The Channel | 2002 | September

21 / 28

the channel | 21
Broadcast Technology
True asset management integration - fact or fiction
James Nuttall talks to scheduling and automation specialists IBIS, who have developed distinct, simple
yet extremely powerful asset management tools based on the real requirements of today’s broadcasters
“Television has not changed,” Mike Shaw
of IBIS told me. “It is still a simple business:
you bring material in, chop it up, play it out,
and put it on the shelf.”
While you might not express it in those
terms, whether you are operating one
channel or a hundred, to terrestrial, satellite,
cable or even the internet, the basic formula
is the same. A broadcaster acquires
programmes, schedules them, fits in some
commercial breaks, fills up the remaining
time with trailers and promotions, plays out
the schedule, then stores the material so that
it can be found next time it is needed.
Alongside the material itself is a lot of extra
information, which we now call metadata.
This will include links to additional media,
such as subtitles and audio description files;
technical details like tape or server locations
and timecodes; and management
information including contract details,
compliance information, EPG descriptions
and so on.
“None of this is new,” explained Shaw. “It
is the same information that broadcasters
have always had to deal with and always
will. So it makes sense to develop a system
which meets that need, and reflects the way
the information flows through the station.
And, most important, avoids multiple
entries: put the details into the system just
once.”
Other manufacturers offer planning,
scheduling and playout software, but the
IBIS system is singularly powerful because
of its tight integration. While broadcasters
can – and do – buy individual elements from
IBIS, there is a real benefit in using the
complete package, because of the way that
it provides management of all the processes
and assets at each step of the way.
IBIS founder John Haselwood started
thinking about transmission automation in
the 1970s when working at what was then
Thames Television in the UK. When
Channel 4 was established at the beginning
of the eighties, as chief engineer Haselwood
recruited Alan Hill, a process control
specialist, and together they created the first
practical transmission automation system
and computer-aided scheduling tool.
In establishing IBIS a decade ago,
Haselwood and Hill brought real broadcast
experience as well as an unrivalled technical
background. They maintain their focus on
the real requirements of their customers by
recruiting further staff with genuine
practical experience: director of operations
Mike Shaw, for instance, was formerly with
the BBC.
Real asset management
Dave Harris is Broadcast Manager at Carlton
Digital, which provides a bouquet of digital
channels to the cable, satellite and terrestrial
viewers in the UK and further afield. He
explained that “traditionally, the interface
between the planning, scheduling and
transmission systems has been a floppy disk.
“What IBIS has done is so simple,” he
continued. “It allows you to look into the
schedule from the transmission end before
it is delivered. As the schedule firms up, so
we can get ready for it. That process of being
able to look far enough ahead to stop panics
is real asset management.”
Mike Shaw of IBIS elaborates. “It is the end
of the flat file transfer,” he stated. “Having