Weigel is using Harmonic’s cloud-native VOS Media Software with playout-to-delivery features including ATSC 1.0 centralcasting, leading to cost savings, flexibility and greater efficiency.
North America’s Weigel Broadcasting, with headquarters in Chicago, currently owns 25 television stations, seven digital over-the-air television networks and a radio station. Its best known TV network is MeTV (Memorable Entertainment Television) that airs favourite classic TV shows. The company has a long history of TV station acquisitions starting in the Chicago, South Bend, Milwaukee area and now extending from coast to coast.
For many years, Weigel has used digital TV for efficient multicast capabilities, and is now intending to simplify its video distribution. “As we continue to grow the number of stations we own and operate, we wanted a scalable, software-driven approach – not more racks of hardware,” said Kyle Walker, vice president of technology at Weigel Broadcasting.
The broadcaster has adopted Harmonic’s VOS Media Software, cloud-native software with playout-to-delivery features, including ATSC 1.0 centralcasting, that is leading to cost savings and greater efficiency for Weigel.
“With Harmonic’s end-to-end approach, we can add new stations by scaling compute power – that is, addressing a particular need, rather than piecing together stand-alone appliances. This has made our workflows simpler, increased efficiency and given us the flexibility for expansion without the complexities of a traditional broadcast infrastructure,” Kyle said.
Harmonic’s VOS Media Software opens Weigel to various cost efficiencies with a complete, software-based workflow for ingest, centralcasting, advanced playout and branding, encoding, transcoding, statistical multiplexing and distribution. A built-in user interface means Weigel’s team can monitor playlists and rely on automated channel delivery via the web without requiring a dedicated automation system.
Designed for scalability, VOS Media Software can be used to expand Weigel’s station lineup at any time, depending on data centre capacity. Weigel can also enhance its broadcast channels by using capabilities on VOS Media Software, such as delay-line, PSIP fetch, Nielsen watermarking, Dolby upmix and AI captioning integration.
“With these advanced capabilities and support for ATSC, OTT and split signal all on one cloud-native platform, Weigel is using VOS Media Software to streamline operations and gain the ability upgrade and extend its video delivery process over time,” said Gil Rudge, senior vice president, products and Americas sales, video business at Harmonic. “By adopting our cloud-native VOS Media Software, Weigel becomes one of the first broadcasters to use playout-to-delivery workflows.”
Harmonic will demonstrate VOS Media Software and other cloud-based systems at the 2025 NAB Show in April. www.harmonicinc.com
