Switch TV is one of Africa’s most recently established broadcast channels that broad-cast hip shows, movies, series, soaps, news and sports. Their objective is to be the most influential platform for educating and empowering the youth to solve humanitarian issues in Kenya, in Africa and the whole world. Based in Nairobi, Switch TV transmits live via the Signet subsidiary of the Kenyan Broadcasting Corporation and on-demand TV.

 

Switch TV installed Octopus 5 months ago in October 2018. The Octopus computer system is being used to create a wide variety of local and international news, current affairs and sports programmes

 

«Switch TV is a new initiative by the Kenya Red Cross,» says Managing Editor Lenny Ruvaga who joined in April after three years as a journalist with Voice of America. «Its primary role is to provide a wide mix of content with the emphasis on motivating young-generation viewers to turn their aspirations into reality and, in so doing, build a strong sense of community.»

 

Why Octopus?

 

«We identified Octopus as the ideal news production environment both for traditional lin-ear transmissions and for viewers accessing our on-demand output via mobile digital platforms. We are using it to produce our ‘Switch168’ programme which airs each day at 1 pm, 6 pm and 8 pm. This provides an update of current events, business news and sports, with a Kenyan and global focus. Key stories are also made available online in 1080i high definition via our website, each clearly labelled and with an average about three minutes.»

 

«Our newsroom staff are able to create all this content quickly and efficiently within the Octopus framework rather than having to divide linear and on-demand workflow between two different teams.»

 

The solution provided for Switch TV comprises a full-scale system including main and hot-standby servers, MOS integration, Email Agent, Inject Agent to carry wires from Reuters, social media integration and RSS agent. Switch TV is also testing the Octopus Mobile app to provide reporters with an efficient tool while working in various remote locations.

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