SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Sept. 29, 2009 — Omneon Inc., a leading provider of media server and active storage systems, today announced that Omneon Spectrum™ media servers are being used for ingest and playout for BBC Persian TV, a new service launched in January 2009 by BBC World Service. Installed in BBC facilities in London, the Omneon server systems support an efficient and reliable tapeless workflow for BBC Persian TV, which currently broadcasts eight hours of daily current affairs and features news content for Persian speakers in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and around the world, complementing the BBC's existing radio and online news offerings in Persian.
"The integration of different systems to create a streamlined workflow in a fully digital file-based environment is among the most critical parts of an effective installation," said Mike Cronk, controller for future media, technology and distribution at BBC Global News. "Our past experience with the interoperability and known performance of Omneon Spectrum systems in a fast-paced news environment gave us confidence in deploying the servers again in a mission-critical application."
The installation for BBC Persian TV is based on the same tapeless workflow model used successfully for the launch of BBC Arabic TV in 2008. Employing Spectrum servers at the heart of the BBC Persian TV project, the BBC again leverages the systems' open architecture to enable tight integration with other leading broadcast systems for optimal workflow efficiency. The Spectrum systems feature a modular design that enables easy scaling of capacity and functionality without disruption of news delivery.
The Omneon systems are integrated with the DaletPlus News Suite media asset management (MAM) platform and production tool, along with IBIS playout control, to provide a streamlined news production workflow for BBC Persian TV. Content ingested to the Omneon Spectrum ingest servers under the control of DaletPlus is identified and registered by the MAM system and made available for editing on journalist workstations. Once news clips are finished, they are registered in the MAM system and transferred to redundant Omneon Spectrum playout servers. IBIS ServerPlay, integrated with the facility's ENPS, cues up clips based on a continually updated rundown and triggers playout from the Spectrum system accordingly.
"The BBC has developed an efficient file-based news environment that supports high-quality news production for the company's growing international broadcast services," said Geoff Stedman, Omneon senior vice president of marketing and business development. "As the BBC continues to roll out news services worldwide, the Spectrum media server provides the reliability and flexibility vital to timely news delivery."
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About BBC World Service
BBC World Service is an international multimedia broadcaster delivering 32 language and regional services, including: Albanian, Arabic, Azeri, Bengali, Burmese, Cantonese, English, English for Africa, English for the Caribbean, French for Africa, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Kinyarwanda/Kirundi, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mandarin, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese for Africa, Portuguese for Brazil, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Somali, Spanish for Latin America, Swahili, Tamil, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese. It uses multiple platforms to reach its weekly audience of 188 million globally, including shortwave, AM, FM, digital satellite, and cable channels. It has around 2,000 partner radio stations which take BBC content, and numerous partnerships supplying content to mobile phones and other wireless handheld devices. Its news sites include audio and video content and offer opportunities to join the global debate. For more information, visit www.bbcworldservice.com.
About Omneon Inc.
Omneon Inc. is a leading provider of scalable media server and active storage systems that optimize workflow productivity and on-air reliability for the production, distribution, and management of digital media. Omneon is a pioneer in the use of advanced IT technologies and open systems for broadcast applications, producing a modular and expandable video server architecture in the Omneon Spectrum media server. The company's Omneon MediaGrid active storage system delivers centralized content storage that is scalable in capacity, bandwidth, and media-processing power. The company has an extensive global presence with customers in more than 50 countries on six continents. Omneon is on the Web at www.omneon.com.
