Harmonic Automates Branded HD Playout for The Museum Channel

France'sSecommedia group has recently migrated to a new playout system forThe Museum Channel, wanting to set up a completely automated scheduled playout that would need minimal operator intervention.

The company had been using the Harmonic Spectrum MediaDeck system to support their local TV news channel Grand Lille TV since 2009, and decided to deploy the Harmonic Spectrum MediaDeck media server and ChannelPort channel playout. These two integrated systems were installed with the Harmonic Polaris Play channel-in-a-box automation software.

Further to the integrated playout, this infrastructure also handles graphic branding and automation, contained in a 1-RU chassis. All together, it means Secom media can operate several HD channels reliably and at a lower cost per channel than with its previous playout system.

For The Museum Channel, Polaris Play supports ingest of clips and content via the MediaDeck system, and branded HD playout of original content. The channel’s Spectrum server uses the software's automated ingest, media preparation and playout workflow capabilities to manage three branded HD channels -  an international feed of The Museum Channel with French, English and Russian audio tracks; a Russian feed of The Museum Channel with Cyrillic script and a Russian audio track; and My Nature TV, a landscape channel. These channels are available to subscribers on pay-TV platforms and on connected devices.

Polaris Play accesses the Spectrum MediaDeck’s high-density I/O capabilities, integrated file services and native codec and file wrapper support, and simplifies The Museum Channel's ingest-to-playout workflow. Using the clip playout functionality and channel-branding in Spectrum’s ChannelPort system, for example, Polaris controls the triggering of complex sequences and transitions.

With these integrated Harmonic capabilities, Secom has been able to make system integration and workflow more straightforward, and reduce equipment, maintenance and operations costs for The Museum Channel. In the future, this Harmonic infrastructure also holds the option of launching a fourth HD channel for The Museum Channel with a low-cost automation control license, rather than further infrastructure investment.  www.harmonicinc.com