IBC Printed Guide - September 2014 - 44

www.inbroadcast.com PRODUCT GUIDE | Sept 12 - 16, 2014

The Evolution From Compliance Logging
I

n just over a decade, broadcast
logging has evolved from a
narrow compliance role to a much
broader range of monitoring and
revenue generating capabilities for
broadcasters, cable and satellite
companies. Advances made have
turned loggers into highly diverse
appliances
for
broadcasters,
covering far more territory than
their original mandate. The next
generation of logging applications
needs to be ready to cater to an
even wider range of applications in
the broadcast chain...

44

Digital Logging Early Advances
Media recorded from baseband
sources is essentially encoded,
proxy size media. Although this
meets the requirements of content
compliance and covered some
quality assurance, it does not offer
an easy way to enhance quality
of service (QoS) of the actual
transmission or to access the
metadata available in the original
transport stream (TS). The cost
of storage used to be relatively
high and retaining 90 or more
days of native transmission quality
video and audio as required by
regulators was not cost effective.
In addition, network connections
were not always fast enough for
larger files sizes and much higher
bandwidth was required to stream
native MPEG media. Moore's
Law over time delivered faster
hardware, larger capacity servers
and storage, and faster networking
infrastructure. That significantly
opened up new opportunities for
broadcasters.
Transport Stream Source
Leading the way to the dawn of
the second generation of digital
loggers, Mediaproxy's foresight
and broadcast experience brought
recording from transport stream

sources to traditional compliance
logging as an industry first in 2008.
This allowed broadcasters to
monitor, review and analyse native
transmissions, and to store them
on the same cost-effective local
storage array in parallel with their
proxy media. Engineers could now
review native transmissions from
the past few days to complete
technical forensics to improve
their services. QoS monitoring,
whether live or offline, provided
seamless review from local and
remote locations. This technically
provides customers with a path to
true compliance, since baseband
is not the transmission format.
Also being able to perform ASI play
out for sections of interest directly
from an intuitive web interface has
given engineers a powerful option
to replay transmission in its original
format on demand.
Metadata, Search & Analysis
TS logging enables simultaneous
recording and streaming of up
to hundreds of ASI- or IP-based
channels. Metadata, such as
closed
captioning
(EIA608/
CEA708/OP42/OP47),
DVB
subtitles, multiple language tracks
and, EGP and PSIP information,
is available for advanced search,
live detection and after the fact
exports via extensive burn-in and
transcoding features. Adding to
the Swiss army knife of logging,
extensive
transport
stream
analysis, digital program insertion
detection (SCTE-35/104) and
fingerprinting engines to provide
random content matching and ad
verification also made their way
into the ever growing portfolio of
the once humble VHS replacement.
Green Is Good
Energy consumption and form
factor is another important factor

Mediaproxy's core engine is built for tomorrow's development frameworks.

Broadcast logging has evolved to include a sophisticated toolset.

for broadcasters. Mediaproxy
heavily invests in hardware R&D
to offer increased channel density,
storage capacity and processing
power whilst maintaining the
highest level of redundancy and
reliability. Hardware components
are carefully chosen and undergo
rigorous test cycles to support
24/7 environments. Mediaproxy
offers the most power efficient and
cost effective enterprise grade SDI
and IP platforms in a 2RU form
factor, allowing for recording up
to 12 and 48 channels of logging
respectively.
The Real Cost of Compliance
Today, broadcasters have to deal
with ever increasing scrutiny
by their respective regulatory
bodies and compliance agencies.
Changes are introduced at a faster
pace and sometimes suddenly
to keep up with ever increasing
scrutiny from audiences around
the world, extending to pressures
via social media platforms.
Making an investment in the
right platform has become more
critical than ever. Considering the
availability of a broad range of
products promising to provide a
suitable solution, savvy customers
are looking beyond marketing
hype and low price points to find
the most experienced partner, who
can provide a truly sustainable
solution. It's paramount to team up
with a technology partner who can
react to regulatory changes quickly
and deliver both robust software
and reliable hardware to span the
many years of 24/7 operation of
the system. Ultimately ensuring
that the investment remains
protected. Having pioneered in
this field of broadcast for over 13
years and substantially invested
in cutting edge software research
and development to ensure

tomorrow's complex requirements
are sustainable, Mediaproxy's
flexible LogServer platform is
intrinsically built to evolve with the
changing needs of broadcasters.
Logging is often seen as one
of the less important parts of
larger scale projects or general
compliance purposes. This is
certainly true from the standpoint
of weighing up cost and
performance of technology that
provides 'to-air' versus 'off-air'
services. The reality is that the
modern compliance logger will
be accessible by a wide range of
users across various departments
beyond engineering including
sales, marketing, master control,
network operations, IT, company
executives, etc. The exposure
and consequent reliance on such
a product for several applications
within the station, beyond the
regulatory requirement, calls for a
decision that takes more than the
obvious factors into consideration.
Making an investment in a
product that, on the surface,
provides the obvious features
required or offers potentially the
cheapest price point, may not
always be the best decision.
Taking into consideration the total
cost of ownership requires a more
rigorous due diligence process
to ensure the chosen partner
practices sustainable software
product
development
and
provides the best value solution
for the future.
Delivering
on
these
high
expectations is Mediaproxy's sole
focus. Our constantly growing
team of highly skilled software
and broadcast engineers ensures
that the LogServer core engine is
built on tomorrow's development
frameworks to provide the most
reliable and flexible technology
available.
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IBC Printed Guide - September 2014

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