International Broadcast Services company WRN has rebranded as WRN Broadcast. The expanded company that now offers clients an end-to-end solution for ingest, content management, playout, encoding/multiplexing and distribution has added Top Up TV to its client base.
The DTT pay service had previously used a variety of companies for its playout facilities. WRN Broadcast is now responsible for a bespoke end-to-end tapeless workflow, which includes acquisition and file management from over 20 distributors.
WRN began life in 1992 as a distributor of international radio content. Its expansion into TV, which includes two channels on the Sky Digital platform and one of the Voice of America channels, includes last year’s purchase of the TSI Broadcast playout facility. “Radio is still very important to us, because it’s our heritage, and apart from anything else it’s still very good business. Enevitably we’ve been drawn further towards video and that has been lead by our clients,” David Treadway, MD, WRN Broadcast told Broadband TV News, adding that TV now represented 60% of the company’s business.
Treadway explained that Top Up TV now had a playout chain that was completely digitised from end-to-end. WRN manages in excess of 500 hours per month from distributors including Disney, Warner Bros and Universal, all in the digital format.
A major contract has seen the creation of a digital storage archive for Manchester United TV, already 4,000 hours have been encoded with a further 30,000 hours to be completed.
