BURLINGTON, Mass. -- Aug. 28, 2007 -- Volicon, a leading provider of media monitoring, recording, archiving, and streaming solutions, today announced that Scripps Networks is using the Observer® desktop video monitoring system to monitor all of its networks. Volicon‘s Observer system enables easy compliance recording of nine feeds and serves as a tool Scripps Networks can use for strengthening relationships with its viewers and business partners.
“The Observer records all audio, video, and closed captioning, providing us with simple access to recorded clips for compliance, along with an easy-to-use software interface for fast closed-caption word searches,” said John Ajamie, senior vice president of broadcast operations and media logistics at Scripps Networks. “We were able to deploy the system within a day, with a negligible learning curve. As we continue to work with Volicon, we plan to leverage the technology to benefit our business beyond engineering and operations.”
Based on a powerful, proprietary streaming video engine and player, the Observer gives a large number of users simultaneous access to multiple channels of live and archived content from their desktops using a Microsoft Internet Explorer® Web interface. Users can log their broadcasts, as well as search, retrieve, analyze, and export video clips with metadata, locally or remotely. The system archives instantly accessible content for up to a year via RAID-5 storage hardware. The export functionality of the Observer makes it easy for operators to share assets internally.
Prior to deploying its Observer system, Scripps Networks had been recording direct satellite off-air feeds to tape using time-lapse video recorders. As the technology aged and amortized, the company chose to shift to server-based technology. The Observer system records each channel in full, storing all nine feeds for 30 days. With the ability to access this content quickly, Scripps Networks‘ staff can readily answer questions about the content aired over its broadcast channels.
“The Observer installation at Scripps Networks is one of the largest to date, and we look forward to working with the company as it explores ways in which its new system can contribute to overall network operations,” said Julius Perl, vice president of marketing at Volicon.
More information about the Observer and other Volicon products is available at www.volicon.com.
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About Scripps Networks
Scripps Networks is composed of the lifestyle television brands HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, FINE LIVING TV NETWORK, and country music network Great American Country (GAC). Scripps is the leading developer of lifestyle-oriented content for television and the Internet, where on-air programming is complemented with online content.
In addition, Scripps Networks has launched HGTV and Food Network in high definition, and is aggressively developing its emerging media platforms for broadband and video on demand. Scripps Networks‘ brands collectively are available in more than 170 countries and territories on all seven continents. They also are distributed to more than 1,000 outlets on U.S. military bases and U.S. embassies around the world via the American Forces Radio and Television Service.
Headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, Nashville, and San Francisco, Scripps Networks is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE:SSP), a diverse media concern with interests in newspaper publishing, broadcast television, national television networks, and interactive media. Scripps operates daily and community newspapers in 17 markets, 10 broadcast TV stations, Scripps Howard News Service, United Media, Shopzilla.com, and USwitch.
About Volicon
Volicon develops and markets turnkey digital video archiving and streaming solutions, including the award-winning Observer® multichannel video monitoring and logging system, for the television broadcast and telecommunications industries, cable programmers, cable MSOs, and corporate and government markets. Volicon‘s proprietary video processing system, comprised of a video encoder and streaming engine, gives a large number of users simultaneous access to multiple channels of video content over a network. More information is available at www.volicon.com.
