In Broadcast - June 2021 - 44

44
www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 11 - Issue 6 | June 2021
InMedia
Broadcast Automation:
Getting it Right
R
By Pavlin Rahnev, CEO
and Stanislav Petkov, CTO...
unning a broadcast channel
without automation would be
a formidable challenge as indeed it
was in the early years of television
production. Station managers had a
limited range of options centred on
continuous live operation or sourcing
from film. Video tape made the whole
process easier from 1956 onward
though at huge expense in terms of
hardware, head-wear and the tape
itself. The first commercially available
magnetic hard-drive server was also
launched in 1956: IBM's 305 RAMAC.
It held 5 megabytes of data at a cost
of US$10,000 per megabyte and quite
literally weighed a ton.
Video tape technology advanced
over the decades to the point where
most of a station's daily output
could be preloaded onto cassettes or
cartridges under robotic control. This
opened the way to continuous roundthe-clock
transmission,
introduced
on
June 1st 1980 by Atlanta-based
Cable News Network. Mass-produced
IT equipment appeared around the
same time though many more years
of development were needed before
data servers achieved the capacity,
speed and affordability to make them
the
logical
television.
CIAB
In 2000, we launched one of the
first server-based Channel-in-a-Box
(CIAB) systems, developing it through
two decades into what is now the
AirBox Neo-20 product series and its
software-as-a-service companion,
Cloud2TV. These have become the
world's most successful broadcast
automation systems, powering over
18,500 playout and branding channels
across the Americas, Europe, Africa,
Asia and Australasia.
Automated workflow
The role of automation across a TV
network is to minimise staff stress
and maximise productivity. Our CIAB
Figure 1: AirBox Neo basic structure
medium
for
broadcast
approach achieves this by acting as a
workflow-buffer between an operator
and the critical moment at which
a programme goes on air. Figure 1
shows the basic structure of AirBox
Neo-20 and Figure 2 an example
Cloud2TV workflow. The entire process
is commonly termed 'playout' but
is in fact more wide-ranging. Key to
the whole task is playlist preparation
during which programmes, promos
and commercials are assigned specific
transmission times. The system
includes alerts to warn an operator if
a gap in a schedule is still waiting to
be filled as moment of transmission
approaches.
Breakouts to a live studio feed can
be scheduled in advance if desired,
or activated to take effect at the end
of the programme presently on air.
Electronic programme guides are also
supported, again with relevant alerts
such as notification that a descriptive
EPG text is missing.
Branding is a vital element of the
broadcast management process,
ensuring that each channel maintains
a
remains
distinctive
a
graphic
largely
style.
creative
This
rather
than automated process. Operators
can be assigned as much or as little
freedom as the station or network
considers appropriate, working within
a predesigned graphic template which
co-ordinates parameters such as
the
station's
logo,
title
subtitles and news tickers.
Defining the system
Television channel automation may
sound like a broad-brush subject but
is actually very precisely defined.
Working directly with our customers,
their appointed system integration
partners or via a global distribution
network, we create a checklist of
features relevant to each project. In
terms of scale, this may be anything
from a single TV station working in one
language up to an entire network of
channels transmitting across multiple
countries and time zones. Larger still
are
the
third-party
playout
centres
who choose AirBox Neo-20 as the basis
of a service for multiple clients.
Having established the scale of a
specific project, the next phase is
to translate that into the resources
needed to accomplish the customer's
objectives in such a way that these
can be adjusted to accommodate new
aspirations or levels of business. Each
AirBox Neo-20 is configurable from
a range of software modules to the
extent that almost every process in
the media publishing chain can be
handled from a single workstation or
generation,
IP-connected workstations. Customers
have a high level of freedom to select
where these are located and the order
in which the workflow is prioritised.
Most broadcasters measure their
operational strength in terms of
the amount of content they have
negotiated to transmit or have created
for themselves. Film and tape based
content was originally stored on library
shelves before being played to air
or transferred to a pre-transmission
server for final editing. That could
lead to moments of excitement
if a programme went missing or
became tangled during lace-up.
Most TV content today arrives at the
broadcaster's headquarters as an IP
file transfer via public internet or an
optical fibre link. It is then stored on
a cache server before being checked
for conformance quality and, in many
cases, used to create a shortform
promo. Local or remote networkattached
storage is thus an aspect
of every CIAB installation. Another
important consideration is the ease
with which third party devices such
as production switchers, routers
and multi-screen monitors can be
attached. AirBox Neo-20 makes this
straightforward because all commonly
used connection protocols are
supported.
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://www.playboxneo.com https://playboxneo.com/playout-ip-streaming
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