Pebble Beach Systems has been awarded an important contract with Fox Business Network in New York. Neptune automation was selected by Fox News to control the playout of its new Business channel, which provides up to date financial information to an estimated 30 million subscribers. Pebble Beach won the contract after several months of close collaboration with IBM Global Business Services, who took overall responsibility for the project, writes Fergal Ringrose.
The new Fox Business Network, which is available in both SD and HD makes use of a combination of new technology, including Ikegami studio cameras, Sony production switchers, Evertz signal conversion equipment, Omneon ingest and playout servers, Pebble Beach playout control, IBM System Storage, IBM software and IBM hardware, Ardendo digital asset management, Miranda Technologies master control and several Vizrt graphics engines.
Fox Business Network went on air in October 2007. The channel is played out from new studios equipped with Neptune Lite systems. These systems are configured with full redundancy and interfaced via MOS to Fox’s iNews system.
To accommodate Fox’s operational requirements, Pebble Beach will deliver a new GUI that allows users to switch quickly between highly automated or manual modes of operation. This enables media to be played out in any random order or in a sequence, using a screen layout that emulates a hardware panel style of operation.
Tom Gittins, Director of Sales at Pebble Beach Systems, remarked “This is a landmark project for Pebble Beach as it is our first major installation in the USA. We are currently setting up a support office in the New York area and following this we will look to grow our business in this key market. It’s great to have a fantastic reference such as Fox Business, upon which we can build.”
