master control

Many agree master control and playout are headed to the cloud. But there is less agreement about the timing. While industry consolidation is spurring continued interest in centralizing master control and playout in the cloud, factors like looming UHD rollouts and satisfaction with channel-in-a-box and integrated playout solutions likely mean a mix of solutions will be deployed for some time. Be sure to look for Part I here. Click here to access TVNewsCheck’s NAB 2017 Resource Guide listing of master control and playout vendors and products or here to download it as a PDF.

Broadcasters increasingly are getting comfortable with the idea of replacing their existing baseband master control and playout infrastructure with a cloud alternative when the next technical refresh happens. However, for those looking to the public cloud questions remain about live TV. There’s also a nagging concern that must be addressed before broadcasters hand their cash registers over to something as ethereal as the cloud. Be sure to look for Part II on Monday, April 17. Click here to access TVNewsCheck’s NAB 2017 Resource Guide listing of master control and playout vendors and products or here to download it as a PDF.

For the second year, TVNewsCheck is augmenting its coverage of NAB Show Hot Topics tech trends stories with information that can make your visit to the NAB Show easier. This week’s focus […]

Sinclair says all of the local news at its Toledo, Ohio, NBC affiliate “will continue to be covered by local reporters and will be produced in Toledo,” but the technical aspects of the newscast will be handled by staff at Sinclair’s WSBT South Bend, Ind., which will also take over master control. The Toledo Blade reports the move will result in layoffs.

Matt Azzarto, Akamai’s director of media operations, put in place a master control operation to monitor the health of the content streams in about 100 days. He discusses how his 10 years at NBCU helped him tackle the demands of creating and running the new facility, the custom software tools Akamai has developed for the project, the tougher demands of monitoring live OTT content delivery and what lessons over-the-air broadcasters can learn from the BOCC as they may soon begin preparing to support Internet content delivery as part of ATSC 3.0 operations.

Perhaps the trends in master control that will receive the most attention at the NAB Show will be the role of IP transport as an attractive alternative to baseband signal distribution and routing. But also attracting attention in Las Vegas next week will be 4K Ultra HD, more tightly integrated master control and traffic workflows and VOD. For a resources guide to the companies mentioned in this story, click here. Read all the 2016 NAB Hot Topics stories here.

This year, TVNewsCheck is augmenting its coverage of NAB Show Hot Topics tech trends stories with information that can make your visit to NAB easier. This week’s focus is broadcast graphics (read […]

What issues are likely to keep engineers, managers and other tech types awake at night in 2016? TVNewsCheck’s Phil Kurz offers his predictions of next year’s trends that range from ATSC 3.0 to a serious rethink of how to define the business of television.

In a plan that Maryland Public Television President Larry D. Unger estimates will save the broadcaster more than $2 million during the next five years, MPT will outsource the function of master control to Public Media Management, a partnership between Boston’s WGBH and Sony Electronics.

To make the transition, Disney/ABC Television Group will use Imagine Communications’ VersioCloud, IP-enabled master control and playout software, replacing traditional broadcast master control that relies on various discrete pieces of technology, such as graphics and branding systems and playout servers. With this new cloud model, the network’s affiliates will continue to have the ability to do local inserts of their own news and other programming, commercials and promos.

Sources say that the Scripps-owned NBC affiliate in Tampa, Fla., will be losing its local master control operations department. Master control operations are being moved to a Scripps corporate central operations hub, based in Minnesota.

Fox Network is partnering with Snell to virtualize its automated playout and make it completely cloud-based. Fox and Snell plan to deploy the setup in 2014.

JW Broadcasting’s co-located KMIZ (ABC), KQFX-LD (Fox) and KZOU-LP (MNT) Columbia/Jefferson City, Mo. (DMA 138), have upgraded their shared analog facility to digital using Utah Scientific equipment. Now with the […]

Golden Eagle Broadcasting’s KGEB Tulsa, Okla. (DMA 61) has installed a variety of Harris workflow, infrastructure and networking equipment for its master control operation as the broadcaster continues its analog-to-digital […]