 |
Top Story
House subcommittee sends telecommunications bill to full committee
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
A House of Representatives subcommittee approved a bill that would remove local video franchising requirements and in place establish a national system for telecommunication companies to begin offering IPTV service.
After the mark up process, the telecommunications subcommittee approved the measure to pass onto the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The bill is expected to make it through the committee and win approval from the full House.
The bill would grant new video service providers, such as the telcos, a 10-year national license without requiring them to fully build out their systems. Cable companies were also granted a way to move from local to national franchising.
Automation News
Automation news update
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
With NAB just around the corner, many companies have announced new automation products and sales. Here is a summary of some of the releases crossing the Broadcast Engineering editorial desks this week.
- The Belo stations are converting the news and automated playout areas at several company O&Os to a Grass Valley digital news production system. The installations will be supported with the new Grass Valley K2 media server and media client from Thomson.
- KGW, the Belo-owned NBC affiliate in Portland, OR, is currently using two K2 media server clusters to support program and commercial playout for both its NTSC and digital television channels. The station is also distributing local weather programming and commercial insertions on its WeatherPlus channel with a K2 server.
Automation Profile
Technicolor ushers in UK HD broadcasting
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
 New multichannel SD/HD playout facility at Technicolor, Chiswick Park, London, UK. |
Automation Technology Update (ATU) had a tour around the latest playout facilities at Technicolor Network Services center in West London, UK. The center supports three key broadcast customers and delivers a total of 15 channels and 20 feeds to the UK, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. ATU met with Will Berryman, SVP Business Development, and Maurizio Cimelli, SVP UK & Japan, to hear about the latest transmission suite that handles eight channels, including one of the UK's first HD channels. Technicolor is part of the services division of Thomson.
ATU: Technicolor is best known for its film and duplication services, right?
Will Berryman (WB): Technicolor provides a wide range of services from media creation working with the craft people to all the forms of distribution. Our goal is to offer a comprehensive range of services to work with clients in the way they want to work.
ATU: Are you locked into Thomson group products?
WB: We use the best product to do the job and call on a full range of service providers to provide a managed service to our customers.
Maurizio Cimelli (MC): The theme for the last 18 months has been taking video content and repackaging it for territory after territory. As service providers, we have to ensure that we have the best, future-proof technology.
WB: Some clients specify the tools they want to use.
ATU: What about the HD service?
WB: We have been transmitting HD from this site for five weeks, the viewers are waiting for the roll-out of set-top boxes before they can enjoy the experience at home. We were able to craft the service very quickly using the range of skills at our disposal. Although we are now a HD playout company and it is now part of our portfolio of products, the business needs arose from working in close collaboration with our client.
ATU: Do you see yourselves outgrowing this building as you add more services?
MC: We have economies of scale at this site. We have in part dismantled our traditional playout facilities and replaced them with multichannel format-agnostic suites. One of our offerings is short time to air. We are facing pressures from all our customers to get to air so fast, they want to try different looks. Our latest suite, called Leo (after the star sign), was brought to air in 10 weeks, and it is eight channels.
ATU: And would you get involved with TV-to-mobile devices?
WB: If a client came to us and wanted that service, we could craft a service to fit their needs.
ATU: What about asset management?
MC: We use Pharos Mediator. We have worked closely with Pharos to evolve the product to meet our needs.
The Leo channels use familiar equipment: Omneon servers with Snell & Wilcox Memphis encoding for the HD content, Pro-Bel Morpheus automation, with Miranda branding systems and PixelPower Clarity CGs. The playout is all controlled from Pharos touchscreens, in a complete departure from conventional knobs and buttons. Technicolor is moving away from data tape archives to use a large capacity disk arrays from Isilon for near-line storage. They see tape better used as a deep archive.
For more information, visit www.thomson.net.
New Products
JustEdit now integrates XDCAM, P2 formats
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
JustEdit has developed vsnscenes for TV stations that use XDCAM or P2 for acquisition. This new editor supports proxy preview in variable speed direct from the chosen format. Clips can be marked to create an EDL. The associated high-resolution content will be automatically uploaded to the video, servers allowing immediate playout.
Also new at NAB is vsnwires, the new NRCS module for wire feeds. vsnwires is integrated with vsnnews and allows journalists to receive agency feeds in real time. From a single application, the journalist can create rundowns, assign logistics, receive wires, edit text, prepare the voiceover, browse and edit video-audio, insert titles, work with archive content and publish news to the Web.
