Russia Today Launches 24-Hour News Broadcasts With Omneon Spectrum Media

Omneon Video Networks today announced that Russia Today, Russia’s first 24-hour English-language news channel, is relying on two Omneon Spectrum media server systems for ingest and playout of Russian news programming distributed worldwide. Russia Today launched on Dec. 10, 2005, following a rapid design and installation process completed by Okno-TV, a Moscow-based systems integrator specializing in building large television and radio companies in Russia and CIS countries.

“We chose the Omneon Spectrum systems for our new tapeless infrastructure due to its open architecture, modularity, and reliable operation and control convenience,” said Russia Today General Manager Sergey V. Frolov. “As scalable and reliable solutions optimized for continuous operation, Spectrum server systems have the ability to meet our needs today and in the future, as our needs change.”

Russia Today’s broadcasts offer viewers across the globe—Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, and Africa—“Russian views” on world and domestic events, as well as information about Russia. The majority of Russia Today’s airtime is devoted to Russian and international news, business, and sports, complemented by documentaries about Russia’s history and present-day life.

The first of Russia Today’s Spectrum server systems operates under the control of DaletPlus News Suite and is used for data ingest and playout within an end-to-end newsroom production and playout workflow. Tight integration of the Spectrum server technology and Vizrt graphics systems enables advanced on-air control and branding capability.

A second Spectrum server system working under Harris automation is used to support creation and playout of broadcast content consisting of live studio feeds, recorded video content, and documentary repeats stored on the server.

A flexible, cost-effective media server designed for the professional television industry, the Spectrum media server is built on an open architecture that allows it to support a broad variety of third-party applications for control and transmission, media management, archiving, and collaborative production. The modular design of the Spectrum system also offers users maximum flexibility in scaling system components and capacity in small or large increments as desired.