The fully integrated multichannel broadcast system: harder than it looks

The modern large multichannel broadcast facility is far more then a multiplicity of traditional single-channel television stations. Business requirements for large DBS or digital cable services demand that such a system manage hundreds of play-out channels, sharing content across output streams, with extraordinary reliability and maximized operational efficiency. Achieving these goals requires an entirely new approach to resource management, automation and scheduling systems. This paper describes a new architecture for the multichannel broadcast system, using a shared object-oriented database to support broadcast workflow starting from the acquisition of program content through on-air operation. Automated systems support the tracking of channel personalities, program content, physical media and broadcast resources such as video file server ports, all on a timeline basis. Communication with the many external subsystems required in a DVB environment is fully integrated into the system architecture: electronic program guides, conditional access systems, transmission bandwidth control and machine automation are all choreographed for maximum efficiency. This system has now been implemented at two sites worldwide. Examples from a most sophisticated project-the 320 channel ASkyB Broadcast Center in Gilbert Arizona-are used to illustrate a typical deployment of the system