AUTOMATION: DOING MORE WITH FEWER

Automation has come a long way since the quaint old days when the term described a playlist controlling a station’s cart machine, loaded up with spots, promos and interstitials.

With the advent of video servers and the emergence of file-based workflow and IP networks in broadcast operations, it has grown into a key component of master control.

And with stations now having to move beyond mere local broadcasting and branching out into areas like multicasting, content repurposing and centralcasting, automation—with its ability to allow the deployment of existing human resources across more tasks—has become an essential tool for their growth and survival.

As the industry heads to the NAB Show, stations will be looking at a variety of automation technologies as they balance the pressure for budget cuts against the need to generate new revenue streams.

Broadcast automation consultant Sid Guel divides these technologies into three basic groups. The first is “standard” automation systems from companies like Avid-owned Sundance Digital, Crispin and Florical.

These systems automate operations by controlling third-party devices of other vendors, like a station’s switcher, router and character generator.

Guel’s second group consists of video server combo systems, provided by vendors like Playbox Technology and On-Air Systems, which combine automation systems with video servers.

And third, there are what Guel calls the “new, up-and-coming” hybrid systems from the likes of Harris and Omnibus, which unite all functions into a single box with a built-in video server and integrated functionality for such operations as switching and routing.

Harris and Omnibus differ in their respective approaches. In the case of Harris, the ADC-1000 and D-Series automation products integrate physical devices formerly manufactured by companies like Louth, Inscriber and Leitch that Harris has acquired.

Omnibus's automation product, the iTX line, is designed from the ground up as an all-software system, with functions like switching and routing created from scratch as software plug-ins.

It’s all about return on investment, says Chris Simons, VP, automation products, at Harris.

“Automation delivers pure cost efficiencies in areas like staffing,” he says. “And on the sales side, you have such advantages as the ability to sell spots later in the cycle, increased reliability, fewer make-goods and less loss of revenue through transmission errors.”

While staff cuts, as Simons says, are an obvious possible result of automation, the other side of the coin can be an increase in productivity.

With automation, “we typically don't cut manpower but we gain efficiency,” says Reed Wilson, technology manager, broadcast media, at Belo Television Group, which has installed Sundance automation systems at three stations.

“We're able to do more things with the same amount of people; we're able to run more sub-channels. There’s also less maintenance for file-based systems; it's basically just rebooting a server or doing upgrades on a server as opposed to all the hours and time and money spent replacing heads on tape machines.”

“Workflow efficiency is what people are looking for,” says Rick Scora, product manager at Sundance Digital.

He notes that basic broadcast workflow has been the same for decades, consisting of acquiring programming from syndicators and other sources such as live feeds, selling ads against that content and generating a traffic schedule.

Automation, he says, enables that process to function efficiently in an age when programming is coming in as a file transfer instead of on tape or via satellite.

“Automation lets you get all that ingested and organized in the database so you can quality-control it, schedule it and issue a playlist,” Scora says.

After the content airs, he adds, automation simplifies the next step: generating the as-run report, which is fed back to traffic and reconciled with what was ordered and then turned over to billing.

Of course, no two stations or station groups are alike, and the key to successful implementation of an automation system is fitting it to each operation's unique workflow, says Steve Sagady, engineering manager at systems integrator TV Magic.

Using mainly Sundance gear, TV Magic implemented automation at Trinity Broadcasting's O&Os across the country. The integrator also helped build and automate Trinity's centralcasting facility at KTB Tustin, Calif.

“The ultimate goal was to have low-maintenance, low-intervention master control both in the individual O&Os and in the centralcasting facility,” says Sagady. But, he adds, no operation, however automated, can run without some manpower.

“Clients say, ‘we don't want operator intervention; we want it to run by itself,’ ” he says. “Well, there's no system that can run by itself. You're still going to have people on site. The only thing that changes is job description.

“In master control they used to put tape in the machines and push a button. Now people are ingesting media into servers. What automation does is give them flexibility and economies of scale. One person can watch 10 channels.”

And economies of scale are a major enabler of multicasting and content repurposing. “Automation means you can run more services with the same number of people,” says Ian Fletcher, CTO at Omnibus.

Return on investment is a difficult formula to calculate, Fletcher says, but in the case of iTX it should include such savings as not having to purchase up- and down-converters (because iTX performs those functions via software) and the use of less power and air conditioning because the system uses less energy than more conventional systems.

“The requirements at call-letter TV stations have changed significantly because they've started adding channels,” says Sundance's Scora.

“Before, after you subtracted network programming and the news, the typical network affiliate had to fill up only a few hours during the weekday with syndicated programming. Now, all of a sudden maybe you're taking on a CW station and you're filling up 23 hours a day,” he says.

“The workload has gone up by a factor of three or four and you've had to shift your manpower. Maybe you don't have three guys doing live switching. Now they're paying attention to preparation and ingest.”