Automation and tapeless system
Friday, 03 August 2007 01:00
Automation and tapeless system
The wager of TEDIAL: Automation and the “tapeless” system.
The television installation modernisation process requires the development of new products to automate media flows in the installation and systemise the contents production process. Media flow automation in digital television is necessary in order to implement a “tapeless” operating model. New software tools will be necessary for this, to allow the definition, planning and monitoring of media flows in a heterogeneous and distributed server and system environment. On the other hand, there is a growing demand for tools that allow defining and managing contents production flows, in such a way that the use of resources is optimised and the abilities of the professionals collaborating in the contents production process are made use of.
The different areas and systems with a well defined function in a television installation can be identified. Without being exhaustive, the following can be identified: Ingestion (digitalisation stations or video-servers), broadcast (video-servers), news production (text and video), programme production, historical file (video tapes), traffic system (rights, versions, ...) automation system (RECLIST, PLAYLIST) and corporate web. The majority of these components are digital now, but do not use the data network as a way to exchange media and metadata. The implementation of the “tapeless” model implies the integration of all the areas and systems using the data network, with SDO transfers between systems disappearing and media transcodings being minimised. As a result, the data network will be the only path for exchanging media between systems and the historical file will be substituted by a digital file that will supply media to the rest of the areas taking into account the specific nature of each of these.
Contents production in television requires the collaboration of a large amount of professionals and the availability of the necessary management, ingestion and editing resources. The aim behind implementing an automatic production management system is none other than to systemise processes and to optimise the use of resources and people. As an example, three classic television production flows can be identified: distributors (external material), programmes (own production) and promotions. The following are the typical stages in the flow from distributors: digitalisation, quality control, censorship, subtitles, editing, generation of versions, media filing and deletion of temporary material used while processing the flow. Specialised personnel participate in each stage, using different resources and systems.
An automatic contents production management system must be integrated in the corporate traffic system and will allow the programming of the different flows considered, generation of the corresponding work orders and registration of the actions carried out by the personnel involved in each stage. Therefore, when an editor, whose function is to edit the material, accesses the management system, he will receive a list of work orders specifying the actions to be applied on each set of material. These actions have been noted in previous quality control (media corrections) and censorship (deletion of images and/or audio) stages, for example.
Technological change in digital television has led TEDIAL to develop products such as TD MPM© and TD FICUS©, software that resolves in an efficient manner all the processes involved in contents production and the operating of installations in an increasingly demanding environment, that of high definition television. The result will be an integrated and automated media flow and television contents production flow system, where the entire exchange of media and metadata is performed via the network, optimising the use of the resources available and systemising the work methods of the personnel in the installation.