JustEdit has opened a branch office in Miami, FL, to serve existing vsn customers in Latin America and to develop new business in the United States, with the focus on the growing number of Spanish-speaking channels.
For more information, visit www.vsn-tv.com.
Harris debuts new server and conversion products at NAB
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
 Harris’ X75 converter features MPEG-4 & Dolby E. |
Harris showed new and enhanced server and conversion products at NAB2006.
NEXIO XS is modular transmission server system that offers standard- and high-definition (SD/HD) support,integrated agile software codecs with an extensive range of compression formats and back-to-back DV/MPEG playout — all in a single, 33RU frame. The server connects to the NEXIO SAN, providing broadcasters with a streamlined infrastructure for producing, processing, distributing and managing SD and HD content.
Harris unveiled four new features for the Leitch X75T M-PATH multiple path up-, down-, crossconverter synchronizer at NAB: MPEG-4 monitoring streaming, video to audio timing measurement, eight AES I/O with a 32-channel audio option and an integrated Dolby E encoder option.
Harris debuted the DL-860 high-definition and standard-definition serial digital legalizer at NAB2006. The legalizer eliminates the guesswork of legalizing HD and SD signals. This is particularly important when converting video between formats (such as HD and SD) that have different color spaces.
For more information, visit www.harris.com.
Snell & Wilcox Hyperion intelligent monitoring
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
Snell & Wilcox announced Hyperion, a new content monitoring system that uses intuitive algorithms to provide dedicated audio, video and metadata monitoring for all content throughout the broadcast infrastructure, from ingest to transmission. Going beyond monitoring the technical characteristics, it also evaluates the quality and makeup of the video, audio and metadata content within the signal.
Hyperion automatically provides an “educated opinion” as to whether each element of the program meets satisfactory viewing quality standards, as well as the legal and contractual requirements necessary to generate revenue.
Genre-based monitoring ensures that the content matches the pre-configured profile for a particular channel or target audience. Broadcasters set what “normal” looks like for a given content type or channel. If the content does not match up to expected behavior, the system alerts the operator.
Hyperion functionality is now being integrated into all new products throughout Snell & Wilcox’s broadcast infrastructure line. This means that customers get the benefit of a tightly integrated, distributed QC infrastructure without having to purchase additional monitoring “probes,” which are not only costly, but also use up valuable rack space in the broadcast plant. The result is greater value to customers in the form of increased in-house efficiency and more trouble-free operations.
For more information, visit www.snellwilcox.com.
DTG announces integration partners
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
Digital Transaction Group demonstrated its new Intelligent Transfer Technology integration with Pathfire at NAB2006. The Xe Intelligent Transfer Technology manages the transfers of syndicated program content from Pathfire to a play-to-air video server and gets the metadata to generate the program segments and timing. The entire process, from initiating a Pathfire transfer to playout to archive or deletion is all managed by DTG’s Xe Automation System, which is fully automated, with no human intervention needed.
DTG also demonstrated the ability to transfer syndicated programs from Pathfire’s content delivery system to on-air playout and move Omneon media files directly to near-line archive RAID storage — all managed seamlessly with the Xe Automation System.
For more information, visit www.dtgtv.com.
Telestream introduces GraphicsFactory workflow automation
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
Telestream has announced its new workflow automation solution. GraphicsFactory enables content owners, aggregators and distributors to cost-effectively brand and repurpose media for the growing number of new distribution channels.
With GraphicsFactory, an editor builds a graphics template once and then hands it off to an assistant who applies simple metadata to tailor the template for each video asset. Graphics and source video files are then submitted to GraphicsFactory for automatic processing, transcoding to required formats and delivery to distribution servers.
GraphicsFactory also offers an XML interface that enables fully automated integration of metadata into the graphics assembly workflow. In these instances, an editor creates a graphics template and then drives the graphics production process using metadata supplied from external systems.
GraphicsFactory is offered as a standalone product providing automated graphics assembly, transcoding and delivery or as an upgrade to existing FlipFactory systems.
For more information, visit www.telestream.net.
Front Porch launches DIVAnet multi-site archive
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
Front Porch Digital announced the launch of DIVAnet 2.0, an extension of the distributed architecture of the DIVArchive technology. DIVAnet allows global media companies to network an unlimited number of separate DIVArchive installations and achieve automatic content-replication, disaster-recovery and business-continuance functionality between all connected sites, regardless of worldwide location.
