From Pitch Blue to a Clear Rearview

Submitted by Whitney on July 9, 2010 - 10:40

Deserting the satellite

TVs are everywhere. They are commonly spotted at bus stops, gas stations, in airports, in banks, in grocery stores—the list goes on. According to Nielsen Media Research, there are more televisions in the average household than there are people. TV has rapidly progressed since its introduction into people’s living rooms in the 1940s from black and white to color, from rabbit ears to cable/ satellite/IPTV, and now to HD and DVRs, and eventually to 3D.

As TV technology booms, broadcasters must stay in sync with current means of content delivery. Networks long ago deserted the antiquated method of delivering video on reels of tape, advanced to satellite delivery and recently developed new systems like Pitch BlueTM to automate delivery of syndicated content via satellite. Automated delivery of video creates major efficiencies in the workflows of television broadcasters.  However, many broadcasters transitioning to Pitch Blue are unable to immediately experience benefits of the new video delivery system because they often face difficulties transcoding Pitch Blues files for play-out.

News-Press & Gazette (NPG), an American broadcasting company, is currently transitioning to the Pitch Blue file delivery system at many of its television stations, including KTVZ in Bend, Ore., and KESQ in Palm Springs, Calif. NPG's Director of Technical Operations, Jim DeChant, looks for transcoding solutions to improve the speed and efficiency of his video broadcasting operations.  Huge volumes of programming are delivered across multiple facilities and millions of minutes are wasted each year by time consuming video file conversions.  It can take up to 40 minutes to transcode a single hour program from Pitch Blue HD files.  “Real time is just not enough time anymore,” said David Montgomery, operations director at KTVZ.

According to the Big Broadcast Survery 2010, "The top three trends indicate that the broadcast industry is focused on unlocking new revenue streams and creating operational efficiencies while it continues its transition to HTDV operations."

NPG is implementing Elemental Server, a massively parallel, faster-than-real-time transcoding appliance into its workflow and is experiencing positive results.  To read the full story about how NPG has integrated the Elemental Server video processing solution into its daily operations, please read our case study.