KGW-TV updates automation
and servers, preparing the
station for future growth
When the automation and servers
are eight years old, no longer
supported by the manufacturer,
and the servers lack
the storage capacity for a growing facility, it’s
time to explore new options. This was the case
for KGW-TV, a Belo station in Portland, OR.
The station determined that Sundance
Digital Titan automation offered the best
technology and operational flexibility, along
with solid support and a favorable pricing
structure. The decision on a replacement
video server, however, was up-in-the-air until
Grass Valley approached KGW with the opportunity
to be the fi rst facility to install its
new K2 series — an advanced IT-based media
server and client system designed specifically
to share and reuse digital media assets.
The new Titan and K2s went on -air smoothly
in January 2006, with only the typical speed
bumps associated with training everyone on
new gear and user interfaces. Since then, the
system has been extremely reliable. Titan automation
and K2 servers currently support
five different program streams: KGW’s analog
and HD channels, NBC’s Weather Plus channel
with commercial insertions, interstitials
for the Portland Zone of Northwest Cable
News (Belo’s 24 Hour cable news channel)
and cut-ins for CNN Headline News.
KGW’s program streams are managed
through Titan’s Air Control interface and are
specifically designed to give master control
operators an information-rich GUI for multichannel,
server-based playlist supervision.
The main screen features a horizontal timeline
overview of all active channels, as well as a
separate area for playlist-specific details.
Secondary FlexEvent actions are displayed
adjacent to each element to help visualize
when their triggers will occur. Playlists have
individual security rights, enabling authorized
users at any Air Control station — either
locally or remotely — to select, view, manage
and control any channel from any list processor
visible within Titan’s network domain.
KGW’s automation system also includes a
facility-specific traffic interface to OSI, the
group’s preferred vendor. All software was preinstalled
on 4RU, enterprise-grade Pentiumbased
Windows workstations with mirrored
hard drives and redundant, hot-swappable
power supplies for greater reliability. Redundancy
was further enhanced using Sundance
TitanSync with auto-failover capability and a
fault-tolerant external SQL data server.
KGW plans to expand on-air services in the
future, and its present Titan configuration can
readily accommodate more channels. Titan
can manage a number of list processors and
playlists in high channel count environments.
When the time comes, the system will be easy
to upgrade with additional K2 server capacity
and Titan automation components. | 
