15 November 2006
New Zealands public television broadcaster and largest free-to-air broadcaster has replaced its studio production tape-based playout systems with a multichannel Omneon Spectrum media server system with 4 TB of shared storage. The Omneon installation allows TVNZ to replicate its earlier playout functionality while implementing file transfers of content from the facilitys edit suites.
For 20 years our operation relied on Sony Betacart machines playing out
analog Beta SP tapes into studios for live-to-air production and for ‘as
live’ record-to-tape production, but as we transitioned to a digital
operation, it was clearly time for a modern nonlinear solution, said Paul
Hedges, studio resources manager at TVNZ. Our new Omneon Spectrum servers ability to accept digital content improves quality, and the nonlinear workflow speeds up production time, minimizes error, and eliminates the issue of lost tapes.
The scope of the project at TVNZ included replacement of the original
playout functionality of the Betacarts, and the Auckland-based broadcaster took the opportunity to design and implement new ingest, production, and playout workflows enabled by the Omneon Spectrum server system.
The Omneon server system allows TVNZ staff to continue familiar playout
operations while working with digital content ingested via an Omneon
MediaController interface. The MediaController panel and software provide robust ingest functionality, giving users single-button control in driving a VTR and an input port on the Omneon server system to execute
frame-accurate dubs from VTR systems, crash records from tape or live
feeds, or scheduled records from satellite.
In the near future, digital content prepared by the production team will be transferred from Avid edit systems onto the Omneon server system for
playout. Two Hi Tech active CartBox controllers, which mimic the operation
of the familiar Betacart operators control panel, allow the studio team to cue and roll clips from the server, playing those clips out on specific
channels or assigning clips to programmed shots.
An exceptionally cost-effective and flexible media server designed for the
professional television industry, the Omneon Spectrum media server provides
a reliable and scalable infrastructure for broadcast playout and storage
applications. The server system is built on an open architecture that
allows it to support a broad variety of third-party applications for
control and transmission, as well as media management, archiving, and
collaborative production.
15 November 2006
Harris Corporation announced that Lok Sabha TV, a 24-hour television channel operated by the Indian Parliament, is on air with the Harris® NEXIO NewsNet newsroom system. The NewsNet newsroom system is installed in the Parliament House in New Delhi, India.
Lok Sabha TV covers a variety of parliamentary proceedings and broadcasts the live footage as a television channel. The NewsNet newsroom system installation includes NEXIO servers in a mirrored configuration; Velocity
non-linear editors; an X75 multiple-path converter/synchronizer; an
IconMaster SD/HD-configurable master control system; an IconStation system for on-air branding; a variety of 6800+ and NEO® processing modules; and Videotek® test and measurement equipment. The hardware is controlled by Harris® H-Class ADC Playout Automation.
Key factors in the selection of Harris equipment included reliability and upgradeability to accommodate the expanding needs of Lok Sabha TV as it
broadcasts the important proceedings of the Indian Parliament to homes
across the Indian sub-continent. BECIL (Broadcast Engineering Consultants
India Limited), the project management consultant for the Lok Sabha TV
setup, selected the technology and supervised the implementation. Systems
integrator Ideal Systems Asia Pacific Ltd. was responsible for configuring,
supplying, installing and commissioning the facility.
“We are pleased to have played a fundamental role in such a cutting-edge
broadcast project that was designed to bring the Indian Parliament closer to
the people,” said Tim Thorsteinson, president of the Harris Broadcast
Communications Division.
15 November 2006
Given the recent consolidation in the television and radio business intelligence environment, Mediaguide, a leading radio verification service, and Teletrax, the global television intelligence company, announced a commitment to jointly serve the needs of advertisers, their agencies and media buyers, broadcasters, and other content owners in tracking the use of their audio and video across more than 4,000 radio and television stations worldwide. Teletrax is a subsidiary of Medialink Worldwide Incorporated and a joint venture between Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands and Medialink.
,p>In todays fragmented media landscape, many clients require cross-media solutions, said Andy Nobbs, president of Teletrax. We believe that Teletrax and Mediaguide provide best-of-breed media solutions in an extraordinarily complementary way. Teletrax now covers more than 180 U.S. television markets, all major terrestrial, cable and satellite networks, and the major broadcasters of more than 50 nations across the globe.
