The Channel | 2006 | July

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It occupies a standard 19-inch rack console and can accommodate
12drives and 216 cartridges for up to 108 terabytes of native capacity.
Seven cartridge or drive consoles can be added to the base system.
Our existing Pharos Playtime media management system has been
expanded from six channels to 15. Playtime controls ingest from a Sony
Flexicart to a Pinnacle video server, play-to-air from the server and
delivery of programmes and interstitials to and from the PetaSite archive.
The combination of Sony Flexicart, Sony PetaSite and Pharos
Playtime was chosen for its proven reliability, logical operator
interface and easy expandability. We have also been greatly
impressed by the high standard of post-sales engineering support
provided by Sony and Pharos during the five years that we have
worked with them. PetaSite itself is expandable to a massive 1.2
petabytes which is comfortably beyond our current business plan.
Traditional broadcast control systems rely on a playlist of video
events as their main timing reference. Pharos Playtime uses a
package with independent tracks for each event sequence. Each
track is displayed on the Playtime control screen as a separate
timeline, typically representing main video, backup video, discrete
voice-over languages, GPIs, mix/effects, logo and subtitles. Playtime
enables individual schedulers to create dynamic and exciting
presentation effects that could otherwise only be achieved using
extensive post- production facilities.
From a headcount of two per
channel in Business Phase 1, the new
system enables us to deploy a single
operator per channel.
Because we cover practically every
time zone from Australia to the USA,
every hour of the day is prime time
for at least one of our channels. Our
online server and Pharos automation
system are fully backed up with
automatic switchover in the event
of a channel failure and to allow maintenance.
We currently carry 10 ethnic channels, seven teleshopping channels
and three general entertainment channels. Phase 2 expands our
capacity to 30 channels. Two or three years ago, a profitable business
could be run serving two or three channels. Today you need 20 or
30 channels to stay competitive. In five or six years, it will soon be
necessary to support between 30 and 50 channels to be profitable.
That is our target.
Infrastructure
The audio across every channel is monitored by a Chromatec AM32.
This alerts the transmission controller if there is more than 10
seconds of silence; everything we do here is SDI with embedded
audio. We have never lost video-only. Some channels have Softel
VBI subtitling and teletext support in several languages. This is
handled at the ingest stage.
For OFCOM (the UK media regulator) logging, we use a 24-hour
JVC triple deck (3 eight-hour VHS tapes). We also have an Axon
server-based off-air logger.
The central apparatus room in our Phase 2 is separated from the
MCR by a soundproof window. Racks 1 and 2 are respectively the
main and backup auomation and servers. The Pinnacle MSS-1600
is our main server in rack 1 with the Pharos control boxes above it.
Rack 1 effectively manages 15 channels on its own. Rack 2 contains
Pharos automation again plus the new Pinnacle MSS-8000 server.
Rack 3 houses all the automation and FTP PCs, clocks, test and so
on, with Rack 4 as its backup. Rack 5 accommodates the Chyron
graphics generator, Crystal Vision signal processing and Pro-Bel
routing. Racks 6, 7 and 8 perform the signal processing for each of
the channels: about 12 U per channel. Each channel needs a bug
generator, encoding, post-encodermonitoring (in case the encoder
fails) and an audio compressor-limiter. Communications to London’s
BTTower are in the basement.
When we were building phase 2, we asked our staff in the phase 1
building what changes they would like to see. They recommended
putting ingest in the library. It proved a simple but highly effective
way increasing productivity.
Ingest is performed on a Sony
Flexicart under Pharos control.
When a tape is inserted, its unique
barcode is read by the system and
checked against the playlist to
see if any clips on the tape are
needed. Those that are needed
are ingested and the tape is then
ejected. We started with a two-
deck Flexicart, have increased this
to three and are now plannning
to add a fourth deck, all Digital-
Beta. It is a magnificant system and currently helping us digitise
some 20,000 hours for B4U.
If a large number of tapes come in for ingest, we can simply load them
into the Flexicart and let the system figure out which clips it needs from
which cassette.The tapes then go back to ourlibrary orto the customer.
In addition to the three Digi Betas in the Flexicart, we have a two
manual ingest decks. After ingest, we call each item back off the server,
check the video and audio and at beginning, middle and end.
Survival strategies
Reliability andefficiency are thekey to the futureof playout. Bigcorporates
tend to gravitate to each other. Then you have a host of entrepreneurial
channelswhoseowners viewthecorporatesas large, inflexibleanddifficult
to deal with. That is where we win in terms of business.
We have looked at every strand of our business, aiming for maximum
efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Tandberg encoders were selling
for £15,000 (US$28,000). We combed the market for alternatives
and found them, from an Italian company called Streamtel, making
them for under £4,000 (US$7,600).
Location is another cost issue. Five years ago, UK playout was centred
on London’s Soho. But ground costs there have gone from high to
extortionate: up to five times as much as we are paying in Park
Royal (in west London). We are using 4,000 square feet to run 20
channels which is minute compared to some of the corporate
playout facilities. Staff costs are also 25 to 30% lower here than in
Soho. The extra length of fibre linking us to BT Tower is relatively
insignificant. Our clients are experienced enough to realise that
high overheads do not equate with high efficiency!
Pharos Communications is focused on software
architecture for broadcast process management. Since
its formation in 1997 the company has developed a wide
range of systems for automating the flow of material
through broadcast facilities including playout
presentation, media asset management, archiving and
facility management. The company’s customers include
UKTV, MUTV, ITV, Sports News TV and the BBC.
Pharos Communications is a Gold Member of the AIB