TV Technology - January 7, 2009 - (Page 32)

BUYERS GUIDE USER REPORT GTA TeleGuam Relies on Sencore Servers by George Smith Vice President of Engineering GTA TeleGuam TAMUNING, GUAM TA TeleGuam is an innovative, full-service communications company dedicated to enhancing the lifestyles, productivity and the future of Guam’s residents, business and government agencies. Our television service is a true 100 percent digital experience with the highest quality, and one that provides our viewers with the freedom to control their programming. In a business such as ours, a paramount consideration is the supply of quality and variety of viewing choices that the end customer wants and needs, while still meeting the requirements of the industry and our content providers. G The Sencore TSS 3530A transport stream server BIG TIME ZONE DELAY REQUIREMENT Our company makes available 200 channels of television programming to our subscribers in a mix of both standard- and high-definition offerings. A lot of this content is in the form of network delivered feeds—about 140 of them—and they are appropriately delayed for delivery within our local (Guam) time zone. The primetime programming that we receive from the continental United States is received via IP connectivity and then time zone shifted six or seven hours in order for these shows to appear during the prime hours here in Guam. We don’t do any sort of long term storage with this network content. It is our business to cache program content only long enough for it to be spooled out with the correct delay. Once we have retransmitted here, then the storage media is erased and overwritten with the next round of content. Our programming providers are sending us a variety of MPEG-4 and MPEG2 standard- and high-definition content with bit rates running anywhere from 2 Mbps up to 10 Mbps, or even higher, depending upon the source of the programming. It goes without saying that our server requirements are somewhat above and beyond those of a lot of other operations. When we were setting up our operation, we knew we would need server equipment that would be robust enough to handle the bandwidth required for our 200 channels and a system that was intelligent enough to multiplex, delay and output consistent high-quality signals. It also needed to deal with the consistently shifting combinations of encoding types and varying bit rates that we typically encounter. BEST CHOICE FOR THE JOB on our staff in implementing Sencore’s TSS 3530A transport stream server, which is ideal technology for meeting both the needs of our customers and also the very stringent requirements we have for our business. The TSS 3530A can support 344 Mbps and up to 32 SPTS multicasts. This transport stream server met or exceeded all of these requirements and also includes the ability to control and monitor the unit remotely. In addition, the TSS 3530A can provide seamless insertion of local programming. From the beginning, it was key for the servers we use to have the ability to time zone shift, provide real-time muxing and to be able to be remotely controlled. With the technology that Sencore provided, our engineers and techs can remotely monitor and modify our servers anywhere from within our network. Any perceived issues or changes to our programming can be handled quickly while making sure that the signal is always there. We have been very happy with our decision in choosing Sencore for this important task. George Smith is vice president of engineering for GTA. He and his team are responsible for the design and the implementation of GTA’s IPTV headend and video systems as well as the island-wide broadband network supporting digital TV. He may be contacted at GSmith@gta.net For additional information, contact Sencore at 800-736-2673 or visit www.sencore.com. BUYERS BRIEF The PMW-EX30 from Sony Electronics is a compact high-definition recording deck that accommodates a wide range of recording formats, including 1080i, 1080p, 720p, and the 23.98p frame mode. The deck can record to solid-state memory or an optional hard drive. Storage time with solid-state media is up to 140 minutes, and approximately 250 minutes with the hard drive. The machine performs MPEG recording at 25 and 35 Mbps and features an integral 3.5-inch LCD monitor. It also provides an HDMI output allowing it to be used with a variety of consumer video displays. The PMW-EX30 can downconvert HD material to SD and is also compatible with S-Video and composite signal formats. For more information, contact Sony Electronics Inc. at 800-686-7669 or visit www.sony.com/professional. com. From our inception, we have focused on being an innovator and selecting the best possible equipment for our not-soeasy tasks. Sencore has been our choice of server since we began the business of digital television program deployment. Their engineers have worked with those NOTE TO SELF: UPDATE RÉSUMÉ. Competition fuels the news business. It’s get or get out. So give your team an unfair advantage: the Streambox platform. For a fraction of the cost of a microwave truck, broadcasters can deploy a Streambox package that revolutionizes live and ﬁle-based newsgathering. Report news as it unfolds while feeding video to websites and afﬁliate stations. Makes “live” a lot more alive, doesn’t it? Choose your platform wisely. Learn more at www.streambox.com or call +1.206.956.0544 ext 222. 32 January 7, 2009 • TV Technology • www.tvtechnology.com http://www.sencore.com http://www.sencore.com http://www.sony.com/professional http://www.streambox.com http://www.streambox.com http://www.tvtechnology.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TV Technology - January 7, 2009

TV Technology - January 7, 2009 NFL Enters a New Dimension Mobile DTV Looms Large in 2009 Contents A ‘Flexible Framework’ Doing More With Less ‘X’tra-Streamlined Finish Line in Sight for BAS Transition Ahead of the Relocation Curve DTV Transition Survival Guide ENG and the Lines of Communication DTV Transition Survival Guide Who Do We Really Work For? Obama to Expand Internet Access The Wizard Takes a Holiday The Solid-State Disk Revival To Light the Ear... or Not Hulu Gets It Right—the First Time User Reports—Video Servers & Recording/Controllers Reference Guide Product Showcase Classifieds Marketplace TV Tech Business

TV Technology - January 7, 2009

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