Scripps Networks has launched its Food Network HD and HGTV HD networks, as well as its Great American Country (GAC) SD network, on Omneon Spectrum media server systems.
The Omneon systems, which support ingest and playout, allow Scripps to intermix SD and HD content and serve as an interoperable and scalable system that can be expanded.
Scripps is using one 24TB Spectrum system to support ingest of 16:9 aspect ratio HD content and two 12TB Spectrum systems for redundant playout operations. This video is ingested and then archived via a Masstech hierarchical storage management system to a StorageTek nearline archive. HD material is encoded through a Snell & Wilcox Memphis HD MPEG-2 encoder, and interstitial content originated in SD is upconverted via a Teranex Volare.
The combination of the server system with advanced conversion and encoding gear enables Scripps to provide programming with a consistent look and with the quality viewers expect of HD programming. As the network builds up its library of encoded content, it will continue to transition its networks onto the Omneon server platform.
When complete at the end of this year, Scripps' transmission infrastructure will support playout operations for all of its networks, both SD and HD.
For more information, visit www.omneon.com.
