Viasat selects Pebble Beach Systems to support complex file-based workflow

July 16, 2009

Source: Pebble Beach Systems

After a detailed evaluation process, Viasat Satellite Services AB (VSS) chose Pebble Beach Systems’ Neptune automation and Anchor products to provide control and management of a new playout facility, to be built in Riga.

VSS is part of Modern Times Group (MTG), the largest free-TV and pay-TV operator in Scandinavia and the Baltic regions, and the main shareholder in Russia’s largest independent television broadcaster CTC Media.

Currently MTG is broadcasting nine of its Viasat channels in the Baltic region from smaller local playout facilities in Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. As part of a major modernisation programme, Viasat plans to centralize the three existing playout centres and build a new central playout hub to manage the current 9 channels and to facilitate for further channel expansion to beyond the Baltics.

The project is being lead by Luxembourg based systems integration company BCE and will be provided as a turnkey solution. As well as Pebble Beach automation and media management, the project will include technology from Front Porch Digital, Omneon Video networks, Apple and IPV.

The new system will connect Viasat’s London and Riga sites, as well as operations in Tallinn and Vilnius and allow the use of content originally ingested in London or Riga to be viewed or copied to the other sites. The system will also allow new audio voiceover tracks to be added to ingested content and enable a file-based workflow for the local production of promos in addition to locally produced content.

The Neptune system will manage the movement of media between London and Riga via Front Porch Diva and track assets throughout the entire system to ensure that the right versions, containing the appropriate audio tracks are available at the right time in the right place.

Once assets are tagged as QC passed, a low resolution proxy file will automatically be generated using IPV XCode transcoders. The low resolution copies can be used for promo production, where operators using Razorfish, Pebble Beach Systems’ own cut only editor, can create rough-cut EDLs. Completed promos, polished using Apple Final Cut Pro editors, are returned to an Omneon server before being archived, transcoded and/or moved to playout

In addition to the Baltic channels, the new playout centre in Riga will provide disaster recovery services for the Viasat UK operation.

The system is expected to go to air early in 2010.

“VSS sees major growth potential for its Riga operation and wanted a system that will allow for new channels to be added as its business demands.” explains Tom Gittins, Sales Director of Pebble Beach Systems. “Neptune’s flexibility and inbuilt Anchor media management will allow us to provide a unique workflow for Viasat that fits alongside their legacy systems. It will deliver major efficiency improvements to their Baltic operation and allow them to grow.”

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