Harris Reups Sinclair, Unveils Magellan

Renewed business and a new product were among the highlights Harris disclosed during a press event in Las Vegas Sunday timed to NAB.

Harris Morris, president of Harris Broadcast, announced a renewed long-term contract with Sinclair Broadcast Group, to provide its OSi media software for sales, traffic and billing workflow and operations management across Sinclair’s 73 stations in 37 markets.

The five-year deal includes expanding Harris offerings to include new reporting and analytical solutions, including its NetGain business intelligence and analysis software for monitoring and reporting.

The contract is the continuation of a relationship that officially started in 2004 when Sinclair first elected Harris’ OSi software.

“Our contract came up, and we looked at other traffic systems, and we made the decision to stick with Harris because we think it’s a great company,” Del Parks, Sinclair VP of engineering and operations, said Sunday in an interview.

“In this day and age in our industry, where every month that goes by something new pops up, it’s very important to have someone who’s able to at least see that opportunity and be able to take advantage of it.… As we grow our business, they will provide us the tools to grow.”

Harris also announced its new open architecture Magellan Network Management System for monitoring and controlling content creation, aggregation, playout and delivery across multiple facilities. Among the product’s features are a single user interface for monitoring broadcast systems and control and the ability to not interface with Harris equipment, but third-party devices as well. And because there is no central server, there is no single point for failure.

Harris also announced that its Selenio media convergence platform and HView SX Pro multi-display management solution will be used by Dega Broadcast System for the BBC production center Dega is constructing to cover the 2012 London Olympic Games.

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