Aurora 5 provides comprehensive, powerful and fast quality management within a managed resource platform
Pixel Power, the innovative supplier of broadcast graphics and playout solutions, has completed an agreement with Digimetrics which will see the Aurora file-based quality control system integrated into Gallium content management and playout workflows from Pixel Power. Aurora provides market-leading quality control, and is an ideal fit for Gallium’s intelligent workflows.
Pixel Power developed Gallium as the workflow engine for its ChannelMaster playout automation, and its Pixel Factory file based media assembly solution. It is a powerful and flexible automation controller, which allows very sophisticated, rules-based workflows to be created and implemented. In a file-based environment content may come to the Gallium environment from a number of sources, and increasingly there is a demand for quality control at this stage, to ensure a seamless and standardized output.
The Digimetrics Aurora platform tackles all four critical QC areas: metadata gatekeeping; visual and audible limits and artefacts (including loudness); detecting editing problems; and testing for broadcast and distribution constraints. The latest version, Aurora 5, performs all these tests in a 64 bit environment on standard IT servers. Each instance of the Aurora software runs in a defined number of cores, allowing for multiple pieces of content to be tested at the same time without impacting overall performance and delivering results predictably.
“Aurora is a great partner for Gallium workflows,” said James Gilbert, CEO of Pixel Power. “It tackles all aspects of quality control in smart test plans, and performs the tests extremely quickly. Even 4k files can be tested faster than real time.”
“Not only is it fast, but because of the way it manages its resources we can deliver guaranteed QC times to our users,” he added. “Our tests have shown that it generates far fewer false positives than other high performance systems, and its built-in Hydra player makes it easy for engineers to check any questioned material. We are already building systems which integrate Aurora into Gallium, and we see the two products as market leaders coming together to create something more than the sum of their parts.”
Pixel Power will be demonstrating its integration with Digimetrics Aurora on its stand at IBC 2014 (Amsterdam, 12 – 16 September), 7.A31.
