Digital terrestrial broadcaster Kita Nihon Broadcast (KNB) has launched HDTV news broadcasts to Japan’s Toyama Prefecture using a fully redundant Omneon Spectrum HD server and Omneon ProBrowse system.
Driving KNB’s networked HD production and playout environment, the Spectrum server system and media proxy software integrate with editing and newsroom control systems for rapid access to content during the station’s HD production and playout workflows.
To support playout for its HDTV operations, KNB is using a main Spectrum server system with four input channels and three playout channels and a backup Spectrum server with four input channels and two output channels. Each system provides 35 hours of storage capacity (MPEG-2 HD at 50Mb/s) and supports four channels of embedded audio.
Four Avid NewsCutter Adrenaline HD units are networked with an Avid Unity production server, and all content is registered from Avid NLEs to the Omneon server system. An HDCAM VTR and remote line are linked to Avid NLEs that also control one of the Omneon input ports via BWV/VDCP Protocol converter.
The main Omneon server is controlled by Panasonic’s OTC (one-touch controller) and a manual playout controller developed by Avid using Omneon API calls, while the backup server is controlled by the OTC. Journalists and editors at KNB use the Japrs News Support system from Nishi Nihon Computer along with the Avid editing systems to build news segments and ensure that material is shared effectively and updated accurately across networked devices.
The Omneon ProBrowse tool monitors content directories within KNB’s Spectrum server, automatically generates low-resolution versions (proxies) of all material being ingested or copied into the Omneon Spectrum system, and then makes those proxies immediately available to users of the Japrs system.
For more information, visit www.omneon.com.
