Sparrowhawk Media installs SysMedia technology

SysMedia has provided an innovative, cost-effective and time efficient solution to Sparrowhawk Media, owners of the international (non-US) versions of the Hallmark Channel, for the creation and carriage of a teletext programme listings service on its Scandinavian feed.
The system evaluation and selection has been overseen by Chris Pollard of Chris Pollard Broadcast Consulting.
Hallmark Channel, which is carried across Europe on a wide variety of cable systems, is originated in Denver, Colorado, then sent via fibre to the UK where it is uplinked to Eutelsat’s Hotbird 3 satellite. However, programme information – including synopses - is compiled as a spreadsheet in London.
SysMedia was contracted to supply a tailor-made solution so that viewers can access programme information for the next 24-hours simply by pressing the text button.
"The solution needed to be highly cost-effective and automated in order to fulfil the requirements and this is precisely what SysMedia supplied," explained Pollard.
Once collated in the UK, the XLS data is sent to Denver where a SysMedia Data Feed Handler automatically picks up the spreadsheets and creates the teletext pages, which are inserted into the transmission stream by a SysMedia TDG7 (Teletext Data Generator). The static index pages are created with a WinSprite page editing system while the rest of the system operates totally automatically.
“SysMedia has enabled Hallmark Channel to achieve what it set out to do: to provide a significant value-add to its viewers in a technologically elegant way. The company has been helpful throughout the project,” said Pollard.
“We are pleased to have been able to supply this tailored solution and to work with a channel of this stature. This solution clearly shows the flexibility of our technology and its cost-effectiveness,” concluded Andrew Lambourne, SysMedia’s CEO.
(GB)