Blab TV Increases Operational Efficiencies, Programming Quality With NVerzion Automation
SALT LAKE CITY — June 10, 2014 — NVerzion®, a leading provider of cutting-edge tools for digital broadcasting and television station automation, today announced that Blab TV, WFBD-HD channel 48 in Pensacola, Florida, has deployed an automation system from NVerzion. Leveraging the modularity and flexibility of NVerzion's Component Level Automation System Solutions (CLASS), Blab TV can get content on-air more quickly, reduce costs, and deliver a higher quality HD presentation to more than 500,000 viewers in the Gulf Coast region.
Blab TV delivers a mix of long-form informational programming, including PSAs and live talk shows. In addition, a live stream of the station's broadcast is available on the Web at blabtv.com. Due to the large quantity of live programming that the station delivers, there is little room for error. Thus, a reliable automation system was critical. Since installing the CLASS platform from NVerzion, the station has maximized operational efficiencies and eliminated workflow issues, leading to a better quality on-air presentation.
"Prior to installing NVerzion CLASS, our automation system was unreliable. At times it would play the wrong shows or just no content at all, keeping our engineers up at all hours of the night trying to figure out a solution. We knew this had to change in order to keep our viewers satisfied and reduce our operating expenses," said Logan Rejda, IT manager at Blab TV. "The NVerzion automation system has never had an issue that wasn't due to user error, and even then NVerzion has been extremely helpful in teaching us how to use the equipment and troubleshooting any issues. It has already made a dramatic impact on our quality and revenue stream."
Blab TV has installed a variety of automation hardware and software components from NVerzion, including: the NControl on-air playlist, NGest professional dubbing and recording software, NPoint video preparation software for segmenting and trimming, NBase SQL media database manager, NConvert manual and automated traffic interface, and EMC Ethernet machine control.
NVerzion's CLASS is based on an open platform architecture designed to support a wide range of third-party equipment. Currently, Blab TV is using the automation system to control two 360 Systems MAXX-1200 HD video servers. By speeding up the station's file-based workflow, CLASS reduces Blab TV's capital and operating expenses. The highly modular architecture of CLASS guarantees the integrity of the station's on-air presentation by eliminating any single point of failure within its file-based workflow in addition to providing Blab TV with the flexibility to add more features and perform upgrades as needed. The scalable platform can easily support additional channels and subchannels in the future.
One capability that Blab TV finds particularly useful for live events is NVerzion's Join-in-Progress (JIP) functionality. JIP performs a series of complex timing calculations, allowing the station to seamlessly join a scheduled program in the event of a live overrun or underrun, eliminating the dead roll operation that would typically occur in these situations to deliver a better quality of experience to viewers.
"With Blab TV delivering more than 40 hours of live programming a week, a reliable automation system is essential," said Reed Haslam, director of sales and marketing, NVerzion. "Our CLASS automation features a modular architecture that guarantees to keep Blab TV's programming on the air 24/7, in addition to bringing increased operational efficiencies and cost savings to the station."
