US subscription television provider ImaginAsian TV (iaTV) has completed an upgrade of its playout facilities in New York with the installation of two On-Air playKast master playout systems supplied by On-Air Systems. The playout systems have been installed in Globecomm Systems’ broadcasting centre in New York. Globecomm provides hosting and onward transmission services for iaTV in the US, including a complete satellite distribution service on the Intelsat Americas 13 satellite platform.
Anil Srivatsa, EVP, affiliate sales and new business development at ImaginAsian TV, said the playKast systems provided the network “with the flexibility to manage our schedules effectively. Also, because it is scalable, we can easily extend our playout capacity as we grow without disrupting established routines.”
Programmes produced in-house are recorded in SD and edited in Final Cut Pro. iaTV operators capture the programmes, commercials and other events, and prepare the schedules in their Manhattan studios. With the new On-Air playKast systems in place, media files are sent via a leased line to Globecomm on Long Island and stored on a network storage system until they are required for playout. Playout lists can be rearranged, and files deleted or added using playKast’s drag and drop interface. As changes are made, the system automatically recalculates start and finish times.
iaTV editors also prepare graphics using On-Air playKast’s graphics generator. This enables the creation of unlimited layers of graphic overlays and text-based information all within the playout system, thus avoiding the need for dedicated graphics software.
