Next Generation Multichannel Television Station Monitoring

The modern local television station faces many challenges - most significantly the national decline of advertising revenues. Individual and group-owned stations are searching aggressively for new, more efficient and cost-effective operational models. For many, some type of centralized content ingest and play out facility is an attractive alternative. With the promise of cost savings and central command comes the challenge of a monitoring system that will allow visibility into the movement of media, the health of remote systems and the signals themselves. — Media Movement — Many centralized operations employ an “ingest once, use many” philosophy. Local television stations present a different set of challenges than those of networks. Specifically a generous portion of the broadcast day is devoted to content that arrives close to air. — Health of Remote Systems — With physical and media assets in diverse geographic locations, a proper network and set of tools for remote monitoring and control of hardware and software is essential. — Signal Monitoring — When remotely operating local television stations one of the significant challenges is the development of a video and audio monitoring environment that is space-friendly and easy to navigate while retaining a complete view of the various critical signals. The choice of what signals to monitor is eclipsed only by the various technical challenges that await the designer when planning and implementing the system.

Published

2010-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

master control, automation, monitoring, centralcasting, centralized, local television station, ingest, syndicated, feeds

DOI

10.5594/M001377

ISBN

978-1-61482-944-7