Bell Media, owner of Canada’s CTV, purchased Haivision’s Makito low-latency, high-performance H.264 encoders and decoders for use by the television station.

CTV is using the appliances for broadcast backhaul and monitoring operations during coverage of high-profile sporting events. 

Bell Media purchased 35 Makito encoders and 22 Makito decoders. The low-latency inter-continental HD video pipeline established with the Makitos and a dedicated fiber link is used by CTV in two ways.

First, multiple HD video feeds from any given event location are encoded into H.264 and sent back to the CTV broadcast center in Toronto for incorporation with in-studio commentary for news pieces. Second, CTV establishes multiple return feeds to event locations so onsite production crews can have immediate and real-time access to other broadcast stations in their home region.