In Broadcast - January 2020 - 47

47

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 10 - Issue 1 | January 2020

The Practical Realities of
Multiplatform Broadcasting
internet-based delivery to their
viewers on the grounds of easy
accessibility plus the ability to deliver
video files on demand.
Educational
broadcasters
have
very special requirements including
the need to make a large amount of
course-related VOD content available
via a secure rather than public-access
network.
Business-related applications of TV
playout come in many flavours, usually
a mix of attention-grabbing news
supplemented by relevant information
in the case of an airport, for example,
or store promos in the case of a retail
mall.
Our approach embraces these
special requirements by ensuring
that PlayBox Neo CIAB and Cloud2TV
systems are delivery agnostic. In other
words, we can ingest from and output
to whatever formats our customers
need to sustain their workflow.
Redundancy
The PlayBox Neo approach to
broadcast playout allows channel
operators to invest in as much or as
little system backup as they choose.
This factor is also termed 'redundancy'
but has nothing in common with
the job losses that were expected
when broadcasters first began
implementing automated playout. The
ability to pre-program our CIAB to
perform unattended round-the-clock
transmission has actually contributed
to an expansion in the number of
people employed in the broadcast
business rather than a reduction.
Channel management efficiency is
higher than ever, increasing operator
productivity and reducing stress
throughout the business. The only
stressed guy is me on the rare occasion

Fig. 2: Cloud storage as part
of a production workflow
including regional
ad insertion

that I get a call from a customer in
urgent need of support. Our system
is highly robust so queries of this
sort tend to be from the occasional
operator getting up to speed with a
latest generation GUI.
In
practical
terms,
system
redundancy is itself scalable from
none at all to full 1:1. In between is the
option of partial redundancy where
a single backup server (for example)
provides shared protection for two
primary transmission channels. This is
a cost-efficient compromise which can
be extended so that backup supports
three or even four channels.
Third-party product integration
Every TV channel has some kind
of infrastructure even if only the IPconnected workstation which links
to a third-party service provider. In
traditional broadcast establishments
our CIAB system is usually connected
to a third-party router and maybe
a rack of transcoders. Our latestgeneration products are designed to
perform much or all of the transcoding
internally so the primary connection
these days is with the station's router.
Most stations these days are active
in HD and/or SD. We also support
full UHD operation or any desired
combination of UHD, HD and SD.
PlayBox Neo has always used
industry standard video, audio
and control I/Os to ensure easy
connectivity with third-party products.
More importantly, we are able to
support practically any subsidiary
protocol that a station finds useful,
whether it relates to file metadata, an
open protocol such as NDI (Network
Device Interface) or a nitty gritty
standard such as SCTE-35 (Digital
Program Insertion Cueing Message).

InMedia

cont'd...

Software integration
Software integration has become an
increasingly important part of system
integration over the years. Connecting
hardware I/Os is straightforward
enough but very careful attention is
needed to ensure correct machine-tomachine software communications.
We have long adopted what is clearly
the safest approach of providing
fully tested software modules with
the added security of a dedicated
operating platform. This eliminates the
uncertainties of third-party operating
system updates which introduce
undesired excitement into the lives of
many innocent IT product users. As I
mentioned earlier, the ideal playout
system should be configurable to
perform as many functions as possible
with a unified graphic interface. This
not only saves operator time, desk
space and rack-room space, it also
reduces the risk of conflicts between
software elements from multiple
vendors.
Over the past 20 years, our
development colleagues have refined
our range of software modules,
currently at iteration Neo-19, to the
point where they support every core
function required to perform television
content preparation, quality control,
graphic branding, text manipulation,
scheduling and actual playout. This can
be achieved on either of our two CIAB
hardware platforms, produced in 1U
single-channel and 3U four-channel 3U
versions).
My colleagues and I have learnt
over the years to recognise that many
customers have unique combinations
of requirements especially in today's
fast evolving media world. This has
resulted in developments such as
AdBox Neo-19 which allows a channel
to target advertisements for specific
audiences. It can be installed locally
or at a distribution headend and
monitored and controlled remotely
via any IP network. If required, many
hundreds of hours of programs and
commercials can be scheduled.
Among our most recent new
developments, TS Neo Time Delay
is a combination of software and a
dedicated server designed to support
delayed TV channel playout. It
provides user-definable delay in 10
second increments up to seven days,
plus logo overlay and multichannel
audio. Configurations include single-

channel SD-SDI/HD-SDI or dualchannel SD-SDI/HD-SDI. For enhanced
reliability the hardware is incorporates
RAID-protected content storage and
redundant hot-swap power supplies.
Server, Cloud or Hybrid
I left the question-mark off this
subheading because, once again,
perfectly practical solutions can be
created from any combination of these
approaches. The longer the channel
has been active, the more likely are
its owners and managers to possess
their own server-based system. Once
the routine of operating in this way
is established, it is very cost efficient,
easy to drive and a breeze to maintain.
A new start-up, on the other hand,
may have neither the space to
accommodate its own engineering
facility nor a technical manager
to superintend it. Here 'the cloud'
becomes an attractive option, meaning
a leased playout resource connected
via a standard (often these days highspeed) IP link. Content is uploaded in
non-real-time to the playout service
provider, after which the whole
process of playout management
can be handled from a standard
PC workstation running PlayBox
Neo software. It is a standard way
to operate which dates back to the
earliest years of CIAB.
Hybrid combinations of owneroperated server and leased remote
playout solutions such as our softwareas-a-service Cloud2TV offer the
familiarity of an owner-driver system
plus a very high level of flexibility in
starting a new channel at short notice.
Figure 2 shows an example using
cloud storage as part of a production
workflow including regional ad
insertion.
Apart from the red-button channel
application I mentioned earlier, the
hybrid approach is also a very efficient
way to create and run an emergency
recovery facility as cover again the
channel's HQ being flooded or in any
other way put out of action.
Summary
Looking
back
over
recent
installations both here in the USA and
by our distribution partners around
the world, I am struck both by the
similarity of content owners' and
channel operators' needs and by the
crucial differences which make each
project special whether a new system
of simply an upgrade. The key to
success is to listen carefully, to learn
quickly and to respond to the needs of
our fast-evolving industry.
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In Broadcast - January 2020

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