Qwilt selected by Afrihost to improve online video quality for broadband customers in SA

Qwilt, in conjunction with local partner Three6Five, announced that Afrihost has chosen Qwilt’s open caching solution to optimize streaming video delivery and improve Quality of Experience (QoE) for its customers. By deploying Qwilt’s Open Cache solution, Afrihost is able to improve QoE for newly launched streaming services in South Africa.

“At Afrihost, we are 100% committed to making sure our customers get great value and outstanding service,” said Brendan Armstrong, Chief Technology Officer at Afrihost. “As the number of OTT services in South Africa increases and the demand for content continues to grow, we chose Qwilt to improve the quality of our customer’s experience. By implementing Qwilt’s open caching solution, we were able to improve the quality of content delivery. The business outcomes are outstanding — both quality of experience and network scaling costs improve — a win-win for the Afrihost team and our customers.”

By analyzing OTT video traffic in real-time, Qwilt’s solution is able to cache and deliver popular video content locally at the subscriber edge. With network congestion continuing to plague operators worldwide, removing the need for duplicate streams from origin sites or content delivery networks (CDNs) is essential to controlling the cost of network infrastructure. Deploying a comprehensive open cache solution to manage OTT, VOD and live streaming video in operator networks results in better preparation for the future of online video and ultimately delivers a high quality consumer viewing experience.

“There is a transformation underway, from broadcast television to Internet TV, that creates a strategic problem for network operators who must scale their networks cost effectively while improving streaming quality of experience,” said Alon Maor, CEO and co-founder of Qwilt. “We’re pleased to partner with Afrihost to improve the streaming experience for their customers in South Africa. With this deployment, we’ve extended the reach of our open caching solution to meet growing demand for online video services in South Africa.”

Qwilt’s open cache solution is engineered specifically for high performance and scalable video delivery in the demanding environment of high capacity operator networks. Qwilt’s solution is delivered as a fully managed service to speed deployment and streamline ongoing operation. The broader operator organization — including network planning, engineering and operations teams — benefit from comprehensive media analytics, which offer insights into growth trends, content sources and consumer preferences. By relying on open caching for online video delivery at the network edge, operators can substantially reduce network capital and operational costs — a typical open cache deployment is simple to manage and yields a compelling return on investment (ROI).