Bulgarian channel bTV has reinforced its play-to-air infrastructure with SeaChange‘s Universal MediaLibrary (UML) storage and MediaClient codecs (pictured). bTV is the main channel of bTV Media Group, part of the Central European Media (CME) family. bTV sought to upgrade its existing SeaChange Broadcast MediaLibrary (BML) that served as its play-to-air and storage system. Ready to enter the age of HD, bTV employed SeaChange’s servers and storage group to implement a complete architecture consisting of the Universal MediaLibrary grid and MediaClient codecs. bTV will transition the BML to serve as its disaster recovery system; further strengthening their infrastructure into a robust broadcast play-to-air system. The UML is a high-availability storage solution that offers high performance, high capacity, scalability, and flexible NAS and SAN connectivity for enterprise and multimedia data storage. In bTV, the UML accommodates 144TB in a 5RU storage matrix. With simultaneous NAS and SAN connections, accessing iSCSI, CIFS, NFS, and FTP files can be done without reconfigurations or gateways. The SeaChange MediaClient is a modular software codec that serves as a building block for ingest and play-to-air systems. It offers multi-resolution and multi-format operations with a high channel density of up to 12 SD and 11 HD, getting bTV ready for HD content delivery. Data management between the UML master storage and the BML backup storage will be handled by the SeaChange MediaGateway (SMG) Pro Mirroring system. The SMG brings a new level of simplification in workflow designs and managed transfers between the different generations of SeaChange servers. It also enables simple integrations between various third-party productions, MAM, and archive systems. “With the updated SeaChange system, bTV is better equipped to broadcast high quality and high definition content, with the system ready to ingest and play in HD or to mix SD and HD material in the same playlist,” said Peter Dimitrov, bTV Media Group technical director. “Reinforced with a primary UML storage and backup BML storage, our system security is stronger and our bandwidth is big enough to support the largest viewing audience in Bulgaria.” Marcello Dellepiane, vice president for SeaChange EMEA, said, “The complete range of broadcast technologies by SeaChange’s servers and storage group demonstrates our pledge to serve the industry now and in the future. We are honored by bTV’s continuous trust in our products, and we look forward to taking bTV into the next stage of television.” www.schange.com
