At NAB 2016, on booth N5323, Pebble Beach Systems, a leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, will announce the worldwide launch of Orca, its new software-defined virtualized IP channel solution.
Ideally suited to meet the needs of centralcast hubs, service providers, MCOs (Multiple Channel Operators), sports broadcasters, and corporates such as publishing companies seeking new ways to inform their audiences, Orca delivers a flexible option to deploy or contract IP-based channels almost instantly without the burden of racks of complicated hardware, and weeks or months of setup and provisioning.
As a completely virtual channel-in-a-box —without the box— Pebble Beach Systems’ Orca represents cutting-edge broadcasting of the future. Orca channels run in a virtual machine (VM) in a private cloud with IP inputs and outputs. Orca delivers all the functionalities that could previously only be handled by discrete hardware video servers, graphics and captioning systems, within a pure software environment. Completely unmanned operation is now possible for channels with remote administration available through secure, but standard browser interfaces.
"While systems offering integrated software components running on off-the-shelf IT hardware have been gaining in popularity, pushing the infrastructure to the cloud is truly the next step, as broadcast businesses seek to evolve IP-based services alongside more traditional channel delivery methods. The flexibility to provision and tear down channels dynamically in an instant is a revolutionary concept for companies used to the “old way” of doing things. However, with today’s budgets and schedules, Orca has arrived at exactly the right time for organizations seeking a pure IP video solution," explains Ian Cockett, Technical Director of Pebble Beach Systems.
Orca offers a software-only virtual implementation of the company’s Dolphin platform. As with Dolphin, Orca software-defined channels can be configured to meet the exact requirements of each service. Because both Dolphin and Orca share the same underlying architecture and control, it is easy to mirror channel templates for simultaneous playout to traditional SDI as well as IP video distribution.
A real game changer is Orca’s ability to create new IP channels from a series of templates at the touch of a button, and to deploy them quickly into a running system without having to restart or make configuration changes. Channels can be launched and integrated into a running Marina automation system literally at the click of a button. The solution can also deploy grid-based GPU power for encoding and graphics, freeing up CPU power to enable Orca to increase channel counts more cost-effectively for the end user.
Visitors to the Pebble Beach Systems' booth at NAB will be able to see live demonstrations of Pebble Beach Systems' flagship Marina automation solution controlling a full range of virtualized channel types hosted on the new Orca virtualized IP channel solution.
