivery issues
- Configured to deliver over 300 channels
- A centralised facility which represents a net reduction of energy demand and environmental footprint
- The facility incorporates over 5,000 kilometres of cabling, 200 broadcast and media servers and 100 presentation mixers and automation units
