PlayBox Neo, a leading provider of media playout solutions, announced news of a unique application of its technology by Olympusat, a vertically integrated distributor and owner of Spanish and English language Pay-TV channels in the US.
Its expanding programming rights and global distribution footprint provide an original, world-class content library from West Palm Beach, serving multiple time zones across the U.S. and Latin America. It has 26 servers with the latest generation Channel-in-a-Box handling playout of 30 full high-definition channels.
To streamline operations at master control, Olympusat recently combined the Neo TS Time Delay into its live channel playout system. Neo TS Time Delay provides fully transparent delay of IP transport streams such as DVB/ATSC MPEG broadcast-quality compressed video and audio for single or multichannel time zone shift and disaster-recovery applications.
“We can now play one channel in real time while simultaneously delaying it for playout in up to eight different time zones – all from one user interface and a single server,” said Olympusat Operations Manager Michael Kohl. “We no longer need to send a separate feed into the time delay box. We just dial in the delays we want directly onto the playout server’s interface. The transport stream delay function is built in. It’s a very cost-effective and easy way to handle large-scale playout that supports many formats, across different time zones.”
Designed for fully automated operation, the NeoTS Time Delay can be configured with multiple input channels and multiple delayed outputs. Each input also has one zero-delay output. All operating parameters are easily adjusted via an integral web-based user interface, including channel-specific time delay in 15 second increments. Maximum delay duration depends on input bit rate and storage capacity. Additional features include program information display of MPEG-compliant transport streams plus automatic error logging.
“Olympusat’s innovative approach showcases the flexibility in our product design,” said PlayBox Neo U.S. Director of Operations, Van Duke. “They’ve combined two functions into one server for an easy-to-use, streamlined system for time-delayed playout. This reduces the amount of equipment in master control as well as the cost involved with purchasing additional servers.”
PlayBox Neo Channel-in-a-Box is a turnkey playout server solution for broadcasting a single or multiple TV channels in HD or UHD. It provides a seamless workflow to keep a channel on-air by combining scheduling, ingest, playout, CG and interactive graphics within one box and remote tools to enhance QC checks, preparation and monitoring. The output can be SDI or IP streaming and suitable for a variety of applications including traditional broadcast TV, pay-TV, playout centers, satellite operators, etc. By leveraging on the SaaS in the cloud or traditional platforms on-premises, PlayBox Neo Channel-in-a-Box offers media ingest with Capture Suite, playout automation with AirBox Neo-20, interactive CG and graphics with TitleBox Neo-20 and scheduling with ListBox Neo-20.
