Eye to Eye: Distribution and Delivery 2010

Bob Pank#

Author: Bob Pank#

Published 1st May 2010


Distribution and Delivery are two elements of in the broadcast chainthat get taken pretty much for granted but both are highly important. My focus in this summary is on equipment and software introduced since IBC 2009 and in the run-up to NAB 2010.

Distribution links
These come in many shapes and flavours, over copper, optical fibre, RF, point-to-point terrestrial microwave, and via satellite. Judging from the websites of the various contenders in this sector during the weeks leading up to NAB, most manufacturers will showing established rather than new products. The following are new.
EVS' Xedio is a modular software suite for the ingestion, production, editing, management and playout of news and sports media. Xedio is claimed to offer increased productivity by using virtual editing and media referral. It also provides interoperability with third-party systems for archiving, asset management, storage and graphics.
Hiltron's HMAM is a complete rotatable satellite antenna mount designed for two-way VSAT communication or receive-only downlink applications. It has a combined head and drive forming a three-axis motorised system with 180 degrees of azimuth adjustment, 90 degrees of elevation adjustment range and fully adjustable polarisation. The HMAM is fully compatible with our standard HACU antenna positioning system. It includes professional-grade drives for azimuth and elevation plus a high-accuracy polarisation drive. Other features include a flexible support plate accommodating any size of reflector from 1.2 to 3.4 metres diameter. Options include a satellite tracking system, inclined orbit tracking, integration of parabolic reflectors according to customer preference, de-ice systems, and a choice of standard steel mounts or non-penetrating mounts.
PPM's ViaLiteHD allows up to 26 RF channels to be accommodated in a single chassis. Blind-mating hot-swappable cards enable users to upgrade systems or change configuration without breaking optical or electrical connections. offers the capability of local and remote (via SNMP) monitoring and programming of parameters such as link gain and signal power.
SIS LIVE's RouteCase is a complete video production system in a carry-on flight case. It incorporates a Brick House Video Callisto Micro vision mixer and can handle mixed-format asynchronous inputs with simultaneous SDI and analogue outputs for streaming and uplinks. A wireless camera link and quad-split monitoring are also provided. Extremely simple to setup and operate, RouteCase offers three full channels of audio/video processing with mains/battery operation, talkback and remote control. 'Let It Wave' upconversion can also be accommodated for simultaneous HD output.
Telecast Fiber Systems' CopperHead 3000 series provides a single fibre optic link between any professional camera or camcorder and an OB truck or control room. It includes options for battery or mains power. The Telecast Power Wafer is designed for short-distance operation on SMPTE fibre. The Power Plus range is for longer high power runs over SMPTE hybrid fibre.

Delivery
The asset management and play-to-air product category remains innovative.
Broadcast Traffic Systems (BTS) will introduce a RIA-enhanced version of its Enterprise broadcast traffic management system to the US market at NAB 210. Designed for terrestrial, cable, satellite and IPTV broadcast networks, Enterprise is a scalable application containing all the modules and features needed to manage traffic scheduling and advertising sales. Modules can be combined to meet current operational requirements and added as business develops. Rich Internet Applications are ideal for use with Internet-connected remote-hosted systems and allow Enterprise to deliver an intuitive and pictorial user interface while retaining fast performance. RIA also adds the ability to run within a Web-based infrastructure, reduces implementation time and simplifies training. The service-oriented architecture inherent in RIA also gives customers and third-party solutions-providers the freedom to configure and create their own interfaces to other systems. BTS Enterprise with RIA is available on Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating systems and is compatible with the Microsoft SQL server, Oracle and MySQL databases.
OmniBus Systems has introduced Sentinel, a remote monitoring service for customers of the company's iTX automation and transmission platform. Sentinel analyses trends and identifies warnings and errors that the customer may be unaware of. This allows OmniBus to alert customers to potential errors or hardware failures before they happen, and to advise the customer when inefficient operating practices could be improved. Data from the Sentinel service also feeds directly into the OmniBus R & D department
Pebble Beach Systems' recently introduced enterprise-level Marina automation system has a distributed architecture that enables use of resources across multiple servers. Scalable up to hundreds of channels, it is designed to allow a very high density of channels to be managed from a single workstation. Features include enhanced management of operator permissions to control and compartmentalise access within the system and to allow logging and audit trail of all Marina-based activity.
Pharos has announced full integration of its Playtime into the Mediator broadcast content management system. Mediator 4 now has the ability to manage presentation requirements and content independently. Additional enhancements to Mediator 4 include an advanced metadata system allowing information to be added as new delivery platforms are introduced.
PlayBox Technology's TimeShiftBox can delay video and audio together by a few seconds to several days. The package includes logo insertion as standard and, as an option, a character generation package with interactive graphics internally keyed over the output video. Operation is straightforward with a main menu window that allows setting the delay. TimeShiftBox also inherits (from the AirBox playout server) monitoring features such as viewing the preview input and delayed output video, as well as audio level monitoring. TimeShiftBox is available now with SD-SDI I/O. HD-SDI and DVB I/O will be available in Q2.
Publitronic's Nexus-VDS is an integrated video, audio, vertical blanking interval and horizontal blanking interval delay server. It is designed for delayed channel playout, timezone corrections, repeating/looping programmes or for filtering inappropriate content from live broadcasts. Using solid state storage, it can delay up to 1 hour of video in uncompressed 270 Mbit/s SDI mode. A 4:2:2 MPEG2 in I-frame or long-GOP compression can also be used for delays longer than 1 hour. Other features include bit-perfect delay of Dolby, closed caption, teletext, GPI cue tones, VITC, WSS, AFD, Nielsen and other standard or propriety formats. The server can be controlled and configured manually via Publitronic’s proprietary web GUI interface or automated via GPI, VBI, manual triggers or ethernet API.

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