Networked storage and broadcast facilities equipped with linked DIVArchive systems installed on either end via the DIVAnet solution can manage ongoing and automated duplication of assets stored in the main library. DIVAnet can also be used to connect multiple installations of Front Porch Digital’s DIVAworks. In either case, DIVAnet 2.0 intelligently replicates content between facilities and provides a fundamental toolset for advanced content-lifecycle control for effective multi-site archive management.
DIVAnet facilitates fast and inexpensive content exchange for everyday operations across a distributed and redundant content-archive system to deliver full disaster-recovery capability. Based on configurable polices, DIVAnet ensures that two or more different facilities share identical media libraries and also provides the means for one facility — equipped with the requisite playout infrastructure — to duplicate and take over the other facility’s program transmission in the event of failure, natural disaster or other catastrophe.
For more information, visit www.fpdigital.com.
Gallery announces SIENNA MOS architecture for QuickTime
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
The new SIENNA architecture for QuickTime NEWS includes a Mac-based MOS gateway, providing the opportunity to integrate Apple’s Final Cut Pro into serious television news workflows. SIENNA also provides QuickTime ingest and playout architecture to complement news editorial in Final Cut Pro. It allows systems integrators to build a QuickTime-based media infrastructure, benefiting from the power, flexibility and cost effectiveness of QuickTime, and exploiting the open systems nature of the Final Cut platform with technologies such as XML import/export.
SIENNA’s integration with news systems like ENPS is comprehensive, supporting most MOS profiles and including technologies such as WordLink to dynamically connect story text position and video timeline position while editing. It also delivers QuickTime-based proxy video from incoming and edit sources.
SIENNA comes in response to huge demand for Final Cut Pro integration from the world’s news broadcasters. It brings immediate compatibility based around native QuickTime and single media shared storage with Apple’s Xsan.
For more information, visit www.gallery.co.uk/sienna.
Business Announcements
Ascent Media demonstrates Atlas media management
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
Ascent Media showcased the impact of centralized, file-based media management, publishing, and distribution on content owners' ability to thrive in the changing media landscape with Atlas at NAB2006. Atlas is a suite of secure, automated, transaction-based services built on the HP Digital Media Platform. It enables content owners to manage media assets centrally, whether physical or file-based-streamlining workflows across the entire value chain of creation, repurposing and distribution, and ultimately deriving more value from assets overall.
Ascent Media Group was one of the earliest evangelists for the concept of file-based media management as a way for media companies to address shrinking delivery timeframes and growing opportunities for content on new devices and channels. The company was also among the first to deliver a commercial end-to-end file-based media management service solution to the market in Atlas.
For more information, visit www.ascentmedia.com.
Siemens awarded contract for new BBC Scotland broadcast center
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
Siemens Business Services has announced a deal worth up to $93 million for the design, build and implementation of the broadcast technology and infrastructure as part of BBC Scotland’s move to a new headquarters building in 2007. The deal is an addition to Siemens existing 10-year technology framework contract with the BBC.
BBC Scotland’s new broadcast center at Pacific Quay Glasgow will be a fully digital operation with high-definition capabilities. As the prime systems integrator, Siemens Business Services will be responsible for delivery of the complete technology solution. Every aspect of the broadcast center, from the telephone system to the editing of radio and TV content, will involve the latest technology, enabling the provision and configuration of projects.
For more information, visit www.sbs.siemens.co.uk/sbsmedia.
BTi signs contract with Belo to standardize automation of information graphics
Apr 26, 2006 8:00 AM, Automation Update e-newsletter
Belo has announced that it will continue using BTi Attendant Solutions to automate data collection and on-air delivery of informative broadcast graphics at its 19 television stations throughout the United States. The three-year agreement will help Belo efficiently deliver a sophisticated, standardized graphics look that is consistent and competitive across all of its markets.
BTi Attendant Solutions automatically collect, manage and deliver real-time data to air from virtually any data source. The solutions expand the capability of graphics hardware such as character generators by turning a constant stream of user-selected raw data into real-time, formatted data that it is ready for instant playout to air as part of a sophisticated on-air graphics look. Attendant Solutions support station branding, news, emergency alerts, sports and other critical station deliverables.
For more information, visit www.bti.tv and www.belo.com.
