GERMANTOWN, Pa.—Germantown Municipal Television (GMTV) has upgraded to the PlayBox Neo-20 channel-in-a-box server solution, Capture Suite for live ingest, AirBox Neo-20 playout server and TitleBox Neo-20 graphics generator.
The local PEG channel broadcasts a wide variety of programming from daily newscasts and talk shows to local government meetings in 1080p resolution. A total of 11,422 local households can access GMTV on AT&T U-Verse and Comcast.
GMTV is a student-run station located on the campus of Houston High School in Germantown. Film & Video curriculum students produce a daily news show, six talk shows a month and live coverage of town government meetings.
While GMTV is student-run, broadcast veteran Rob Manuel, chief engineering of the station, works to make the channel indistinguishable from local commercial stations.
“While our budget is not huge, no one can tell that from the quality of our broadcasts,” said Manuel. “We shop around extensively when it comes to the technology we use. We search for systems that are easy to learn, integrate well together and provide the best output. And we keep everything upgraded as much as we’re able.”
GMTV’s deployment is its latest PlayBox Neo upgrade. Since 2008 GMTV has relied PlayBox Neo systems with the last upgrade coming in 2014 when GMTV deployed a 480i SD playout system, said Manuel.
“We were looking to integrate [Microsoft] Windows 10 into our playout system,” he said. The new PlayBox Neo-20 system is compatible with Windows 10.
“We’ve been consistently happy with their products and service. The reliability and ease of use of PlayBox Neo technology is what I’m most impressed with. As a 24/7 local PEG station with a lot of live and originally produced programming, we don’t have time to worry about our equipment. PlayBox Neo gives us peace of mind. It just works,” he said.
More information is available on the PlayBox Neo website.
