Mediaset, one of Europe’s largest media companies and the leading free TV broadcaster in Italy, has fielded 22 automated production server systems, based on Matrox DSX technology, from leading Italian software developer and system integrator Gruppo TNT S.r.l.
Initially used by Mediaset to broadcast the Campionato Italiano di Calcio Serie A and Serie B football matches in September 2006, the systems are also being used extensively for other sports, news, and feature production.
“We made an extensive search for a system that could give us the flexibility to effectively manage diverse digital content for our sports, entertainment, and news programmes. The solution offered by Gruppo TNT turned out to be the most open and adaptable to meet our constantly growing needs,” said Mauro Cassanmagnago, research and development manager at Videotime S.p.A., Gruppo Mediaset. “The completely IT-based system enables us to work both in SD and HD with multiple codecs and file formats like MXF, so we’re no longer limited by traditional video server constraints. The Gruppo TNT solution is a very advanced platform designed to expand dynamically as our production needs change over time but, above all, it is ready to use now! At present, our aim is to produce and share content and metadata for internal use, but we are also planning to make this content available to our external partners and suppliers.”
“At Gruppo TNT, we chose the Matrox X.mio cards for our IT-based architecture because they offer multiple I/O channels that are field upgradeable from SD to HD, as well as extensive support for a variety of software codecs that can be mixed in real time including MXF and Sony XDCAM,” said Giuseppe Bonariva, Gruppo TNT CEO. “In addition, the Matrox DSX Software Development Kit provides comprehensive development tools including versatile file reading/writing, memory management, streaming synchronisation, and a large selection of effects that let us quickly get our application to market.”
