Systems integration firm Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS) has completed a project for Cowles California Media Group to centralize master control for six stations at a single facility, implement a file-based workflow and maximize automation.
ABS designed and built the new centralized master control infrastructure around the existing operations and switched the stations to it without jeopardizing their on-air signals. The project was completed within 15 weeks from mid-October 2008 through January 2009.
Since the six Cowles stations are split between Salinas and Santa Maria, CA, which are separated by hundreds of miles, ABS built the centralized master control infrastructure on a bi-directional, 45Mb DS3 circuit with an Omneon ProCast server that enables the Salinas “hub” to blast programming, commercials, and other content to another ProCast server at the “satellite” facility in Santa Maria. Designed for disaster recovery, the Santa Maria facility can assume control of the Salinas master control room in case a disaster or power failure shuts down the Salinas facility.
