It’s all about the full Integration

Interview with Baran Bilişim General Manager Fırat Güney in the 149th issue of Broadcasterinfo dated March 2017.

We have prepared a file within the scope of the project of the month. We had an interview with both the system integrator company and the officials of the company that commissioned the project. In this part of our conversation, we received information about the details of the project from the project integrator, Baran Bilişim General Manager Fırat Güney. In the other part of our conversation, we received information on the progress of the project from Doğuş Media Group Technical Services Assistant General Manager Barış Özbey, who invested in the project.

1. Project Name:
Doğuş Publishing Group Transformation Project

2. Purpose of the Project:
Replacing the “MAM, News and Broadcast Automation” systems, which have been used for a long time and developed in-house, with world standard systems.

3. Scope of the Project:
Establishing Arvato VPMS MAM, Annova Open Media news automation and Harmonic Polaris broadcast automation systems to work in integration with other existing systems, defining new workflows and configuring the systems accordingly.

4. Project Integrator:
Baran Information Technologies Electronic Publishing Import Export Industry and Trade Limited Company

5. Start Time of the Project:
We have been meeting with Doğuş Publishing Group since 2013 regarding this project. With Barış Özbey’s appointment as CTO in 2015, we found an opportunity again, and we finalized the products at 2015 IBC, shook hands and signed the employment contract in November 2015. Within the scope of the project, the first equipment was delivered in December 2015. It would not be wrong to say December 2015 for the start time.

6. Project Completion Time:
In September 2016, the first test broadcast was made with Kral World, and in November 2016, Kral Pop started broadcasting from the new system 24/7. In February 2017, NTV and NTV Spor started broadcasting through the new system we established. The transformation of other channels is still ongoing.

7. Technical Specifications of the Project:
The agency etc. with which the institution is contracted. It is a directory of systems that are fully integrated with each other and work in international standards with a workflow management of live/tape images from companies and all actual and live images produced in-house.

To explain the term “Full Integrated”; All processes necessary for ingesting, editing, publishing, archiving and re-using images in targeted broadcasting are both dynamic, disciplined and stable.

Let us briefly describe the products and capabilities used in the creation of this project below.

The project was created with new generation products of industry-leading brands that can be fully integrated with each other, as preferred by the world’s leading publishers, by preserving existing hardware investments with minor revisions.

Harmonic (Omneon), Arvato, Annova, Pepple Beach System, Telestream and Adobe products have been provided to work in harmony for the targeted broadcasting quality and the integrated system. By this means, all elements, from institutionalization to business satisfaction, could be redefined.

The data (video/audio) that is started to be ingested can be edited immediately in Adobe Premiere editing sets within “9 seconds”, as well as reporters, programmers, etc. who do not use montage software but need cut montage. Thanks to Arvato’s VPMS Media Center application, staff can also edit in Low-Res or Hi-Res if desired. Especially, installers who edit with Adobe Premiere on Low Res can reach the results in Hi-Res with the render farm created inside the structure. In this way, the effort spent on renewing the time management and editing sets every year can be called a stop. Although renewed every year, performance investments for assembly sets that have been labeled with the word “slow” are becoming a thing of the past.

Video files created by editing while ingest is in progress can be broadcast via Open Media news automation or directly via the VPMS Media Center interface. The Low-Res version of all videos transferred to the system is automatically created by VPMS. In this way, users can search for videos, read them, see their keyframes, enter new metadata, regardless of location, via the web browser (Explorer, Firefox, etc.).

Users can edit these Low-Res videos via VPMS EditMate. In this way, they can easily perform their transactions without creating an excessive load on the network and without being dependent on the hardware they use. This is possible because all rendering is done on back-end and scalable servers. In addition, all videos ingested into the system can be sent to various predefined workflow processes. In this way, for example, a video can be sent simultaneously to both broadcast and internet (website, Youtube, Facebook, etc.). News automation and broadcast automation can instantly use any file ingested into the MAM system.

It integrates with the in-house developed broadcast streaming software MAM and advertising reservation software Maestro, allowing the operator to prepare broadcast streams in the system. While the broadcast streams are being prepared, the related “Secondary Events” are also integrated into the broadcast stream. This way, logo changes, KJ, and other graphic actions during broadcast are automatically triggered by the broadcast automation software Polaris.

8. The Producers of the Project:
Annova Open Media in news automation, Arvato VPMS, EditMate and ClipJOKEY, whose MAM solution belongs to Bertalsman Group. Polaris Advance products and solutions of Harmonic company were used in broadcast automation.

9. Stages of the Installation Phase of the Project:
It is a process that starts immediately after the signing of the contract. Under the leadership of the project team of Baran Bilişim, we had meetings and workshops with the system engineers of the manufacturers involved in the project and the Doğuş Media Group project team, which formed our current roadmap. In these meetings, the system continued with the installation of the systems developed and designed after the necessary equipment was provided by concentrating on the system structure, work flows and the determination of the necessary equipment. The first demo and test system was completed in August and our test broadcasts on Kral World channel started in September. In the ongoing process, our system, which was changed and developed in line with the solution of the problems encountered and the requests from Doğuş, became fully ready for publication in November 2016.

10. Firsts of the Project in Turkish Broadcasting:
For the first time, news production supported from start to finish (Ingest to play-out; MAM, news automation system, broadcast automation system, advertising reservation, radio and web integration), MOS (immediate reflection of the changes made on the news to the news) system is an important first.

11. Project Contributions:
Ensuring centralized monitoring of all videos entering the system. Distributing the videos entering the system to different channels in desired formats. Deduplicated video formats. Central encoding/trancoding system. Reportable processes. Accelerating and singularizing video production system. Optimized storage usage. Automated archive processes. Making maximum use of the Internet and mobile environments. Integration with cloud systems. Accelerating problem detection processes with central monitoring. Being open to development and new workflows.

12. Compatibility of the Project with Future Investments:
The features of the installed systems greatly facilitate the installation of “TV Facility Management” systems that are planned to be installed in the future. Thanks to monitoring and work-process management (Workflow Management), which cannot be done in the old system, the desired data from various points of the system can be collected to be processed later and to create new work flows.