IdeasUnlimited.tv extends capabilities and capacities of ContentProbe
IBC launch for IP stream recording
IBC2011:
At IBC IdeasUnlimited.tv is demonstrating extensions to the capabilities of ContentProbe, its low-cost, high-performance conformance recorder. The new functionality is in response to customer demand, and reflects the changing nature of the industry as it moves from a broadcast model to multiple delivery platforms.
IP stream recording
With broadcasters adding services like web streaming and delivering content to mobile devices, there is a need to provide a continuous as-run recording of multiple outputs. It may not yet be a legal requirement to record and store all outputs but it could become mandatory in the near future. Even without legal enforcement it is clearly good operational practice.
IdeasUnlimited.tv will be adding IP inputs to its ContentProbe compliance recorder. As well as adding the capability to record new media services, it also addresses another important issue, that of monitoring multiple delivery platforms. The company’s Media FingerPrinting technology allows ContentProbe to compare multiple versions of the same content and flag differences. No additional monitoring staff are required: ContentProbe will constantly check the broadcast output, and if a fault develops on one of the other outputs they will be automatically notified.
Along with up to 720 days internal storage in the 1RU chassis, ContentProbe really is a compact, cost-effective solution. While there was no legal requirement to keep content beyond a certain period, a number of broadcasters said they would like to have the content online for operational reasons: the promotions department checking on earlier trailer campaigns, for example. In the context of a low-cost solution like ContentProbe, adding external storage was not an economic option.
“Because everyone has to have compliance recording, it is tempting to regard it as a ‘necessary evil’,” says Glyn Powell-Evans, managing director of IdeasUnlimited.tv. “ContentProbe started as a simple, inexpensive set and forget compliance recording device, but imaginative use of the same technology has allowed us to add new functionality, like minimising the monitoring requirement for IP outputs, and extending the capability to give the broadcaster’s own staff the chance to look back at what they had done.”
Also at IBC
IdeasUnlimited.tv will be demonstrating the full functionality of ContentProbe, including the recently added textual searching for media using the schedule information; the FaultTracker plug-in to monitor audio and video faults; and Automatic Failover Verification which compares main and backup signal chains and automatically switches when it detects a difference.
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