Refining the presentation and playout workflow from ingest to transmission
by Pavlin Rahnev, CEO, PlayBox Neo
IBC 2023 provided useful opportunity for discussions with new and potential customers. Key feedback was the increasing need to ensure maximum efficiency as broadcasting transitions from terrestrial and satellite to OTT delivery.
OTT has long been synonymous with online networking which is fine for broadband-connected regions with relatively high urban populations but less practical for countries comprising large geographical areas or challenging terrain. Recent developments offer a basis for very wide area satellite-based internet connectivity. Whether such services can also be made cost-efficient is yet to be proved but the potential is huge.
Whether used for OTA, OTT, state-funded, subscription-based or FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) channel management or even for a disaster recovery facility, PlayBox Neo systems can be configured from our modular range of solutions to match any desired style of broadcast content preproduction, scheduling and playout – at any scale from a single themed or regional service up to a multi-timezone multi-language network.
Simplest of all such systems is our Channel-in-a-Box approach. This incorporates into a 1U high unit everything required to manage the advance scheduling and playout of up to four television channels.
PlayBox Neo CIAB can be added incrementally within a channel’s headquarters or housed at an IP-linked offsite location such as a third-party transmission service provider or satellite earth station. Scaling up to handle extra channels can also be achieved by installing higher capacity PlayBox Neo systems, again locally or remotely, or switching to fully off-premises playout via our Cloud2TV software-as-a-service. Hybrid combinations of PlayBox Neo servers and Cloud2TV are also perfectly practically and in common use.
Our graphic control interface makes the entire process of broadcast system management truly intuitive to the people who matter: the users. Easy to learn and easy on the eyes during long working shifts, it is also supportive where it detects a critical gap in the playout schedule or a signal failure on an incoming feed. Clips and complete programmes can be reached quickly, adjusted if necessary and copied to an in-house or IP-connected pre-transmission store. Detailed information is available on a drill-down basis if or when required.
In summary, PlayBox Neo solutions allow broadcasters to operate creatively and successfully with production and playout tools that can be relied upon round the clock, every day of the year, and onward.