Workgroups Solutions

Broadcasters know that downtime is wasted time, but are equally concerned that the cost of preventative maintenance can offset productivity gains. They want maximum uptime with a minimum of resources. And they want the ability to anticipate potential problems as technology becomes more sophisticated and as the network expands to encompass more systems.

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The Avid Interplay nonlinear workflow engine includes system health monitoring and diagnostic logging capabilities. System administrators can use Avid Interplay Administrator to view the status of all of the systems that are part of the Avid workgroup, or use their Administrator log in at an Interplay Access client. Information such as system hardware details, processes running on the machine, processor utilization, and disk status can be easily viewed from a central location.

An administrator can also set thresholds that are used to trigger system warnings. For example, a warning could be triggered when storage becomes more than 90 percent full. The warning can be displayed on the system console or sent as an email notification to a pre-defined mailbox.

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When hot footage comes in, everyone needs it--producers, journalists, and editors--no matter what format or type of network connection they're using. Creating multiple copies of clips in a range of high and low resolutions consumes valuable time and resources and makes it hard to manage all that footage. At the same time, giving every user access to the highest resolution can choke bandwidth when time is tight.

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Providing multiple versions of the same asset regardless of resolution so that any application and any user can work with the correct asset is one of the Avid Interplay system's most powerful features. With Interplay Low-Res Encode, facilities can create low-resolution versions of incoming captures simultaneously with the high-resolution format.

With Avid CaptureManager, the Low-Res Encode engine provides control for dual resolution capture of live feeds via high-resolution video servers such as Avid AirSpeed and the Interplay Low-Res Encode hardware. This generates different versions of the same media in real time and stores them in the Avid Unity media network system.

Avid Interplay tracks all the captured resolutions simply, easily, and transparently - eliminating format and resolution confusion for all connected systems.

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With so many devices for on-air playout, including video servers, character generators, clip stores, and still stores, the slightest inaccuracy can result in costly delays-or the wrong media being put on air. And the cost of complete master-control station automation to manage and monitor playout can be prohibitive for stations focusing on the need to stay competitive.

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For stations requiring playback automation for newscasts without the enormous investment in a complete station automation infrastructure, Avid iNEWS Command offers an affordable, reliable alternative.

Maintaining simplicity across the entire newsroom, iNEWS Command eliminates guesswork, minimizes ramp-up time, and reduces on-air transmission errors, accurately triggering playout events based on newscast rundowns from the Avid iNEWS NRCS, from ENPS, and from any other MOS-enabled playlist.

The iNEWS Command system's playback-targeted automation-assist features accurately control the triggering of playlist events for news, clip and still store, and character generator devices to air.

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The increasing demand for content gives broadcasters the opportunity to repurpose media assets into a variety of packages, including long-form programming, DVDs, and documentaries. But storing volumes of media assets consumes valuable online storage, while most archive systems put media out of immediate reach - and don't allow intuitive metadata-driven search and retrieval.

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The Avid Interplay Archive service can be integrated with a robotic tape library for long-term archival storage, in the same interface as the online storage. Users can choose the media to send to archive in an Avid editing application and initiate the "Send to Archive" command.

When a user wants to search for media, a single search in the Avid Interplay Access client can simultaneously search the online Unity storage, near-line storage, and deep archive. To restore media from the deep archive, users select the media that has been located by the search that they would like to restore, then initiate a restore command. The media is automatically restored to the Avid Unity shared storage system for use by the editors.

This integrated archive capability makes it easy to archive and restore media and metadata in its native editing format, allowing editors to quickly and easily locate and use archived media.

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Low-resolution media is fast and efficient. High-resolution media offers the quality broadcasters require. Multiple people working with multiple resolutions of the same media--at the same time--can strain any workflow and compromise quality if the wrong resolution goes on air. And re-capturing media ties up resources and wastes time.

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The Avid Interplay system's innovative multi-res features allow both high- and low-res versions of material to be available to multiple users simultaneously.

If the desired resolution of a clip is not present, the Interplay Transcode service can be manually or automatically triggered. The correct format is created in the background, becoming available to the editor when it's complete.

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Stations are under competitive pressure to get content to their audiences in the ways they want it--the Web, their PDA, or a cell phone feed. But Web and IP-based publishing can't get in the way of producing their newscast, and few stations can afford to hire an entirely new editorial staff to dedicate to the task.

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Web producers can create online page templates in Avid Active ContentManager based on the station's existing branding and page design, so that stories can be dynamically generated, published to the Web, updated and archived for a completely expanded audience experience.

Using iNEWS NRCS at the desktop, journalists can automatically send an entire iNEWS story to an Active ContentManager template and publish it directly to the Web.

For online stories with rich media--video sequences, images, audio and headframes--with the NewsCutter system's NRCS tool in an editing suite, an editor or producer can create a video sequence along with automatic information about the story, such as slug name, tape ID, and even duration, and add it to the online version along with the iNEWS story.

An online version of the video is created, encoded in streaming format by Avid Interplay ProEncode.

All assets are published using automated rules from Avid Active ContentManager quickly, simply and accurately--making news available to online audiences at the same time it's being prepared for broadcast.

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Vast amounts of source material have to be sifted, sorted, and selected before production can begin. Tying up editing systems and senior editors doesn't make sense. What tools can ensure that the shotlist information is communicated accurately to the editor - and to everyone else in the workflow?

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The Avid Interplay Assist application is the perfect tool for viewing, logging and triaging footage that needs to be used by multiple people in the production process, or for any simple shot-selection/fast turnaround workflow without having to tie up edit suites to perform essential tasks.

Producers, assistants, and others can easily locate media assets from the Avid Unity shared storage system by performing simple or extended searches, and then click on any clip to view the media on their desktops, directly from shared storage. Once the locators or custom metadata are added to the media, that information is available to editors and anyone else who accesses the media.

In a fast-turnaround environment, the user can send the clip or sequence directly to playout.

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Staying unconnected means missing out on higher productivity and expanded opportunity. Isolated production systems and local storage impose barriers to efficient collaboration and make it difficult for facilities to manage their media. Traditional IT networks don't offer the bandwidth necessary to move and store high-quality video and audio files, and conventional asset management falls short of powering a facility-wide workflow.

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The Avid Unity family of shared media networks provides real-time shared storage integrated with ingest, production, encoding, playout, and archive tasks for all connected systems.

With Avid Interplay, Avid workgroups can now achieve unprecedented productivity through integrated time-saving workflow functionality. Broadcasters can dramatically streamline production tasks including capture, logging, editing, transcoding, asset management, administration, and archive.

The powerful combination of Avid's creative editing tools, the Avid Interplay nonlinear workflow engine, and Avid's Unity shared media networks, provide efficiency and flexibility to broadcasters in all market sizes.<\p>

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Powerful, portable equipment is driving more on-the-spot production of breaking stories. And station groups can save time and money by sharing material between locations. Today's news organizations need a safe way to search, send, and share media beyond the boundaries of the traditional newsroom, while working as though they were only down the hall.

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Authorized users at a remote site, an affiliate station, or even accessing the system from a satellite truck with an Internet connection can find material in the central database and check it into their local systems.

The administrator at the primary site sets up necessary privileges, permitting certain users to log into the Interplay system and giving them access to certain assets or directories. Then those users can use Interplay Access or their editing systems to search for material. The Interplay Transfer service intelligently handles the workgroup-to-workgroup transfer, checking the material in automatically to the local Interplay database.

The same procedure enables permitted users at the central location to request and receive media from the remote sites, automatically and transparently.

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