Newsrooms Get Ripped and Ripe, by Robin Berger.

LOS ANGELES

The IP revolution has made it much easier to get content in, mixed, and out to many more distribution systems in record time. This has delighted TV networks, as well as scared the hell out of them.

“You can run 100 channels almost out of someone’s garage,” said Shawn Maynard, vice president and general manager of Gainesville, Fla.-based automation systems provider Florical Systems. “If you want to stay in business over the next 10 years, you’ve got rethink your workflow and processes and provide a much more efficient way of doing business.”

POWER TO THE CARD

At IBC next week, Florical Systems plans to showcase Acuitas, an all-in-one station-in-a-box (video server) product implemented with off-the-shelf hardware and “a true IT infrastructure,” according to Maynard.

The key to its unique makeup is the inclusion of Matrox’s X.mio2 card. The card’s advanced hardware design processes much of the work that rival systems offload onto communication middleware.

“The middleware approach is very CPU-intensive, and can cause playback problems,” said Maynard. “We’re not stressing out the CPU—we’re talking directly to the card: we get a significant layer of power and reliability from that card.”

Florical’s AssetCollector workflow with NewsRecorder and Acuitas

Continues @ http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/105488