GMTV Selects Playbox Technology

Germantown Municipal Television (GMTV) in Tennessee has chosen a complete PlayBox Technology solution for the core of its ingest, CG, graphics and playout infrastructure.

GMTV transmits a wide variety of content, ranging from classic television shows such as The Beverly Hillbillies and Dragnet to completely original programs produced locally by the students of Houston High School. As a public/educational/government-access (PEG) station, it also airs content produced by other PEG stations from around the United States. GMTV can be found on AT&T U-Verse.

"The PlayBox Technology system was so easy to spin up and use," said GMTV Chief Engineer, Rob Manuel. "It gives GMTV the freedom to convert our video sources to digital and then operate in a fully tapeless mode from ingest right through to transmission. Source video is digitized in a CaptureBox server and transferred to a 4 terabyte local storage server."

Monitoring and control of the AirBox Playout server are done via the Multi Playout Manager which makes it possible to have control over the channel through any internet-connected PC or even a tablet. Included is an integrated streaming option allowing GMTV to feed its content straight out to the internet and broadcast a parallel SDI output at the same time. This reduces points of failure and simplifies what would normally be a more complex integration.

File-based workflows with PlayBox Technology hardware and software has proven to be highly flexible as it allows close integration between editing and playout. GMTV is able to deliver simultaneous HD, SD and IP feeds. Additional benefits include a highly automated workflow process plus the ability to perform list management offline at multiple locations.

"We are very pleased to have been chosen by GMTV as a technology partner," added David Russin, North East Sales Manager, PlayBox Technology USA. "The channel sets a very standard both in terms of content and production quality and GMTV is a well-respected broadcaster in the PEG vertical."

The PlayBox Technology AirBox is a content playout and streaming system capable of operating both in standard-definition and high-definition. Designed for 24/7 unattended operation, it can be connected easily to third-party devices.

AirBox supports MPEG1/2/H.264, HDV and DV streams from practically any production platform capable of providing AVI, MPEG and MXF, QuickTime or WMV content. Files from third-party broadcast content servers are natively supported.

CaptureBox allows multiple channels of high-definition or standard-definition content to be captured from SDI digital feeds, analogue sources and MPEG transport streams. Four video sources can be monitored on a single screen and controlled via a new streamlined user interface.

www.gmtvonline.org

www.playbox.tv

(JP/IT)