AUTOMATION for multichannel operations
Feb 1, 2007 12:00 PM, BY ADRIAN SCOTT
Almost every area of broadcasting has been transformed by new technology in recent years, and none more so than automation. This progress is not only changing the way people think about automation, but also how they think about broadcasting and the delivery of electronic content.
Old vs. new
In the past, automation systems had a simple task: to implement a schedule by managing an array of supported devices, including character generators, mixers, routers, still stores and VTRs. The video elements of such a system were largely centered on containers.
A vital factor in achieving accuracy was the cassette label, and the precision with which it was created and its information transferred (usually manually) into the schedule. The automation system and its operators had little or no contact with actual content, and the operation was entirely linear in nature. Automation was the last in a line of largely separate production processes linked by hand-carried cassettes, after which the media was stored in a library or recycled.
Today's automation process features significant differences. After a period of what might be called parallel progress, during which individual elements of the production chain (ingest, editing, storage and playout) were digitized without much reference to each other, there is now an accelerating trend to connect these elements.
The archive is now a multitiered repository where everything lives. Rather than being at the end of the chain, it is at the heart of the whole process. Material is ingested into it and is subsequently produced, post produced, scheduled, played out and then stored according to a set of rules, without ever leaving the central repository for a great length of time.
Defining tapeless
So are we now in the era of tapeless production? In all too many examples, there seems to be a largely tapeless infrastructure, but an absence of what one might call truly tapeless thinking. One reason: People are still concentrating on the linear passage of individual items through a series of processes, rather than on the management of content, infrastructure and resources as a closely integrated continuum.
In its old-school, strictly broadcast interpretation, automation occupied a limited role in a connected infrastructure. It was little more than the front end of an increasingly significant media management operation.
Today's automation systems are already well ahead of such a narrow interpretation. They are the traffic cops for the digital environment and deliver creativity, flexibility, competitive advantage and enhanced revenue opportunities to their users.
The traffic cop aspect is provided in several ways. Sophisticated internal media management capabilities, which can be integrated with external asset management systems, handle the media lifecycle from both tape and file transfer ingest all the way through to playout and archiving.
In addition, advanced control, monitoring and reporting applications are now being closely tied in to the automation function. This takes the management of devices and infrastructures to new levels.
Flexibility is also important. Automation is sometimes seen as a “rich man's game,” with only the largest broadcasters being able to afford the more sophisticated systems. This is no longer true. Today, broadcasters can purchase small, single-channel systems with little or no compromise in functionality, with the best of them being upwardly scalable.
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