Softel And Harmonic Demonstrate Integrated System At The 2011 NAB Show

At the 2011 NAB Show, Softel will announce a pioneering new integrated workflow for captioning and subtitling based on integration with Omneon products from Harmonic.
The joint solution works within media management applications based on Harmonic's Omneon Media Application Server. The solution tightly integrates Softel's acclaimed Swift vTX ancillary data encoding/transcoding system, allowing such workflows to be initiated and controlled through the Media Application Server under a highly usable single common interface.
Bringing a range of new improvements to caption and subtitle operations, this comprehensive integration allows ancillary data in existing media assets to be extracted and used as metadata within the Omneon Media Application Server under a highly usable single common interface.
Bringing a range of new improvements to caption and subtitle operations, this comprehensive integration allows ancillary data in existing media assets to be extracted and used as metadata within the Omneon Media Application Server, streamlining the search and location of assets.
Additionally, sub-clips can be created automatically using captions as start/end markers. Captions and subtitles can be extracted, transcoded and inserted in any format through the common interface, with support for closed captioning, open subtitling, Teletext and Softel MultiText. The integrated solution considerably reduces process management and operational costs, and it provides enhanced workflow security by allowing only authorised users to make changes to vital media assets.
Ben Davenport, Solutions Marketing Manager at Harmonic, said: "We recognise that ancillary data is a vitally important piece of the broadcast puzzle and were determined to offer our customers a robust and comprehensive solution - one which would streamline processes and increase efficiency while minimising operations costs.
"We have worked with Softel for many years with great success and appreciate the expertise and foresight Softel brings to this complex market. Our join engineering teams have created a compelling and pioneering technology for our customers."
Sam Pemberton, Chief Executive Officer, Softel, said: "This integrated Harmonic/Softel solution will have a very big impact on the efficiency of caption and subtitle operations for users of the Omneon Media Application Server. Regardless of the source or destination format, users of this system will be able to search data transparently and complete all major captioning and subtitling workflows from within the Omneon Media Application Server operational environment."
The Omneon Media Application Server providers the foundation for the development and deployment of media-centric applications. By combining a single virtualised view of content across managed systems and fundamental media processing services, Media Application Server enables accelerated application development and minimises the complexity of media management. The system offers tiered user access to content stored on the Harmonic infrastructure, permitting users to manipulate assets as appropriate, with Media Application Server coordinating applications to optimise workflows.
Softel Swift xTX enables broadcasters and production facilities to repurpose content regardless of file format. It allows them to switch between SD and HD formats easily to facilitate multiplatform and worldwide distribution. Swift vTX supports an industry-leading array of files, wrappers and playout formats, facilitating the integration of ancillary data cross a wide range of media servers and editing solutions.
Softel MultiText enables early binding of multilingual subtitles to video assets, allowing broadcasters to be confident that automated or manual quality control processes can be completed well in advance of transmission.
(KMcA)