Utah's KTVX Completes Move to Streamlined Broadcast Workflow With NVerzion's NCompass
SALT LAKE CITY — June 13, 2011 — NVerzion, a leading provider of cutting-edge tools for digital broadcasting and television station automation, today announced that Utah's KTVX (ABC 4) has upgraded to the company's latest broadcast automation technology, including the recently launched NCompass ingest management software platform, to complete its facility-wide project to streamline broadcast operations. Based in Salt Lake City and owned by Newport Television, KTVX is the area's ABC television affiliate and home to more local programming than any other station in Salt Lake City. The station will use NVerzion's technology to take content directly from providers to the on-air video server, or other destinations, using an intuitive user interface to automatically manage the ingest process.
"Our technology is designed to enable broadcasters to optimize workflow efficiency and enhance broadcast quality, which is obviously our ultimate goal," said Scott Murphy, president of NVerzion. "NCompass, which is one of our newest products, provides a simple, straight-forward approach to the management of ingested content, regardless of the source or the content delivery service that's being utilized. Because of the ever increasing number of ways that stations receive content, a simple solution like this is vital to their ability to stay competitive."
KTVX, like most broadcasters in the U.S., recently went through the analog-to-digital-broadcast transition and then added high-definition (HD), adding a wide variety of devices for its operations to support along the way. The resulting technical complexity arising from a hybrid mix of analog, digital, and HD devices, the challenge of managing additional channels, as well as an economic slowdown forcing the station to reduce its workforce, necessitated the deployment of a file-based workflow in order to streamline operations and remain profitable.
The station first upgraded the master control room to include NVerzion's Gold applications as well as the company's hardware platform. The customer-specific automation system includes several new hardware workstations; NGest dubbing software for frame-accurate dubbing of content from one media format to another; NPoint to preview, trim, segment, and create new sub clips from existing clips on a video server; NControl for scheduled playout; and NBase/SQL database support with the metadata viewer. The newly launched NCompass automated ingest management combines with these previously installed NVerzion components to provide the broadcaster a streamlined workflow automation system that includes full support for the content ingest process.
The KTVX facility also manages broadcast operations for the local CW station, KUCW; a custom Comcast channel; The COUNTRY Network; and THECOOL TV sub channels, so it regularly experiences a high volume of content to ingest, which needs to be managed in an efficient manner. The software package from NVerzion eliminates manual processes, freeing up the operator to focus more on the on-air signal rather than having to worry about ingest. NCompass can manage, record, and segment the program content, based on user-defined rules, which provides crucial time savings down the road when the content is recalled from the database.
"Our reliance on automation technology from NVerzion has enabled us to achieve our goal of having an efficient and streamlined workflow," said Jim Kauffman, director of engineering, Western region and chief engineer at KTVX. "We have had a successful history with our previous purchases from the company, and the recent installation really helps us establish a consistent method to receive and process all the content we're required to handle every day."
NCompass manages the processing and playout of content received through a variety of delivery systems (such as Pathfire and PitchBlue™), plus provides for efficient management of program metadata. The broadcast operator can choose and move specific content from different delivery systems, both manually and automatically, by simply dragging and dropping the desired content to the preferred destination, or by creating a set of configurable, predefined rules. Additionally, material can also be moved from the source device to configurable destinations, such as FlipFactory and Carbon Coder.
