• Advised the BBC on customer and operational processes across a highly complex business architecture to enable it to integrate digital satellite broadcasting into its delivery infrastructure
  • Digital Satellite service delivery platforms – conditional access, electronic programming guide

BBC

Developing customer and operational processes for digital satellite broadcasting

Government wants to harvest the bandwidth used for analogue TV to raise revenue, while the arrival of digital broadcasting has created an environment of increasing competition. A key BBC requirement was an ability to provide service over digital satellite – it could serve areas that digital terrestrial could never reach. To do this, the BBC is heavily reliant on services ‘bought in’ from BSkyB. David’s team, helped the BBC generate the framework and implementation plans for the rollout of Digital TVM. Within this David defined operational processes for Digital satellite broadcasting (DSAT) and requirements which were use to procure services.

DSAT required the introduction of new systems, bought in services from BSkyB (for example conditional access to ensure regional rights restrictions on programmes are observed), complex management arrangements, and some intra and inter organisational processes and procedures. David led a client team of technical, legal and other experts to define the scope of an operational manual for DSAT. David then worked with the team to propose operational process and procedures to support end to end service, and prepared a detailed operations manual.

David then used a subset of these proposal as the basis for discussions on procedures between BSkyB and the BBC for the conditional access, electronic programme guide and customer management systems. Finally David arranged a programme of operational readiness testing to prove that the two organisations could interwork effectively, increasing people’s familiarity with procedures, testing that they were fit for purpose and to identify and implement changes required.

As a result, the BBC secured high quality robust service contracts to support digitisation.