Pharos Mediator redefines media management

Making its worldwide debut at IBC 2005, the Pharos Mediator media management system enables a complete terrestrial, satellite or cable broadcast channel to be controlled and operated from a remote internet terminal.
Scaleable for use by a single member of staff up to a team of thousands, it gives users of third-party broadcast playout services complete access to remotely stored content and full control over its preparation for transmission. The Mediator GUI itself is exceptionally easy to operate, based on screens which are both staff-specific and context-specific. Operators are prompted to enter exactly the required information for each specific task rather than having to click on pseudo-machine-controls.
Pharos Technical Director Spencer Rodd said: "Mediator allows broadcasters to react quickly to changing events while still enjoying the commercial benefits of employing a third-party playout facility. Mediator takes full advantage of content-driven software to generate control screens which are outstandingly easy to operate. The system keeps track of the state of each item and how much processing it requires before it is required for transmission. Rather than imposing a workflow on the user, Mediator gives its users the flexibility to work through their tasklist in whatever order they choose."
Pharos Mediator is based on a highly-scalable J2EE enterprise-class server environment allowing simultaneous access from several thousand operator workstations without slowing down. Each operator can view any programme or clip in the channel's archive, either in browse quality or at full resolution for quality-assurance. Mediator provides all the resources needed to monitor and track workflow and process across a large media centre. It can perform automated ingest and transfer, automated transcoding and low-resolution previewing under web browser control.
Mediator can also link disparate systems, audit library content bookings and tape movements, and handle the distribution of content for multi-channel multi-language services.
(GB)