Software-based automation platforms enjoy economic stimulus
Apr 13, 2009 10:25 AM, By Michael Grotticelli
The playKast system from On-Air Systems allows users to output a fully branded channel from a single PC workstation.
With automation systems playing an increasingly important role in the management of on-air channels and facility operations, broadcasters are looking harder at how the technology can help do more without adding costs. What’s needed is a way to cost-effectively create and manage a playout system.
The latest generation of software-based platforms is a good option because they are less expensive to install initially and enable a broadcaster to produce an entire broadcast from standard IT equipment or even a single PC workstation that uses less power (less than 300W) and is easier and less costly to maintain.
Customers can install the PC workstation and software fairly inexpensively and then simply add on control modules as needed. This reliance on software also allows vendors of such systems to release new capabilities relatively quickly, in some cases three or more feature releases every year. This was virtually impossible with previous-generation hardware-centric systems.
In a traditional model, one control system sends triggers to multiple external devices, such as a video router, server, CG, DVE unit or audio embedder. All of the elements then get mixed together right before final channel output. This has sometimes led to on-air errors when one of the triggers does not activate the device it was supposed to at the proper time. With an IT-based system, there’s no triggering. Everything happens within a single computer processing unit, theoretically ensuring better accuracy as events happen when they are programmed to.
The emergence of IT components in the broadcast automation environment was initially met with some skepticism, but advances in computer processing power and the maturity of commodity IT technology to handle video data has combined to make these systems attractive to stations focused on adding new channels or cost-effectively upgrading from legacy broadcast hardware.
“Over the last few years it’s been difficult to convince broadcasters to give full control of their channels to a PC, but over the past six months — in part due to the economy — we have seen a big increase in interest and orders,” said Mark Errington, CEO of UK-based On-Air Systems. “Whereas someone might have been looking at spending a million dollars on a traditional automation solution, they are now looking at IT systems that cost thousands of dollars and give them more flexibility.”
Among a list of customers, the playKast system is now used in the United States at KOCT-DT, the ABC affiliate in Carlsbad, NM. In Europe broadcasters such as TVN, in Poland, and YLE, the state broadcast network in Finland, are both early adopters.
Errington said he’s puzzled by the stigma surrounding these products. Although video servers are now considered “broadcast-quality”— and have begun to offer new capabilities beyond media playout — in essence they are nothing more than a repackaged PC with an AV card. On-Air’s playKast multilevel automation software platform, complete with an AV card, is not designed to control devices such as video servers, but to replace them with a more flexible way to not only manage clips but do much more.
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