Pixel Power To Deliver Playout Solution To NCME

Pixel Power has been contracted to deliver an end-to-end ingest, storage and playout solution to NHK CosmoMedia (Europe) Limited (NCME).

NCME's JSTV services provide audiences in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa with premium television content in the Japanese language. The broadcaster is implementing a new workflow comprising Gallium automation, StreamMaster ingest and master control playout and SpycerNode intelligent media storage. The new playout operation replaces JSTV's previously outsourced playout service and supports its two channels JSTV 1 HD and JSTV 2 HD via satellite and OTT distributions.

Gallium PLAYOUT enables channels to be launched rapidly and provides multiple functional units incorporated into a single system. Combined with StreamMaster it offers a powerful, highly customisable software toolset designed to meet the needs of broadcasters of all sizes. SpycerNode brings high performance and high availability media storage capacity and will accommodate a growing volume of material.

Located in Italy, NCME's new playout operation is managed and controlled remotely from London. With resilience, high-performance and future-proofing key factors in its choice of technology, Pixel Power, a Rohde & Schwarz company, was chosen to deliver the solution. Pixel Power demonstrated its ability to deliver a sophisticated end-to-end workflow, from ingest through to playout, with integrated high-performance storage, that met all the requirements and added critical new capabilities. This new workflow also allows the JSTV team to seamlessly stitch two recordings together using Gallium Factory. The team worked in close cooperation with NCME to implement a solution that offered high availability and scalability with ease of use. The software-defined nature of the Rohde & Schwarz and Pixel Power solution means licences can be added to support additional codecs or audio as required.

Steve Palmer, Broadcast Operations Manager for NCME commented: "We have had many years of experience of the quality and reliability that Pixel Power and Rohde & Schwarz systems deliver, and once again they proved to be up to the task, meeting our exacting standards and offering the high availability required to support our premium services. Our viewers rightly demand an excellent quality of service and the Pixel Power and Rohde & Schwarz team were able to deliver an impressive SLA package that met our stringent requirements. The solution is operationally smart, efficient, cost-effective and future-proof – all without compromising the quality of the output."

"The broadcast industry has seen the immense value of controlling and managing appliances remotely over the last year. Taking a software-defined approach makes this simple to implement, while our flexible licensing model means users can add functionality as they require it," said James Gilbert, CEO, Pixel Power. "This project is a perfect illustration of the compelling offering that Pixel Power and Rohde & Schwarz can bring to the table, and we are immensely proud that NCME selected solutions from right across our portfolio for this important milestone in their broadcasting history."

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