Altered Images Provides Central Role In AETN UK's Migration To A Completely Tapeless Media Workflow

Leading Avid Elite reseller Altered Images have worked with AETN UK, the London-based broadcaster behind HISTORY, Military History, Crime & Investigation Network and Bio, to help move them from a tape-based media production environment to a fully tapeless digital workflow.
The company played a pivotal role in the project and supplied and installed an Avid Interplay asset management solution, an Anystream agility system and an Avid ISIS storage solution as well as upgrades to its Avid Media Composer edit suites.
Discussions started on the project back in 2008 with AETN UK and Altered Images looking for the best solution to help the broadcaster move as quickly and seamlessly from tape to tapeless. With the decision to move forward with Avid, Altered Images took on the key project management role liaising with Avid Professional Services Group, AETN UK and BSkyB's network team who had responsibility for the network infrastructure at AETN UK's base at Osterley.
Back in early 2010, the company provided AETN UK with a demo system to show all stakeholders the operational and commercial benefits of moving to a fully digital environment as well as providing training on the new systems.
Brian Cutts, Project Manager at Altered Images, oversaw the installation, which threw up a number of operational and environmental challenges for the team to solve.
Cutts takes up the story: "The AETN UK operation was a very open plan set-up, so we had to ensure that all the environmental factors were taken into consideration while making sure that the day to day operation remained undisturbed. Our team ended up housing the broadcast equipment in three full-size acoustic racks - this helped significantly reduce the noise from the servers and storage blades. We also had to reinforce the flooring and secure dedicated power supplies to protect AETN UK's investment."
Altered Images also coordinated all wiring requirements delivering 20 Avid Interplay access clients throughout the building. They also made sure that the installation was rolled out in stages to ensure that production was never taken off line.
Nick Frith, Sales and Operations Director at Altered Images, added: "It was a great project for us to work with a forward-thinking broadcasters such as AETN UK where we could provide our hands-on expertise to give them a solution that suited their particular needs."
Tony Gill, Broadcast Operations Manager at AETN UK, concluded: "From project conception to final implementation and support, Altered Images really understaff what we were looking to achieve every step of the way. They helped make our move to a tapeless workflow environment as seamless as possible, and we're already beginning to see the cost savings and operational benefits of the new solution."
The project was completed in December 2010 and it now provides an end-to-end tapeless workflow production solution for all of AETN UK's broadcast content throughout EMEA.
(KMcA)