Moshe Perez
REEM, ISRAEL
The story of RRsat is a story of growth. When I joined the operation as a technician in 2002, the company was distributing 20 TV and radio channels and had just started providing three channels of playout services. From the start it was our ambition to build a full-scale playout center, and this was successfully inaugurated seven years later. We now deliver fully managed playout services from an automated and high capacity facility, providing end-to-end HD services, including high resolution graphics and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. We distribute 550 TV and radio channels on the RRsat Global Network, and provide playout services for 100 channels.
GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY
Our business is content distribution in all of its forms. We're based in Israel, and have built a global network of satellite and fiber connectivity which allows us to gather material from all over the world, and distribute it worldwide. Recently, we carried out an IPO which has enabled us to make a number of strategic acquisitions, one of which is a teleport in Hawley, Pa., providing a foothold in the United States.
Playout is very big business for us, and as we have grown to become a leading operator in that field, some of the technologies we use and indeed some of our suppliers have grown with us as well.
A key aspect of our business is to be able to put new channels on the air on very short notice to meet specific customer requirements. We count on our suppliers to support us with systems and services which are highly flexible, and can accommodate very rapid development when needed.
Good supplier relationships are important to us, and a very good example of this is the relationship we maintain with Pebble Beach Systems. We've been working with them ever since we started with a basic automation system. This has now been upgraded and enhanced at least 30 times, and has always provided highly efficient service.
We are currently using Pebble Beach's Neptune system to drive six separate playout rooms, with five of these managing 16 channels each.
KEEPS GROWING SYSTEM
We recently installed Pebble Beach's Anchor media management system, which looks after all of our archive and tape library. And shortly we'll be upgrading to their next-generation automation system, Marina, which will allow us to manage and coordinate the playout of all of our more than 100 channels with a common set of resources and management tools.
Our vision is to have playout capabilities all over the world, which, in coordination with our worldwide network connectivity, will let us provide real efficiency and cost effectiveness to our customers. The goal is to provide ingest and playout from anywhere to anywhere in the world via automated file transfer, with centralized management and QC, and with playlists managed to suit specific regional and local requirements.
Clearly our playout automation system is of prime importance in realizing this dream and you can be sure that we will continue to ask Pebble Beach to raise the bar to support our evolving business.
Moshe Perez is technical director of playout services at RRsat Global Communications Network. He joined the operation in 2002. He may be contacted atmoshe@rrsat.com.
For additional information, contact Pebble Beach at 212-861-3234 or visitwww.pebble.tv.
