Looking to establish a new benchmark for system redundancy and disaster recovery, OmniBus Systems will show a variation of its iTX production and playout system at NAB. The new system is designed to support business continuity in the event of both short- and long-term outages of a primary transmission facility.
Called iTX BCP (Business Continuity Planning), it makes a range of back-up systems and dual signal paths more practical and economically feasible. Leveraging iTX's advantages of software modules running on standard IT hardware, iTX BCP allows broadcasters and content owners to build a new level of security into their operations, without the large investment required to replicate the traditional playout chain.
This approach not only provides continuity of output, but also ensures that transmission can be maintained on a long-term basis with the same levels of branding and crafting present in the primary facility.
The replication of content from the primary site to the backup is one of the most challenging issues when implementing a BCP facility. When an IT-based solution is deployed for BCP, it requires that it coexist with a conventional system, sharing the same library of content files and with processes in place for the transfer of media from the primary facility to the secondary site.
As a format-independent system, iTX BCP supports the wide range of file formats found in the content libraries of most solutions. Using existing files from the primary transmission system in their native format without the need for transcoding or reingesting, the system exchanges the same schedule and as-run log files with the traffic system, and accepts the same metadata used by the primary system.
iTX BCP also provides a number of technologies for efficient and accurate site-to-site content transfer via either local or wide-area networks, along with selective transfer of content based on type, age or scheduled channel. Sophisticated error correction and retransmission capabilities ensure security of transfer.
For more information, visit www.omnibus.tv.
