32 TVBEurope ForumChannel in a Box The province of specialists
John Birch, Screen’s Strategic Partnerships manager, expresses the company’s concerns over the potential shortfall in specialist expertise in the Channel in a Box market
THERE ARE many ‘Channel in a Box’ products on offer in the broadcast equipment marketplace and this is a highly contested market segment, aiming to offer cost effective playout of TV channels. But do the products currently on offer provide all the features necessary for an effective channel broadcast, or are there functions and features that are still the preserve of specialist manufacturers. Is it possible to be a ‘Master of All’? The term ‘Channel in a Box’ (CiaB) is widely used, but has an equally wide range of interpretation. A ‘Channel in a Box’ solution may not actually consist of a single physical unit at all, and perhaps a better definition of the term ‘Channel in a Box’ is: all the needed
fulfil multiple roles, that of a developer, manufacturer and systems integrator and support department for multiple traditional components of the broadcast chain. As a long standing
John Birch: Perhaps a better definition of the term ‘Channel in a Box’ is — all the needed functionality from a single vendor supplied as a single system
functionality from a single vendor supplied as a single system. The CiaB vendor must
manufacturer of products for the broadcast industry operating in a very niche and vertical market, Screen takes the view that there remain many situations where a ‘sweet spot’ universal product simply does not have the flexibility or sophistication to meet the requirements of either the customer or more importantly the constraints of the downstream distribution infrastructure. A truly comprehensive and ‘Best of Breed’ CiaB solution would need to incorporate
all the expertise of all the relevant functional areas of a broadcast system.
Hard of hearing Clearly, almost by definition, the cost-conscious development of some Channel in a Box solutions will be an exercise in compromise. Unfortunately, particularly in the area of subtitling provision, compromise is not an option. Unlike video or audio, where a quality problem may manifest as a blocky picture or a second or so of lost sound, usually subtitles either work or they do not. This is problematic, as in the case of translation subtitles, around 90% of the viewers will be totally dependent on the translation to understand the programme.
For accessibility (hard of hearing subtitling), loss of subtitles affects a much lower percentage of viewers, but the broadcaster is likely to have a legal requirement to provide them. A loss of subtitles may mean loss of viewers in the case of translation, or a potential financial penalty for non- compliance for mandated ‘H o H’ subtitles. The many options and the configurability of a Screen Polistream subtitle insertion solution bears testament to the variety of technical details that arise in subtitle distribution. The selection of ‘Composition Page IDs’, the option to transmit ‘Clear down’ commands, code page conversions, safe area overrides, etc., are all examples of functions that have been integrated into our solutions as a result of our experiences in the industry.
A CiaB subtitling implementation will appear to have some of the ‘low hanging fruit’ required for the provision of a subtitling service in a typical broadcast
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