[SBE] updated PEG channel playout to cable company

[Joel Wilhite]

Hello David,

I saw your post. Harmonic offers both storage/play-out and encoder distribution solutions used through-out the world.
I realize you mentioned video below but the feed leaving your facility going to the Cable and DSL guy is an IP or ASI interface?

Happy 4th,


     Joel Wilhite
     Senior System Designer
     North American Broadcast Sales

     4300 North First St. San Jose, CA 95134
     T + 1 408 490 6403 • M + 1 408 839 5948
     24/7 CUSTOMER SUPPORT
     888 MPEG TWO

     www.harmonicinc.com

    [cid:image002.jpg at 01CF9604.88918EF0]

From: SBE [mailto:sbe-bounces at sbe.org] On Behalf Of David Baker
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2014 2:27 PM
To: sbe at sbe.org
Subject: [SBE] updated PEG channel playout to cable company

Hello everyone,

I need to come up with a plan to update our signal transmission to Comcast / AT&T, and make an equipment list for budgeting.  Can someone provide some guidance as to the most efficient way to upgrade our playout at this stage of technology?  We have one channel dedicated to 24/7 programming and another channel reserved for a digital bulletin board (both analog signals).  I also need to expect not much more than $50,000 per year to spend for the next few years.

Currently, our playout involves sending composite A/V from an aging Leightronix PRO-16 router to even older Sci. Atl. modulators, and from there it hits a transmitter feeding a fiber link to Comcast.  The same A/V from playout is going to a pair of AT&T's encoders.

My hope was to create SD digital 16:9 channels, but maybe it's time to skip right to HD.  I'm not sure Comcast will allow us an HD channel at this time, and not sure what AT&T could provide us through UVerse.  I also have to be concerned with the handling of different aspect ratios since we show content from many different taxing bodies at various levels of production sophistication.  Our in-house production can acquisition and edit in HD, as well as route and switch HD video.  Studio cams are SD-SDI - Sony D55's.

Is it imperative at this stage to update to an SDI playout system first?  I realize I'll need to worry about scaling all content into a 16:9 space, converting to some type of transport, and then linking that transport to the fiber node.  Does AFD also need to figure in anywhere here?  I'm very concerned the viewer should get an optimized picture no matter what aspect we are sending.

My initial thought was to not upgrade the Leightronix yet, due to both the relatively large extra cost and the fact that we get a lot of content from providers on DVD that gets played out analog, so it would all have to be converted to digital on playback - more cost.  I'm also not sure how fast we can get many of the providers to get us digital files of their programming instead.  So I thought to start with the analog playout and invest in A/D for that and process from there.

I know there is a lot I'm asking here, but if anyone can provide a general starting approach to this issue, I'd appreciate it very much!

--
Thank you,

David Baker, CBTE<http://www.sbe.org/sections/descriptions.php#CBTE_CBRE>, CBNT<http://www.sbe.org/sections/descriptions.php#CBNT>
Media Production Coordinator
Community Relations Dept.
Village of Addison
office: 630-693-7554
cell: 708-935-7829
www.addisonadvantage.org<http://www.addisonadvantage.org>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://seven.pairlist.net/pipermail/sbe/attachments/20140702/eb30defe/attachment.html>