Volicon Observer® Enterprise Recognized With BE Excellence Award for New Studio Technolololgy
Award Recognizes Commitment to Advanced File-Based Workflows, Including Digital Logging and Monitoring of Satellite Transmissions
BURLINGTON, Mass. — March 24, 2011 — Volicon today announced that the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is the winner of the 10th annual 2011 Broadcast Engineering (BE) magazine Excellence Award in the new studio technology — station category. PBS was awarded for its unique advanced satellite monitoring capabilities based on the Observer® Enterprise, Volicon’s automated and fully redundant digital video monitoring and logging system.
The PBS Technology Center in Alexandria, Va. provides continuous delivery of transmissions, via four HD channels and eight SD channels, sent to member stations across the continental United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Guam, and Samoa. In order to replace the aging logging system that monitored its satellite transmissions, PBS chose the Observer Enterprise based on its ability to monitor multiple channels, merge as-runs from automation with aired video, enable effective searches across aired content, and support easy clip exporting.
The Observer Enterprise allows engineers to watch live or recorded video within just two seconds of transmission, and staff can search back on a playlist for a particular program, such as “Sesame Street,” or even for words that would have been present in closed captioning at the time. The production staff can then monitor any signal impairments and diagnose those issues quickly. Because the system synchronizes channels to a specific time point, engineers can troubleshoot and determine the scope of the issue. Using the Observer Enterprise’s clip export capability, PBS can send video logs to its vendors in order to quickly illustrate video issues, enhancing communications and speeding resolution of video or audio problems.
Although PBS has been embedding metadata and AFD in its MPEG streams since 2009, the broadcaster previously had no way of logging what had been sent. To address this challenge, Volicon is now working with PBS to add new functionality to the Observer Enterprise that will confirm that AFD codes have been sent correctly and that stations have received the data they need to display a given piece of video properly. If any metadata is determined to be incorrect, engineers in Alexandria will be able use the logging system to look back, see what metadata was transmitted, and begin troubleshooting.
“Early on, PBS made a commitment to adopt file-based broadcast operations — and this commitment shows in its state-of-the-art facility with tapeless playback, automation, traffic, archive, and now, with the addition of the Observer Enterprise, logging and monitoring systems,” said Michael Asebrook, senior director of product marketing for Volicon. “The BE Excellence Award is a great honor from Broadcast Engineering magazine, and we’re proud that the Volicon Observer Enterprise is playing such an important role in helping PBS ensure the high quality and consistency of the broadcast services provided through its extensive network of member stations.”
More information about the Volicon Observer product family is available at http://www.volicon.com.
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About PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), with its nearly 360 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content. Each month, PBS reaches more than 120 million people through television and nearly 21 million people online. For more information, visit http://www.pbs.org.
About Volicon
Volicon provides the broadcast and cable industries with the most efficient, reliable, and cost-effective automated multichannel video content logging and monitoring system for compliance, media analysis, content repurposing, and quality of service. Its Observer® real-time digital video monitoring and logging solutions are based on Volicon’s patented Video Monitoring Architecture (VMA). VMA is comprised of a multichannel video streaming engine, interactive search, content analytics, and service monitoring and alarming capabilities. Volicon products and services meet the demanding requirements of broadcasters, cable and IPTV service providers, and enterprise and government organizations looking to improve broadcast product quality, enhance video management, and lower costs. More information is available at http://www.volicon.com.
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