Vermont Public Television (VPT) has installed an Omneon Spectrum media server system for ingesting and playing out of local and network-delivered programming, Omneon announced.
“As PBS makes its transition to HD on the national level, VPT has been proactive in implementing forward-looking technologies that will support a smooth transition and smart use of new and existing media assets,” said Geoff Stedman, senior vice president for products and markets at Omneon. “The Spectrum media server is an ideal fit for VPT's new tapeless operations, providing easy integration, scalable storage, format-independent playout, and high interoperability with other best-of-breed broadcast and archiving solutions.”
VPT originates four channels that carry PBS programming in high-definition, two standard-definition PBS feeds and a local SD channel. Transmitters located in six Vermont cities provide coverage throughout the state and also reach viewers in neighboring New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York and southern Quebec.
“The Omneon Spectrum supports our new tapeless workflow and enhances our ability to work with both SD and HD assets,” said Joseph Tymecki, VPT director of engineering. “The Spectrum system gives us the freedom to play out any asset, such as a promo, funding credit, or full-length program, on any channel without worrying about format. As a result, we can accept programming from PBS in either SD or HD, always recording at the highest resolution possible, and play it out in the appropriate format on one of four channels.”
VPT has more than 10,000 hours of taped archival content dating back to the 1960s that it plans to convert to file-based assets with an integration of the new Omneon server and a Crispin automation and archiving system.
