Taiwan's nationwide cable TV network, SanLih E-Television (SET), has extended its Harmonic media storage and processing infrastructure with the addition of a file-based production solution that includes Spectrum media servers, Omneon MediaGrid shared storage, Media Application Server (MAS) asset management, and ProMedia Carbon transcoders. Together, these systems support the transition to a tapeless production and playout workflow across the entire SET facility.
"We expanded our Harmonic production infrastructure because we needed a complete, stable, first-class video server and centralized storage system that would enable a highly efficient tapeless workflow," said Chiang Lo-Hsien, manager, Broadcast Engineering I Department, at SET. "The turnkey solution we've put in place meets this requirement, providing the capacity and bandwidth we need for HD media access and nonlinear editing by many users. Because we were able to keep the Harmonic systems up and running throughout the upgrade, we were also able to realize the benefits of a streamlined tapeless workflow without interrupting playout and other key operations."
A Spectrum MediaCenter server with integrated storage is used by SET to facilitate ingest of media from tape. Digitized content is subsequently stored on the 432TB MediaGrid system, which provides centralized shared storage for HD editing on a pool of Apple Final Cut Pro nonlinear edit systems. ProMedia Carbon nodes provide transcoding of edited content to XDCAM HD (50Mb/s) prior to playout on Spectrum video servers. The MAS asset management system automates and simplifies the transfer, organization and processing of files across the Harmonic systems and throughout the workflow.