Global Media Group, the largest cable television company in Georgia, has automated its six channel output using PlayBox Technology. The turnkey project was delivered by PlayBox’s recently formed broadcast systems group, in associated with Finnish systems integrator Qualitron.
The six new channels – two sports, two movies, a children’s service and a general entertainment channel – are transmitted from a completely file-based centre. The redundant playout configuration has an AirBox Pro server dedicated to each channel, plus two multi-channel AirBox Pro backup servers to provide resilience.
The file-based architecture is managed by PlayBox’s own asset management and workflow design system. It also includes interactive on-air graphics and multi-channel audio to accommodate several languages. Subtitling is also built into the system. A 16 channel ingest server is also connected to the network.
Content is stored centrally on a 100TB NAS. Final Cut Pro editors also have access to this store for post production and trailers. The architecture of the network means that captions and titles can be added on output, and live programming can be captured into the server with and without titles.
