TSL Awarded NRK Contract To Produce Tapeless Production Platform

Following a thorough bid management and technical review process, TSL has confirmed that it has been awarded the contract and is already underway with a major project to provide a unique tapeless production platform for NRK’s (Norsk Rikskringkasting) Programme Bank project.
NRK, which currently broadcasts two channels NRK1 and NRK2, as well as 12 regional stations, is Norway’s national broadcaster headquartered in Oslo. NRK selected TSL following a lengthy and rigorous bid selection process, which saw the two companies look in detail at the best way to achieve NRK’s vision of a future broadcast workflow. TSL will oversee the design, integration, implementation and testing of Programme Bank, which begins roll-out in January 2007. The contract between the two companies was celebrated at an official signing ceremony at broadcaster’s headquarters on November 22nd and a permanent site office known as Fort Knox is already established. Programme Bank will also introduce production and transmission facilities for a new NRK Norwegian language channel which will be launched at a later date.
The Programme Bank platform will be based around a next-generation OmniBus G3 Opus Media Asset Management system. The system will comprise a fully integrated multi-tiered storage system to manage the various media lifecycles with a large data tape library, generic IT storage and Omneon’s MediaGrid and Spectrum server technology. OmniBus will in turn manage a third party digital archive management sub-system based around DIVA from Front Porch Digital. The data tape library will involve a Sun StorageTek StreamLine SL8500 library system with an initial capacity of 1.3PB or around 60,000 hours (and expandable to around 5.4PB in the future). Production browse technology will be provided by IPV using the latest generation Soyuz encoders and the new X Code module, and OmniBus will add a new web client facility.
Expansion to NRK’s video and audio post production capacity will be provided by 40 Apple Creative Studio systems running directly on the MediaGrid to offer large-scale edit in place workflow.
Russell Grute, TSL’s Head of Sales, commented: “NRK is a forward-thinking and progressive broadcaster, which has a strong vision of its future workflow. During negotiations over the last few months, NRK and TSL translated into a practical system, the concepts based on NRK’s many years of planning and research into digital tapeless production. They selected TSL for its in-depth experience with other similar and current projects and the strength of its proposal for the technical design and the project plan.”
Grute continued: “The final design optimises NRK’s existing investment in systems, such as the Quantel SQ based newsroom, by integrating them into the Programme Bank core media management and technical infrastructure alongside new Apple facilities. This was achieved by the balanced use of MXF and QuickTime using a data rate of 50Mbps and IMX compression, meaning that the system will function mainly by the use of Transwrapping between different vendor’s equipment. This technology will be provided by Telestream, using various configurations of their Flip Factory software.”
Grute added: “NRK’s own in-house technological acumen and real on-the-job research into the use of technologies such as XDCam and High Definition will elevate Programme Bank as one of the pioneering non-linear production workflow projects.”
Since 1986, TSL has worked at the heart of independent broadcast systems integration helping to develop the technical and operational foundations for leading broadcasters worldwide. Through its extensive, international systems experience, TSL also designs, manufactures and sells a unique range of TSL-branded products.
(DS)