OmniBus iTX Mobile Helps Broadcasters Deliver To New Audiences

OmniBus iTX Mobile Helps Broadcasters Deliver To New Audiences
OmniBus Systems, an award-winning provider of comprehensive broadcast automation, content management and workflow solutions, will launch the latest developments in iTX Mobile at the 2009 NAB Show.
A version of the ground-breaking iTX software automation, master control and playout system specially designed for Mobile TV delivery applications, iTX Mobile is on air in multi-channel installations with major US broadcasters and solves the quality-cost-revenue conundrum for broadcasters and content owners launching distinctive services into the new media space. iTX Mobile includes important new capabilities developed specifically to streamline the Mobile TV workflow.
By making it possible for broadcasters to create high-quality crafted transmissions with baseband mixing, transitions and effects while providing a cost-effective, robust and highly scalable platform, iTX Mobile allows operators to meet the twin goals of easy expansion into new market opportunities combined with cost savings and quick return on investment.
Most mobile providers require MPEG-4 streams for delivery to mobile phones or for distribution to remote locations for Telcos or other third parties. iTX Mobile now includes built-in encoding of SD output directly to an MPEG-4 stream - saving the operator the cost of external encoders - while providing SDI output for monitoring purposes. iTX Mobile also provides further savings on hardware by supporting an MPEG-2 transport stream over IP as an input that can be scheduled as a live event. Broadcasters can now take signals directly from a suitable satellite receiver over IP without prior decoding to SDI via a separate hardware MPEG decoder, achieving easy, cost-effective insertion of material such as commercials or graphics into a pass-through channel.
Mike Oldham, OmniBus Systems CEO, said: "Market conditions may be tough, but that doesn't mean that things are standing still in the emerging media space. In fact, the historical tendency is for greater consumption of entertainment when times are hard, so broadcasters still want to continue with their development of these new services. But now that the era of poor-quality services made by splicing highly-compressed streams is over, we are seeing significant uptake from some of the biggest names in the industry because iTX Mobile allows any broadcaster to quickly deploy great new Mobile TV services distinguished by the quality and branding that will win new subscribers."
iTX Mobile provides all the capabilities needed to produce a highly-crafted transmission stream, including video/audio transitions, logo insertions, voice-overs and two-dimensional DVE moves for squeeze-and-tease effects. iTX Mobile creates extra revenue opportunities by enabling the insertion of advertising based on schedule time, cue tones, GPIs, SCTE 104 DPI or manual triggering.
Format-independent and bit-rate-agnostic, iTX Mobile allows broadcasters to mix media formats and resolutions in the same schedule. Compressed video files such as MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (H-264), DV25/50 and Windows Media - as well as wrapped formats such as MXF and QuickTime - are all supported in their native form and decoded by iTX Mobile during transmission. Broadcast HD, SD and lower bit rates can be mixed within a single schedule and are automatically up or down converted by iTX Mobile. Live sources can be scheduled, mixed and branded along with recorded content.
Further information is available at: www.omnibus.tv
(KMcA/BMcC)