A Fully Etere Tapeless Workflow for MIXTV

Brazilian Broadcaster uses Etere to Smooth Move to a Comprehensive File-Based Workflow Environment

MIXTV is a Brazilian television which started transmitting in the latter half of 1990 at Sao Paolo, Brazil, where its headquarters currently stands. MIXTV has established 20 retransmitting stations across the country covering 38 million inhabitants; the station operates three channels, MIX, RBI and SKY, which programming is mainly divided into themed blocks dedicated to both musical and telesales content. Etere has recently implemented as the core of a completely tapeless system on MIXTV’s facilities, moving the entire station into a digital production workflow guaranteeing an efficient, reliable and frame-accurate broadcasting process from ingest to playout, all without using tapes, nor any other physical assets. The system has been integrated with Omneon Spectrum video servers to enable a smooth transition to tapeless ingest and playout. Etere has deployed for MIXTV, a reliable system able to take full advantage of all devices present across the station,ensuring broadcast continuity. Etere has effectively performed the transition of MIXTV to a file-based workflow that currently works under a tapeless environment fully controlled via workflow which allows automating the major part of all operations present in the station. Etere’s distributed architecture and its modular design, have allowed a tight integration between the system and physical components, achieving optimal workflow efficiency, able to easily support the growth of the system, since MIXTV is planning to extend its brand presence in the Brazilian market to new channels in the near future. Etere Automation is the playout system on charge of sending on air the three channels offered by MIXTV, it is capable to offer a fully redundant reliability and a high performance based on the use of synchronized Main and Clone automation servers for each channel, allowing them to be immediately switched in case of any failure in the main server, running always the same scheduling with frame accurate synchronisation. The implemented Etere Scheduling system allows the easy scheduling of events with frame-accuracy and under a user-friendly interface enhanced with the management of secondary events such as logos and crawls. MIXTV uses Etere F90 as the perfect Etere Scheduling complement for automatic import/export of schedules programming, commercial planning and the related financial information, to either internal and external departments. Etere Media Manager offers the ability to transfer ingested material between devices, including straight transfers to playout servers from archiving devices, giving freedom on the design of suitable workflows. So each time digital contents are scheduled, they are automatically retrieved via workflow to the Omneon video servers through two ingest channels connected to a shared storage space; and once broadcasted, and if they are not scheduled for other future transmissions, they are automatically deleted via workflow from the video servers, eliminating, in this way any margin of error during this process, and enabling MIXTV to save storage space by keeping on the video servers only those contents that will be soon broadcasted. Deployed Etere SNMP service allows monitoring any Etere module by collecting and storing all their information, allowing operators to define the receiving policies. Moreover, a VPN network has been implemented by the station to support unlimited and immediate VPN connections, allowing in this way Etere’s customer support team to both remotely solve technical and operational issues through direct and fast connections, and to provide MIXTV with the latest versions and updates of Etere. Additionally, MIXTV has been equipped with a fast Gigabit switch that together to Etere Media Manager guarantee a seamless workflow functioning without any type of delays, allowing the station to have material at the right place, and most important, at the right time. Thanks to the implementation of a tapeless Etere system, MIXTV is now able to perfectly control all types of devices used throughout its broadcasting process, some of the most relevant devices are following listed:
• 13 Workstations with a CAL (Client Access License),
• 2 Video Server Omneon Spectrum Media,
• 1 Video Router,
• 2 Video Mixers,
• 2 Serial Hubs and 1 Gigabit Switch,
• 2 Logo Generators