A Case Study on ABS-CBN Playout

ABS-CBN Project: A Federated Playout System. For more information, please refer to the attachment.

Founded in 1946, ABS-CBN (Alto Broadcasting System-Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is the largest integrated media and entertainment company in the Philippines, ABS-CBN broadcast also to the Filipino enclaves located in the USA and other geographical areas such as Australia, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe.
Currently, the ABS-CBN main facility located at Philippines, counts with an Etere system implemented to send on-air its more than 20 satellite channels, ABS-CBN has always renewed its preference for Etere every time they have planned to expand its existing broadcasting system, being always provided with rock-solid solutions empowered with a seamless integration.
In last years, ETERE has accompanied ABS-CBN across its various system expansions; supporting with an extreme modularity the integration of all the new modules and equipment into the global system workflow without interfering with the overall project, a precedent that has consolidated the presence of Etere not only in the Philippines but in the entire Asian Market

Etere’s solution are characterized for being distributed solutions able to reduce human errors and increase the efficiency of the entire system by centralizing the content management processes under a unique integrated system. Etere-based solutions maintain consistency between the acquisition, the production and the playout departments, allowing playlists to be prepared in advance under an accurate schedule structure, further supporting last minute modifications with faster operations and increased efficiency.
This paper describes how Etere, is able to provide a solution that will closely connect the main station, where assets are created and daily schedules defined, with a remote station, that will receive the daily schedule together with the assets that make it; Etere will periodically synchronize the remote station to the main station, thus permitting the main station to export full schedules and the remote station to manage imported schedules as well as searching, browsing, editing and transmitting media contents originally stored in the main system.
Overall Solution

The Engineering Staff of ABS-CBN has requested the capability to transmit across a remote
station a 24-hour schedule generated and determined in the main station, where video files
present in the main station will be automatically transferred on-demand to the remote station. In
these terms, Etere has determined that the solution for ABS-CBN must accomplish the following
key points:

■ The main station will be able to deliver program schedules (together with the assets
scheduled on them) either manually or automatically to the remote station
■ All media files associated to a certain schedule must be copied to the remote station
■ The remote station will have to be able to transcode media files into a proper format for the
video server
■ Schedules transmitted by the remote station must be logged across predefined time slots
■ All media related processes will be performed via workflow, thus automating their
functioning and increasing its reliability

In order to accomplish all the above mentioned points, Etere propose a federated media management solution, a completely new system able to manage schedules and media contents present in an Etere system from a remote Etere system. Etere’s unique federated features allow stations to streamline their networks at the point of meeting the exact needs of remote systems; this includes scheduled events, time shifting, secondary events, requested media files, etc.
ABS-CBN contents will be centrally stored in Etere’s secure main system from where each tailored schedule version is delivered through a managed IP based network to the appropriate remote Etere system for fully managed local broadcast. Etere’s federated media management makesdistributed television a cost effective reality, opening up new platforms and markets.