F1 Consultancy supports one of the UK’s leading international television distribution
events
Following a highly successful pilot at the BBC Showcase 2007, BBC Worldwide took
the bold decision to go 100% digital for its Showcase 2008.
BBC Showcase is the world’s largest trade show of its kind, hosted by a single distributor.
The four day event sees BBC Worldwide generate programme sales and broker international
funding deals for co-productions on behalf of the BBC and independent producers.
F1 Consultancy Limited were tasked with providing the expertise and IT infrastructure
required to deploy a Storage Area Network (SAN) capable of supporting 2TB of BBC
programming (over 1000 hours of television input), streamed seamlessly to 550 Digibooths
(HP PC’s)
The new Digibooths at BBC Showcase will offer all buyers a bespoke video on demand
service, allowing them to give instant feedback on programming they view and significantly
improve BBC worldwide sales analysis at the event.
The unquestionable success of transitioning buyers from a DVD library to a totally
bespoke video on demand service was due to the meticulous
planning and testing the BBC/F1 project team completed prior to the actual event
in February 2008.
The project team worked tirelessly in a pre-staging environment covering every possible
eventuality that could be encountered at the event itself, this preparation was
invaluable in enabling the tight timescales the project team would encounter at
the event to be achieved.
F1 Consultancy deployed and attached 550 PC’s over a fibre network to a dedicated
SAN in one day at the venue in readiness for a full system test the following day.
Following a full-day of testing, the show opened and ran without a hitch, client
feedback was extremely positive and preparation for BBC Worldwide Showcase 2009
is already underway!
Established in 1993, F1 Consultancy has an unparalleled reputation within the events
industry for delivering excellence in IT across the globe. In this time a numerous
highly respected organisations have become reliant upon the experience and expertise
F1 have at their disposal including:
- Microsoft
- Hewlett Packard
- Fijitsu Siemens
- Dell