WTAT-TV Brings Reliability to the Control Room, Installs NVerzion Automation During Massive Infrastructure Upgrade
SALT LAKE CITY — May 13, 2014 — NVerzion®, a leading provider of cutting-edge tools for digital broadcasting and television station automation, today announced that WTAT-TV, the FOX-affiliated television station in Charleston, South Carolina, has deployed a new, future-proof automation system from NVerzion during a massive infrastructure upgrade from analog to digital and SD to HD. Systems integration for this project was provided by Heartland Video Systems. Built upon a highly reliable, flexible, and scalable architecture, NVerzion's Component Level Automation System Solutions (CLASS™) controls the station's master control and playout operations, including syndicated programming recording, local commercial insertion, the timing of network breaks, and graphics insertion, thereby streamlining operations while guaranteeing crystal-clear on-air presentation for viewers.
"Prior to this upgrade, our station was part of a central casting hub. When the time came to build our own master control facility, reliability was our number one objective in an automation system," said Michael Kordek, director of engineering and operations, WTAT-FOX24. "Unlike channel-in-a-box systems, NVerzion's CLASS is built on a modular architecture that ensures our station never goes off the air. Such an unparalleled level of reliability, combined with the fact that we can get content on air faster through advanced capabilities such as automated segmenting, has made us more competitive in the market, increasing our viewer satisfaction while lowering operational costs."
WTAT's new automation solution from NVerzion includes a variety of hardware and software components, including: NControl™ on-air playlists, NGest™ professional dubbing and recording software, NPoint™ video preparation software for segmenting and trimming, NBase™ SQL media database manager, NView™ database viewer, NCommand™ machine status and control, NTime™ time-driven event scheduling, NConvert™ manual and automated traffic interface, NCompass™ dynamic FTP manager, XPansion™ storage management software, and EMC-NT Ethernet machine control.
WTAT is utilizing NVerzion's CLASS to control a variety of third-party equipment, including a Utah Scientific UTAH-400 router, MC-400 master control switcher, Harmonic Spectrum MediaDeck integrated media server, ChyronHego graphics system, and Imagine Communications LandmarkOSI Traffic & Billing system. In addition, the NVerzion solution automatically manages the processing and playout of file-based content received from content delivery systems such as Pathfire, PitchBlue, On the Spot Media, and DG Systems. One software component that WTAT finds especially useful is NPoint for segmenting and trimming. Using NPoint, the station can easily prepare multisegmented video clips for commercial insertion, trimming, previewing, or editing.
CLASS guarantees the integrity of WTAT's on-air presentation by eliminating any single point of failure within the station's file-based workflow. Through CLASS, the station has the flexibility to add more features and perform future upgrades as its needs evolve. The scalable platform can also easily support additional channels and subchannels in the future.
"WTAT wanted a proven automation system with lifelong support, and that is exactly what we provided," said Reed Haslam, director of sales and marketing at NVerzion. "While some vendors have issued an end of life for their automation systems, NVerzion continues to innovate, providing broadcasters with advanced software and hardware tools designed to get high-quality content on the air faster, cheaper, and with little intervention from the operator."
