Network Automation Solution Future Proofs Television Station
Sendai Television Inc. in Japan gains high reliability and integrated network management, with an Allied Telesis Autonomous Management Framework™ (AMF) solution.
Sendai Television. Inc. is a Japanese commercial television station affiliated with Fuji News Network (FNN) and Fuji Network System (FNS). The station’s head office is in Sendai City, in Japan’s Miyagi prefecture.
Centralized Management for Today, Future-Proof for Tomorrow
Sendai Television’s existing network was built in 2004 when the station built its current premises. The equipment had become outdated and was very difficult to maintain. Without centralized management, the network was expensive to run and time-consuming to support.
The old wireless access points only supported slow and outdated standards, and were not secure, which was a major concern for Sendai’s system support division. The area that required wireless network coverage had grown significantly over time, and coverage was now inadequate.
High performance and high availability were critical requirements for this long established broadcaster. Mr. Akira Kominato, Sendai Television’s Systems Division Director, said, “The network is critical to the success of our business. We needed a new network suitable for today’s broadcasting operations, with increased performance, simplified management, and a resilient design for high availability.”
Sendai Television’s new network had to be:
- Highly available, to ensure continual data transmission, including news flash and urgent earthquake reports.
- Simple to maintain and operate, with automated and centralized management.
- Cost-effective to purchase and maintain, with excellent ongoing support.
Achieving Total Autonomous Networking
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation (NTT East) managed the network upgrade project, and provided consultancy for Sendai Television when selecting a network vendor.
Allied Telesis was an easy choice for Sendai Television, for a number of reasons:
- Allied Telesis designed a solution that easily met all of Sendai Television’s requirements. Automated network management with AMF was a particular draw-card.
- The Allied Telesis solution was superior in terms of cost performance.
- Sendai Television received excellent feedback on the quality of Allied Telesis products and services from Fuji Television Network’s other affiliates, who were already using Allied Telesis products and solutions.
- Allied Telesis has a branch in Tohoku, Sendai, so staff can provide hands-on support if required.
Integrated network management was essential. We wanted to install AMF because we knew that it would provide automated management now, and handle all our future updates and expansion. Our new Allied Telesis network not only gives us outstanding performance and high availability—Allied Telesis also offers guaranteed long-term maintenance.
Systems Division Director,
Sendai Television. Inc.
The new network design utilizes a number of Allied Telesis advanced products. A SwitchBlade x8112 next-generation intelligent layer 3+ chassis switch delivers high availability, wire-speed performance, and a high port count at the network core. Allied Telesis x510 Series stackable Gigabit edge switches provide comprehensive resiliency, security, and management features. Allied Telesis TQ2450 wireless LAN access points provide seamless wireless coverage. To support these products and the network itself, AMF unifies network management, from any device.
Seamless Operation and Simplified Management
Sendai Television’s new network began operation in December 2014. NTT East ran a 3-month trial to test the new solution. The results are clear to see—the station has experienced no problems at all. The network has operated seamlessly and effectively.
The newly-expanded wireless coverage has also performed flawlessly, providing secure, high-performing access to network resources from all around the premises.
AMF has proven to be especially advantageous, automating many day-to-day administration tasks, and allowing centralized management of the whole network. As Mr. Kominato said, “It’s so useful to be able to quickly check the current state of our network. With AMF, we can check the entire network via the monitoring terminal. Besides this, a lot of our administration is now automated, which saves us time and money. Plus, we know that AMF’s centralized management will make our future configuration tasks easy.”
NTT East and Allied Telesis will continue to support Sendai Television, providing peace of mind as the station enjoys its exceptional new network solution.
