Playout automation
Dec 1, 2009 12:00 PM, By David Austerberry
New developments can lower operating costs.
Figure 1. In this centralcasting system, content is delivered from a central site to remote transmitters. The local spoke stations intercept the feed for local newscasts and weather.
Select figure to enlarge.
Master control is where the business systems meet the video and audio content, so it could be considered a focal point for a TV station's revenue. The demands on reliability are much higher than the edit shop or graphics design department. It is the real-time nature, where a lost video frame is not allowed, that has traditionally demanded a master control operator at the desk, even if that person has little to do. The expectation of what can be done with automation increases as software systems get smarter, with a goal for some simpler channels of lights-out operation.
The first generation of broadcast automation cued and played tapes to air. The second generation adapted to play out from video servers and added features like satellite recording.
Now stations are looking to their automation to deliver further savings, especially as they may be running additional subchannels, with mobile around the corner.
Centralcasting
As networks and groups look to take cost out of operations, one approach is to centralcast. This pulls back most operations to a central site, with the remote, or spoke, stations solely responsible for the local news and weather. When the concept was first vaunted, it soon became apparent that the cost of high-bandwidth circuits made the business case marginal.
Much has changed over the last couple of years with long-haul fiber costs falling, so now the economics make more sense. Part of the Recovery Act of 2009 is to provide broadband access to rural communities through the RUS Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and the NTIA Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).
As rural broadband networks roll out over the next few years, smaller communities will be connected to telco backbones with trunk fiber. The network operators will no doubt be looking for other customers for that fiber. Broadcast groups could utilize this new capacity to connect their remote stations to a central hub.
Add recent developments like WAN acceleration, which improves the efficiencies of large file transfers, and centralcasting becomes a sound business concept.
Spoke or hub?
There are many possible ways to design a centralcasting system. The original design delivers all content from the central site to the remote transmitters over high-bandwidth circuits. The local spoke station intercepts the feed for local newcasts and weather. (See Figure 1)
Figure 2. In this centralcasting model, content is ingested and played out locally, while playout is controlled from a central hub.
Select figure to enlarge.
All content is ingested, prepared and quality controlled at the central site. This will deliver staff savings but adds the cost of the interconnecting circuits. An alternative design is to ingest and play out locally, but to control the playout from the central hub. (See Figure 2) The station can switch to local control during the morning and evening newscasts, but can easily save a master control shift by running from the central station outside those periods. This saves on staff and fiber network costs, but still has duplicated tasks, in that each local station must ingest and prepare the same syndicated programming.
For most station groups, the sweet spot will fall somewhere in between. Common programming can be ingested and quality controlled at the central station, but the local station can manage all locally sourced content. Operations like graphics creation can also be centralized, creating a common look and feel across a group.
Separates or channel-in-a-box?
Just like a home audio system, you can buy separates or an integrated solution (channel-in-a-box). Separates comprise the automation controller, a video server, switching, branding, as well as downstream caption and EAS insertion. There are many hybrid systems. For example, the video server may include the branding and switching.
The option you choose depends on many factors. How complex is the channel? Premium channels with live programming and late schedule changes need more facilities than a simple near-video-on-demand (NVOD) movie channel. Some broadcasters may want to break out subchannels at certain times of the day. Reliability is possibly the most important consideration. The cost of make goods must be balanced against the total cost of ownership for the automation system. From this can be derived the required service level. It could be 99 percent right up to 99.9999 percent uptime. The latter figure represents a loss of only 30 seconds per year — just one 30-second spot.
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