M7 Deutschland, the German provider of TV services for cable and IPTV operators, is setting up fibre-optic TV signal distribution to its entire customer base.
The TV head-ends of the more than 160 network operators served by M7 in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg are to be connected via the product M7 Livestream to the central M7 head-end at the fibre optic hub Equinix in Frankfurt.
The entire TV offer is transmitted with Conax encryption as a cable TV-optimised IP stream directly to the local head-ends. From there, the network operators can retransmit the signals to their customers in cable TV standard DVB-C. The first M7 customers have already been hooked up.
“With the fibre connection, M7 partners benefit from a reliable, high-quality, fully redundant TV signal delivery which meets the highest standards of quality, stability and security and allows us to flexibly expand our channel portfolio at any time for even more programme variety,” said Marco Hellberg, Managing Director of Eviso Germany, the M7 business partner in Germany. “At the same time, we are responding to the changing needs of our customers, who are increasingly demanding fibre-based TV signal delivery besides satellite.”
M7 offers its partners around 130 free-TV and pay-TV channels, thematic channels and international channels – the majority in HD resolution – including interactive add-on functions such as the restart of running programmes, TV recordings via network PVR and multiscreen use via smartphone/tablet app. The customers include cable operators, public utility companies, fibre optic network operators and regional telcos.