The installation has been carried out in two phases: at first, VSN deployed the MCR and MAM solutions, and secondly, the News & Live Production solution was implanted. At the project´s heart is VSNEXPLORER, VSN´s MAM, which the client uses as a centralized content management and cataloguing system.
Amarin, one of the most important channels in Thailand, has chosen VSN´s technology to improve the efficiency of its workflows and increase its productivity. With this purpose, it selected, in a first phase, the MCR and MAM solutions, the former based on VSNMULTICOM, software that automates all the technical processes of a TV’s continuity, and VSNEXPLORER, VSN´s MAM, that is now the center of the whole Thai channel´s system.
VSNMULTICOM allows HotSwap redundancy with two DVS channels and controls BrandMaster Pixel Power for logo insertion and as broadcast source keying. It also controls CG auxiliary events, that are sent to VSNCG+, where Amarin´s users can create their own graphic templates for branding.
VSNMULTICOM REC is in charge of contents ingesting for continuity, controlling up to four ingesting channels. For legal compliance of the contents broadcasted, VSN has provided Amarin with VSNBROADREC that records the broadcasted signal 24×7.
VSN´s MAM, VSNEXPLORER, becomes the central system of content management and cataloging by providing ingest workflows and content validation (QC) for the different production departments. VSNEXPLORER allows for defining several levels of custom metadata, and prepares the assets to be sent to Youtube and WebTV, with automated transcoding to MP4. It also takes care of catalogging and archiving asset material.
VSNEXPLORER also controls two different storages, one for content pre-production and the other used for production and as a temporary cache before sending the material to be broadcasted . This was a specific need Amarin had, which was fully fulfilled from a single interface, VSNEXPLORER’s, which dramatically reduces learning the curve for the system´s users.
In the second phase of the installation, VSN has provided the Thai channel with its News & Live Production solution, which is flexible and scalable, and covers the entire workflow for its journalists. This solution is based on VSNNEWS TERMINAL, platform where journalists can create and edit text and/or video news, publish rundowns via MOS, create and automatically register assets of projects and news in the MAM, and register the final pieces in the news video server.
For Live Production tasks, VSN has installed VSNLIVECOM, through which the PCR (Program Control Room) operators can display the rundowns which have been published via MOS from the studio, see the registered clips and control the playback of events for each program. Also, thanks to VSNPROMPTER, the operator can also list and load a given program’s rundown via MOS from VSNNEWS TERMINAL, and see real-time changes made in the rundowns.
