TV Anhanguera in Goiânia, the capital of Brazilian state Goiás, operates 11 TV channels, all of which are affiliated with TV Globo, the region’s largest free-to-air television network. As part of a wider plan to improve operations and optimise costs across the organization, the company thoroughly updated its master control infrastructure.
When replacing their legacy servers, TV Anhanguera wanted to find a system capable of automating the customised playout of multiple individual stations from its central facility. Videodata, a systems integrator in the local area, was hired to design and build the new system.
Luis Duarte, Chief Technology Officer at TV Anhanguera, said, “Working with Videodata, we chose to deploy a Pebble Automation platform, which was able to meet several of our key criteria. We wanted to implement centralcast playout from a single facility, for example, while keeping each channel distinct for our audiences. We needed the flexibility to do this along with ease of use for operators, and the system had to be highly redundant.”
Pebble Automation architecture uses modular services blocks, so that the system can be optimised to accommodate current resources and future plans. The system’s scalability allows users to add an almost unlimited number of channels, operator positions and devices – all while the system remains on air. A system could also be configured to synchronise continuously with disaster recovery applications and remote devices to preserve integrity and security operations.
Due to Pebble’s distributed architecture, built on centralised ingest, content management and multi-channel capabilities, TV Anhanguera is able to adjust and adapt resources and content. The software-defined Pebble Integrated Channel looks after signal processing capabilities and includes functionality required for customising channels with multiple content formats, complex graphics and live inserts.
It replicates, in software, the tools of a traditional broadcast playout chain made up of single-purpose devices performing dedicated functions, and it can be customised for different channel types, from static channels on precise schedules to reactive channels delivering content in multiple formats with complex graphics and live inserts.
TV Anhanguera operators can monitor, manage and control their channels securely, from inside or outside the normal transmission environment. Via Pebble Remote’s configurable web-based dashboards, their teams can set up the specific functionality they need to monitor any channels from anywhere, and manage content across multiple sites and systems, including streaming video from storage, reviewing clips and segmenting metadata. Control over channel playout operations may include real-time playlist manipulation and media-aware multi-channel monitoring. www.pebble.tv
Sean Young, Editor
