August 2014
www.tvbeurope.com
Forum
Channel in a Box TVBEurope 55
the complexity of upstream systems which, ultimately, reduces the overall cost of a playout facility even further. We’ve also seen new developments from various manufacturers on technologies that, ultimately, may or may not be appropriate for linear playout applications. The jury is still out. Smith: The biggest step forward is the move of integrated playout solutions (long our preferred terminology over Channel-in-a-Box, given the rich capabilities now available) truly ‘out’ of ‘the box’. Our previously discussed vision of moving channel playout to fully software-and IP-based, virtualised environments — whether on a blade server or in public or private clouds — has become a reality. At NAB, we provided a live demonstration of playout in the cloud in conjunction with on-ramps and off-ramps to bridge baseband video and IP, and the ability to integrate with on-premises playout systems in hybrid architectures to leverage customers’ existing investments. Of course, we have continued to expand the feature set available for our on-premises integrated playout systems, but the move of cloud-based playout solutions from discussions to a real demo is the most signifi cant advance. Straight: The latest development was our just:play version 1.8 automated playout solution and just:in version 1.7 multi-channel ingest product. Version 1.7 of just:in multi adds support for XDCAM EX, HD and HD 422, as well as AVC-Intra 50/100 and H.264 codecs. Also new is the implementation of multiple recording destinations, improved support for proxy creation — also in an MP4 container, and full compatibility with new devices and drivers from AJA and Blackmagic Design. Version 1.8 of just:play and
Mark Errington, BroadStream Solutions
entirely virtualised broadcast encoding. Second, we are adding support for playout of content as part of the software encoder that frame-accurately switches between live encoding and clip playout. Third, we are folding in the graphics, DVE, and other facilities from the Harmonic Spectrum ChannelPort CiaB solution. Finally, we are demonstrating that we can also deliver mobile and web-based encoding on top of broadcast encoding. Zdravkoski: Clearly, the most innovative advance has been the change from a Channel-in-a-Box to Multi- channel-in-a-Box, including ingest, graphics, playout as well as H.264
“CiaB is now recognised right across the industry as being fully complementary to traditional high-end systems”
Don Ash, PlayBox Technology
just:live also offers a wealth of new features, including a new image-based software installer, realtime log analyser tool, and full integration with just:control ToolsOnAir’s new control and monitoring application, enabling failover control using redundant playout. Warman: The industry is becoming progressively more interested in IP-based playout. While SDI is still by far the more popular output of a CiaB system, compressed output over IP is gaining traction for some customers. Harmonic has taken a somewhat different approach in four key ways. First, we are delivering our encoder technology as a pure software platform called Electra XVM that enables
streaming capabilities to mobile devices. At the same time, the TV business itself has changed, with more and more stations moving away from their own in-house playout system towards outsourcing the entire operation. This is becoming an increasingly attractive option and our fourth generation Genesix VideoServer perfectly responds to this trend. Stryme is one of the few broadcast solutions providers that offers multi-channel streaming in the H.264 format. Since we are constantly working on the development of Genesix, in order to meet the demands of the market, we created a bunch of new modules, such as the AB ROLL playlist, which enables the Genesix VideoServer to handle multi-channel playlists.
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