March 23, 2017 -- TORONTO, Ontario: Masstech -- the trusted provider of innovative workflow and media asset management solutions -- will launch a powerful new disaster recovery (DR) solution for playout environments at the upcoming 2017 NAB Show. Designed to address the growing risks and consequences faced by today's broadcasters and media organizations, Masstech's easy and cost-effective DR platform helps customers protect their revenues, minimize channel downtime and maximize long-term viewer retention if primary playout operations are disrupted.
"The breadth and frequency of threats to media companies' operational continuity are constantly increasing, while the financial, viewership and brand reputation impact can be much deeper and longer-lasting than ever before," said Steve Hutchinson, Product Manager at Masstech. "DR solutions must be extremely sophisticated to meet the demands of today's file-based operations, limited viewer loyalty and hyper-connected media landscape. Our advanced platform addresses these challenges while making fully-synchronized disaster recovery simple, practical and more affordable."
Masstech's comprehensive DR solution provides broadcasters, programmers and MVPDs with a fully-automated content replication and playout platform for their secondary playout site. The package includes the powerful MassStore software for communication and synchronization with the primary playout facility; a reliable, fully-integrated automation and playout system; and terabytes of dedicated, nearline storage to keep multiple days' worth of content ready for playback.
While rudimentary DR solutions depend on replays of generic, 'evergreen' content to keep channels on-air or online, such approaches fail to meet stations' obligations to their advertisers and content license holders, and such programming will not hold viewers' attention. In contrast, the Masstech DR system automatically synchronizes the latest program content, advertising spots and playlists from the primary playout facility, continually keeping the backup playout environment as up-to-date as possible.
MassStore's integrated transcoding engine can optionally reduce the bit rates of media files, enabling programs and ads to be replicated faster and more efficiently even on bandwidth-constrained network links. Evergreen material can be automatically inserted into playlists as a last resort to replace content that wasn't yet transferred to the alternate site, and for news-producing channels, the solution can automatically play an archive of the most recent news broadcast if an outage occurs during a live newscast.
Always active even when the station's primary signal is fine, the Masstech DR solution is immediately ready to go to air with no startup time required, minimizing channel downtime. Meanwhile, a centralized management option enables broadcast groups to host an alternate control site for one or multiple stations.
Media businesses can learn more about key factors when investing in a disaster recovery solution in the in-depth white paper "Disaster Recovery for Playout Environments: Six Key Considerations for Implementing or Improving," available on the Masstech website. A two-minute video overview of the Masstech DR solution can also be viewed here.
Masstech will exhibit in booth number SU3202 at the 2017 NAB Show, taking place April 24-27 in Las Vegas. To book a meeting with Masstech at the event, please visit info.masstech.com/nabmeeting.
About Masstech -- Masstech provides innovative software solutions and proven expertise that media organizations trust to manage their valuable digital media content and related information throughout its lifecycle. Committed to exceeding expectations, Masstech delivers superior user experiences, unmatched ROI and efficient workflows that enable our customers to maximize operational performance and realize the full value of their content. Masstech is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with international offices serving a marquee customer base that spans the globe. For more information, visit www.masstech.com.
