54 TVBEurope The Workflow
Last year, Canal Sur embarked on a project to replace its legacy system with modern automation. With the project now completed, Philip Stevensreports on the new channel management in Spain
WITH ITS capital in Seville, Andalusia is the most populous — and the second largest in size — of the autonomous communities in Spain. Public broadcasting in the area is under the control of Radio y Televisión de Andalucía (RTVA), of which Canal Sur — ‘South Channel’ — is a part. This ‘channel’ – transmitting to Europe through Astra Platform — actually consists of four television outlets: Canal Sur TV, Canal Sur2, CanalSurHD, and Andalucia TV, plus three public radio networks: Canal Sur Radio, Canal Fiesta Radio and Radio Andalucia Informacion. Last year, Canal Sur embarked
on a project to replace its legacy system with a modern automation solution that was both straightforward to configure and to operate. That programme has now been completed with the introduction of a new channel management system. “We broadcast to an audience
of around 6.7 million across Southern Spain, and updating the playout facility was key to our ability to keep pace with our changing programme requirements,” explains Jose Enrique Zamorano, technical director at Canal Sur. The channel’s requirements
were put out to public tender. Part of the requirement was the need to incorporate flexibility in order to accommodate anticipated future demands. At the same time, compatibility had to be maintained with those components of the proposed workflow that were not being replaced, such as the Tedial media asset management (MAM) system. That tendering operation
resulted in the decision to purchase a Pebble Beach Marina automation system. “In addition to meeting our technical requirements, Pebble Beach Systems was the only automation vendor who offered full language localisation,” states Zamorano. “Marina’s Spanish language GUI made commissioning and training very straightforward, much to the appreciation of our operators. We were also very impressed with the look and functionality of the user
interface. Operators can customise the display to their individual preferences. In addition, we are able to present a different user interface for our Ingest and Transmission areas. The system allows us to restrict access to ingest devices and dub/live panels for the Ingest operators, while transmission users simply have access to playlists.”
The Marina system has a total
of six clients, four of which are assigned to playout and ingest operations, with the remaining two allocated for marking up and trimming segments. Ultimately, the system will provide control for a total of 15 channels. These comprise four main channels incorporating A/B playout, with a full mixer and graphics operation. The control also includes facility for four other main channels and eight regional channels. “The fully configurable Marina user interface provides Canal Sur with a range of user-friendly features such as keyframe previews, multiple ‘themes’ and
Beach Marina, Grass Valley K2 servers and the newly purchased sales/traffic systems in the workflow procedures at Canal Sur. MPM activates the workflows
only when they are needed, managing a buffer that maintains the content that is planned for imminent use in playout. A GUI allows administrators to define key parameters, such as which resources are dedicated to critical tasks, the number of concurrent operations and the time when the non-urgent processing will be carried out. Analysis tools are incorporated that scan all incoming media and check whether it complies with Canal Sur’s corporate formats. This helps ensure that all-important file consistency and compatibility is always achieved. Using Oracle technology,
Tarsys provides a multimedia database supporting multiple formats and versions of assets. This enables storage across a distributed archive
www.tvbeurope.com November2012
Canal Sur broadcasts to an audience of around 6.7 million across Southern Spain
Update to improve workflow
Using Oracle technology, Tarsys provides a multimedia database supporting multiple formats and versions of assets
“Canal Sur needed a system to
integrate both Tedial and Pebble Beach Marina, so that they would not remain as ‘islands’ in the overall operation,” explains Martin Junek, commercial director, Provys. “We developed new interfaces based on web services in order to achieve Canal Sur’s objectives.” He continues, “The introduction
of Provys at Canal Sur forms part of a wider project to introduce tapeless workflow at
“Canal Sur needed a system to integrate both Tedial and Pebble Beach Marina, so that they would not remain as ‘islands’ in the overall operation”
instant access to multiple layouts to cater for the varying preferences of individual operators,” declares Tomas Nielson, technical director of Promovisa, Pebble Beach’s partner in Spain. “The operating environment has been specifically designed to allow an operator to manage a very high density of channels from a single workstation, making a positive contribution to reducing operating costs. It also permits system administrators to disable and conceal parts of the interface if required.”
Efficient workflow As already mentioned, the tendering process had to take account of the Tedial MAM system that was already in place. This system, which consists of two components, Tedial MPM and Tarsys MAM, integrates the various elements such as Pebble
architecture combining data- tape robotic libraries and disk storage. It is designed to work using low-resolution proxies whenever possible to minimise network usage. Content is catalogued on ingest and a low-resolution proxy copy and storyboard are automatically generated. Tedial transcoders then generate frame- accurate proxies in H264 or WM formats supporting as many audio tracks as the original high-resolution file.
Total integration As well as being responsible for the Pebble Beach systems, Promovisa also managed and undertook much of the on-site installation and training for the Provys sales/traffic system that is linked in with the other elements of the automation system.
tracking of all video files with searches, low-resolution previews, deep archiving and restoring the material to transmission video servers when needed to go on air. Part of the channel
Martin Junek, Provys
the channel. The system includes modules to cover programme and media library requirements, long-term planning and presentation scheduling. By interfacing with both the Pebble Beach Marina playout system and the Tedial MAM system, the channel now has the benefit of an integrated workflow.” A key feature of this workflow is its bi-directional nature where following ingest requests from Provys, Tarsys returns a notification when new material has been securely archived. Furthermore, as Tarsys also sends a link to the new proxy copy, users can immediately browse content from within the Provys application. In addition, through the implementation of the Provys Media Layer package, Canal Sur has digital material management that allows the
management function used by Canal Sur is scheduling, not only for the channel’s overall output from Seville, but also the regional opt-outs for the provinces of Andalucía, Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Granada, Huelva, Jaén and Málaga. The resultant playlist indicates when the regional alternative should run in place of the master schedule. The Pebble Beach Marina playout system receives all eight playlists, temporarily switching to the multiple regional playlists when indicated in the master list. After playout, the digitised
material is automatically archived within the system and forms part of the content library management. Junek continues: “Tedial, as a media manager, triggers actions that are required for media circulation. Provys processes these actions, for example, restoring media from Tedial to Pebble when needed, and then archives media that is no longer needed for playout.” He reports that the use of the
Provys system has considerably improved ingest workflow and has resulted in better automation of material that needs to be restored from the programme archive.
www.canalsur.es www.pebble.tv www.tedial.com www.provys.com www.promovisa.es
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