Mediaguide currently provides advertising intelligence on more than 2,600 radio stations nationwide, stated Steve Lubin, chief executive officer of Mediaguide. We are excited to jointly offer the media industry an unprecedented breadth of broadcast information.
While each company will continue to provide its unique services to its respective client base, the commitment announced today provides for a coordinated client experience. The commitment announced today will enable both Teletrax and Mediaguide to better reach clients seeking a cross-media solution through referrals to each others industry-leading service.
Using cutting-edge technologies, both companies provide world-class content management solutions to key sectors of the media industry. The patent-pending Mediaguide audio fingerprinting solution is used by performers, publishers and the recording, advertising, radio, and television industries. The proprietary, award-winning Teletrax video watermarking system is used by companies, including ABC Television Network, Fox Broadcasting Company, NBC News Channel, Reuters Television, and ITN Networks.
Paul Wright, vice president business development, Mediaguide, and Dennis OHara, U.S. East Coast Sales Manager, Teletrax, are responsible for coordinating cross-media client requests, inquiries and pricing. For more information, please contact Paul Wright at (610) 560-4119 or Dennis OHara at (212) 812-7176.
13 November 2006
Al Jazeera English, the 24-hour English-language news and current affairs channel announced today their team of news presenters based at their Doha headquarters ahead of their worldwide launch on 15th November 2006.
Al Jazeera Englishs Director of News and Programmes, Steve Clark has assembled a team of experienced presenters from diverse backgrounds: Mariam Nemazee formerly of Russia Today, So Rahman from Granada TV, Kamahl Santamaria formerly of Sky News Australia and Sami Zeidan previously of CNBC.*
They join the following presenters who were previously announced to the press: Jane Dutton who most recently worked as presenter/reporter on The Business of Development for CNBC Europe/US, David Foster who joined from Sky News, Shiulie Ghosh formerly of ITV News, Darren Jordon who was one of the main presenters at the BBC and Lauren Taylor former Economics Correspondent of ITV News.
13 November 2006
Arqiva to uplink worlds first wedding channel
Wedding TV to launch on Sky in December this year
5-year deal includes space segment on Eurobird satellite
Arqiva today announced that it has secured a contract to enable UK direct-to-home distribution for Wedding TV. Due to launch in December, Wedding TV is the worlds first entertainment channel dedicated to the emotion and drama of relationships and weddings. Arqiva will uplink the channel onto the Sky platform via space segment on the Eurobird satellite.
Mirek Grabiec, COO, Wedding TV, said, Alongside enabling our direct-to-home distribution in the UK, Arqiva has also provided us with digital archiving facilities to store our content, making our planned roll-out across Europe much simpler and more cost-efficient. Arqiva has considerable experience in helping new channels to launch and weve found their solution comprehensive and tailored to our needs.
John Bozza, head of broadcast sales at Arqivas Satellite Media Solutions division, added: Arqiva works closely with new channels to ensure that the launch process is as straightforward as possible. We are delighted to add the worlds first wedding channel to our list of customers and look forward to continuing to work with Wedding TV to extend its reach out across Europe.
13 November 2006
For the first time in the three-year history of Deutsche Welle’s Best of the Blogs awards, an American blog, the Sunlight Foundation, received the competition’s Best Weblog honours. ‘The Sunlight Foundation blog is a group of people who are not only writing about transparency in American politics,’ said US jury member Mark Glaser. Recently the group’s ‘Is Congress a Family Business?’ project uncovered 19 members of the US Congress who paid their spouses a total of USD 636,000 (EUR 495,250) in 2006.
The Reporters Without Borders Award, which has become an integral part of the BOBS, was shared by two Persian-language bloggers. The first blog, ‘Kosoof,’ is a photoblog that proves that pictures sometimes do more for freedom of expression than words by publishing photos of Iranian dissidents with their families after release from prison. The second, ‘Tanine Sokut’ by Hamed Mottaghi, denounces human rights violations in Iran and reports on issues that aren’t covered by the national media.
The Jury Award for the best English-language Weblog in 2006 was given to paidContent.org. The jury said it respected the blog’s ability to move quickly in breaking news stories and commenting on developments in the digital media industry.
