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Omneon is a leading provider of media server and active
storage solutions used to support the acquisition,
production, management and distribution of digital media
content. The company's products allow broadcasters and media
production facilities to streamline their workflows and
capitalize on the transition to a file-based environment.
With a proven track record of integrating IT and broadcast
best practices with advanced system architectures, Omneon
has established a leadership position in the market for
providing customers with infrastructure solutions that are
flexible, scalable, reliable and highly cost-effective.
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Free White Papers
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The Omneon ProBrowse Advantage:
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Improving Productivity by Energizing the Tapeless Workflow
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May 23, 2006
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Abstract
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The television industry is in a period of immense change. Multiple
transitions--both in technology and business models--are occurring
simultaneously. The emergence of HDTV, new program delivery platforms,
and a file-based IT broadcast infrastructure are challenging
broadcasters throughout the world.
Recognizing this, Omneon has built its reputation on delivering highly
reliable media server systems that leverage the advantages of an IT
infrastructure. Just ask the variety of public and commercial
broadcasters that have streamlined their operations and become more
productive by addressing their ingest, production and playout needs
with the highly popular Spectrum™ media server.
Indeed, the television industry has already received huge productivity
gains through the use of server technology. Yet, there's been a
continuing need to identify, retrieve and manage the large amount of
video clips that arrive daily and must be handled quickly and with the
least amount of effort. Media companies also require that a wide range
of broadcast personnel, beyond the technical staff, be able to
conveniently view and manipulate this growing library of high-bit-rate
media clips stored on the server.
Omneon has developed ProBrowse™--a comprehensive media proxy system
that automatically organizes clips while making them available to
virtually every networked desktop in a broadcast facility or content
distribution playout center.
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The television industry is in a period of immense change. Multiple transitions--both in technology and business models--are occurring simultaneously. The emergence of HDTV, new program delivery platforms, and a file-based IT broadcast infrastructure are challenging broadcasters throughout the world.
Never before has the need to put in place a highly automated, efficient workflow been so important to the broadcaster's bottom line. The traditional television production methods of the tape-based era are proving wasteful and inefficient in today's fast changing multi-channel environment. Clearly, the file-based, networked IT facility is the foundation of the next generation of television broadcasting and many are rushing to embrace it.
Recognizing this, Omneon has built its reputation on delivering highly reliable media server systems that leverage the advantages of an IT infrastructure. Just ask the variety of public and commercial broadcasters that have streamlined their operations and become more productive by addressing their ingest, production and playout needs with the highly popular Spectrum™ media server.
Indeed, the television industry has already received huge productivity gains through the use of server technology. Yet, there's been a continuing need to identify, retrieve and manage the large amount of video clips that arrive daily and must be handled quickly and with the least amount of effort. Media companies also require that a wide range of broadcast personnel, beyond the technical staff, be able to conveniently view and manipulate this growing library of high-bit-rate media clips stored on the server.
Once again, Omneon has met the challenge. To extend the value and effectiveness of all existing Spectrum servers, Omneon has developed ProBrowse™--a comprehensive media proxy system that automatically organizes clips while making them available to virtually every networked desktop in a broadcast facility or content distribution playout center.
With ProBrowse, workflow is dramatically enhanced through easily and quickly accessible "picons" (picture icons) for staff previews, clip selections, research and approvals. ProBrowse allows access to low-resolution video content ("proxies") and metadata while the full resolution version hits any designated Omneon Spectrum server on the broadcaster's IT network. It enables a clip to be viewed and manipulated even before it has been fully ingested into the server. That's the kind of speed and usability that media professional require as they embrace the digital world.
Through standard Gigabit Ethernet connections, ProBrowse can be deployed across multiple Omneon Spectrum media servers regardless of their physical location. This means video clips stored in a directory on a Spectrum server across town (or across the world) can be accessed as easily as if they were sitting in the next room. And this same server network, based on proven Omneon technology, allows anyone with a Windows or Macintosh personal computer to view low bandwidth proxies of video clips from any location on the facility network. So the benefits to a facility are realized by both the technical staff as well as those in the administration and traffic departments
ProBrowse consists of two hardware components: (1) a server to store low-bandwidth content (proxies and picons), synchronize content and maintain a database holding key metadata for rapid browsing, and (2) proxy generators that transcode content coming from the full resolution media server. The ProBrowse system proxies content in all media server clip directories selected by the user. This can be seen in the diagram in Figure 1 at the top of next page.
ProBrowse interfaces seamlessly with any Omneon Spectrum server, automatically generating these proxies from newly ingested content in pre-selected directories. Encoded content can be in a variety of video formats-- HD or SD, baseband, transport streams, IP or FTP. ProBrowse doesn't care. The system's ProBrowse Proxy Generators transcode any DV/MPEG-2 (including HDV), DV or DVCPro50, and up to 16 channels of uncompressed audio is also supported. The content may be wrapped with either QuickTime or MXF wrappers. Full resolution content may ingested in real-time or come in through IP/Ethernet. ProBrowse doesn't care. The system's ProBrowse Proxy Generators transcode a wide variety of video formats and bit rates, so users have the freedom to choose common, industry-standard video and audio suitable for desktop browsing.
As soon as selected material arrives in one of the monitored directories on the media server, the ProBrowse Server alerts the Proxy Generators to the newly captured content. The appropriate Proxy Generator instantly goes to work, grabbing the new full-resolution material over the GigE network from the Spectrum media server. The transcoding function turns the ingested video into the proxy format, automatically generating a picon from the first non-black frame of video. The proxy video can be accessed from the ProBrowse Proxy Server immediately--even during the transcode process.
