Travel Channel International has implemented an innovative file-based transmission system, with servers in Germany, Asia and Australia fed from the broadcaster’s headquarters in London. The system was developed for TCI by PlayBox Technology.
PlayBox EdgeBox servers are located in the network operations centres of partner transmission companies, where it provides the complete channel output as a single high quality digital feed. The only connection between each EdgeBox and TCI head office is over the internet. This transports all the video and audio content, subtitles, captions and graphics as well as playlists and monitoring data.
Each EdgeBox is configured with full redundancy and encompasses multi-channel audio and content management. It accepts new programmes and schedules via FTP. The schedules are verified and only if media is missing does it notify TCI headquarters. PlayBox provides 24 hour monitoring and support, checking on the systems using SNMP and monitoring live outputs.
“Our main motive for using EdgeBox was to provide customisation of our channel content to deliver augmented feeds for specific territories,” said Steve Fright, TCI Director of broadcasting. “We needed something that could slot into our current set-up and could easily be hosted at NOCs around the world.”
For PlayBox, system architect Ananth Sam added “we had to fit EdgeBox seamlessly into the established file-based workflow, and TCI had to be sure our systems would perform reliably unattended.”
