Rascular has announced that Discovery Networks Europe has deployed Helm, its PC-based third-party control and monitoring technology, across its Chiswick Park playout facility in London.
Discovery now uses Helm to allow transmission controllers access to various points in the transmission chain within a monitoring pod. Helm provides manual access to Miranda ImageStores – which appear like a presentation mixer – main and back-up servers, graphical assets, as well as Axon glue products for ensuring content is broadcast 16:9.
Discovery Networks Europe initiated a project last year to find a system that could be deployed in master control to increase the viewing ratio in a transmission pod from 10:1 to 12.
“The ability to control complex workflows very simply via Helm is vital to our operation,” said Stuart Parkinson, director of Project Engineering. “We have now deployed it across 69 channels.”
Parkinson added that Discovery was gradually adding more functionality into Helm, including designing graphics-rich soft panels.
“Helm provides a new way of working with the expanded possibilities it creates,” continued Parkinson. “We are additionally deploying the technology in our ingest area so that operators can insure that multiple language tracks on supplied material are encoded correctly for playout at the ingest point.” – Michael Burns