ProBrowse stores proxies as industry-standard MPEG 1 video. This format was chosen to allow the widest range of users to interact with the proxy content. This means that administrative personnel can access material on any standard office enterprise network without special software. The Windows Media® Player on Microsoft Windows® PCs and the QuickTime® Player on Apple Macintosh® computers will allow users to view all proxies with the first two channels of audio and even an accurate SMPTE time code readout.
For broadcast users requiring deeper interaction with the media content, Omneon ProBrowse Desktop is a comprehensive set of Windows software applications for accessing, managing and viewing proxies. The first of these tools, ProBrowse Explorer, uses a familiar Explorer-style interface and allows users to find and organize content, and add user-definable metadata. The second component is the ProBrowse Player. This Windows-based viewer software provides frame-accurate location and video scrub, the ability to select any frame in the clip as the picon, and the ability to mark "in" and "out" points of clips.
The changes made in the Desktop applications are automatically reflected in the directory of the full resolution content on the Spectrum server. Metadata is stored both in the ProBrowse Server database as well as in the full resolution clip, so it stays with the clip forever and can be easily accessed for future reference.
This simple, flexible user interface allows anyone--whether in the front office or an edit bay--to have full access to all content as it appears on the broadcast server. This low-resolution content can also be archived and retrieved at will.
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ProBrowse Explorer Screens - Clip Listing, Picon and Player views
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Sophisticated yet intuitive video clip management is a key strength of the ProBrowse system. Users of ProBrowse Desktop can simply double-click a picon and the proxy will be opened in a player window. The ProBrowse Explorer application can be used to search for material by such attributes as clip name, title, comment, description, modification or duration. Clips can be played in their entirety, from "in" to "out" point, or looped.
Metadata, may be added, changed, customized and synchronized with the original full resolution content on the media server. An integrated synchronization capability ensures that metadata modified or added by users in the low-resolution proxies will be applied to the full-resolution versions within the Omneon Spectrum server.
ProBrowse has the capability to transcode video clips as they arrive at the media server. The proxy grows as the clip grows. Using the desktop application, operators can view the full length proxy as it emerges. This differs from some other media players that can view only the part of the proxy available when the player was opened. ProBrowse doesn't have that limitation--once open it allows access to the user to refresh the view at his or her convenience as the proxy grows.
The Omneon ProBrowse system is robust, fast and extremely reliable. A standard ProBrowse Server can internally store up to 1,000 hours of proxy material. To expand its capacity, users add simply storage systems as needed. Scalability is easy and cost effective, enabling the system to grow as the need arises.
The ProBrowse system uses RAID backup for redundancy and produces--twice a day--a full system snapshot to save to any location. Since metadata is copied instantly back to the original full resolution server, an extra layer of protection is created.
Conclusion
The ProBrowse system works at the speed of news, getting clips into the system fast and efficiently. A single ProBrowse Generator is capable of transcoding DVCPRO 25 video with four channels of audio at twice realtime rate. As the needs of a broadcaster grow, additional generators can be added to the system to handle increased proxy generation load.
Omneon ProBrowse is a scalable, flexible proxy system that can expand with the needs of broadcasters and producers of digital media. It can also be scaled independently of an Omneon Spectrum system to support additional proxy generation or a growing proxy library. Also, if additional ingest channels are added to an Omneon Spectrum system, additional proxy generators can be added to a ProBrowse system if needed to accommodate the proxy generation for the new material.
ProBrowse unleashes the power and flexibility of any Omneon Spectrum server by extending access to its directories to a wide range of personnel involved in the broadcast workflow. Omneon customers can now get more out of their Spectrum server than they ever thought possible, turning a standard video server into a valuable media management system. That means a fast return on investment, since many aspects of the broadcast chain are streamlined thanks to the power of the ProBrowse system. It also facilitates the repurposing of assets in a clear and concise way.
The power to instantly view low bandwidth proxies of clips as the full resolution content is being ingested offers broadcasters a distinct advantage, especially in times of breaking news or other quickly evolving events.
As a search tool, it allows researchers and content producers to easily navigate and search huge libraries of material. It eliminates hours of tedious tape cassette viewing to find "the right clip" when you need it most.
As a method of sharing clips in television production environments, it offers a powerful new tool for workgroups to save time and energy without unnecessary dubbing and preview screenings.
With its unique set of features and flexibility, the Omneon ProBrowse system goes a long way towards energizing the broadcast workflow and making it work for you. Embrace the next generation of television technology and unleash the power of Omneon ProBrowse in your broadcast facility or playout center. The results in improved operations and getting the most out of your content will be astounding.
More information about Omneon servers and the ProBrowse system are available online at http://www.omneon.com.
Omneon Contact Information
www.omneon.com | US Headquarters:
965 Stewart Drive
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
ph +1 866.861.5690
ph +1 408.585.5000
fx +1 408.585.5099 | Europe:
20 Campbell Court
Bramley, Basingstoke
Hampshire RG26 5EG UK
ph +44 (0) 1256.884.450
fx +44 (0) 1256.880.900 | Japan:
1-21-3 Ebisu, Suite #101,
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-001
ph +81 03.5488.7425
fx +81 03.5488.7433 | Asia/Pacific:
20 Loyang Crescent
Singapore 508984
ph +65 6548.0500
fx +65 6548.0504 | | Omneon, Omneon Video Networks, and the Omneon logo are registered trademarks of Omneon Video Networks, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of the respective companies. Copyright ©2005 Omneon Video Networks, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in USA | November 2005. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice or obligation. WPHD-051107 |
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