South African Broadcaster e.tv Chooses Front Porch Digital to Centralize, Manage New Digital Archive

South African free-to-air broadcaster e.tv has purchased a Front Porch Digital DIVArchive CSM system for its Cape Town facility as it converts its asset library from analog to digital. DIVArchive will create and centralize a digital archive for e.tv and its parent, Sabido Group, improving efficiency and making it easier for both entities to monetize assets.

“In an industry where content is king, an efficient and stable archiving system is crucial for the conservation, preservation, and, ultimately, commercial exploitation of content. It became an imperative for us this year when we launched our multichannel business,” said Nohra Moerat, general manager of group libraries and archives at e.tv. “DIVArchive is a system with a proven track record and a strong reputation, and offers efficiencies that will allow us to archive and retrieve in a more organized way — which means we’ll be able to browse and choose footage selectively, save on storage, and monetize our clips more effectively.”

Currently, in order to browse and retrieve footage, e.tv must rely on transfer editors to view tapes and find appropriate clips. That is why e.tv has begun digitizing its content and storing it on LTO datatape. DIVArchive will enable e.tv to archive all legacy content, including legacy archives, raw footage, clips, stills, and supporting documents, both electronic and paper-based. With DIVArchive, e.tv will be able not only to store large volumes of digital data and archived footage, but also index and track all footage, ensuring that specific clips can easily be located on demand.

Front Porch Digital is working with its local agent, Jasco Broadcast Solutions, to deliver an end-to-end system complete with installation, support, integration, and maintenance. Jasco will also provide on-site training.

“e.tv is one of the premier broadcasters in South Africa and an important customer for us on the continent, and we’re happy to be a part of its evolution to digital operations and multichannel service,” said Rino Petricola, senior vice president and general manager at Front Porch Digital. “Adding a DIVArchive system to its workflow will give e.tv more convenient and rapid access to its archived material, which will help feed a revenue stream and enhance its programming.”

e.tv will take delivery of the DIVArchive system in January 2014.