WJCT-TV, the PBS station in Jacksonville, FL, has become the first station to deploy the new Sundance Digital BXF Gateway system, which leverages a new SMPTE standard to allow broadcasters to streamline their workflow and increase productivity. The station serves northern Florida and lower Georgia with one HD channel, five SD channels and one analog channel.
Before the BXF Gateway, many processes in the workflow were plagued by human error, caused by manually manipulating electronic data with computer keyboards. It allows information to be entered once, in traffic, and then no one has to touch it again. The system automatically propagates through automation, dramatically improving reliability and efficiency. This eliminates time-consuming, manual, daily tasks while reducing routine activities.
The station is using the SMTPE-approved BXF communication protocol (published on April 1, 2008) as a standardized means of data exchange among its traffic, automation, program management and digital content distribution systems. WJCT executives said the efficiency improvements would translate into approximately 20 to 25 more man hours available per week. Deploying the BXF standard is allowing the station to dramatically improve its business processes and cut down on operational costs by taking advantage of real-time fault alerts and eliminating time-consuming master control activities caused by batch list inefficiencies.
Sundance Digital, a founding member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) S22-10 Working Group, developed the BXF Gateway system to support the SMPTE-2021 (BXF) standard, the result of the Working Group’s three-year effort (involving more than 150 participants). It provides a secure point of exchange between systems inside and outside the master control networks. The BXF standard offers support for file and message-based data exchange, increases integration of related systems and extends the metadata set for data exchange, via a standardized messaging between a station’s diverse business and transmission systems.
The BXF Gateway works in conjunction with Sundance Digital’s Titan FastBreak NXT Automation and FastBreak NXT Entry Level Edition automation suites.
For more information, visit www.sundancedigital.com.
