AS Levira Invests In ON-Air Systems' PlayKast Komplete Solution

Estonian broadcaster network operator AS Levira has invested in ON-AIR Systems PlayKast Komplete solution for its new multi-channel playout centre. The solution was sold through ON-AIR's reseller Mediatrade Oy. It will enable Levira to play out many new channels, the first of which Swedish HD film channel Silver HD, went live in September 2007.
Mediatrade was the systems integrator for the project while ON-AIR provided software integration. The playout centre comprises equipment from Probel, Softel, Rorke Data and Sony, and is controlled centrally by ON-AIR's PlayKast Komplete.
"ON-AIR's PlayKast Komplete solution allows us to do everything, scheduling, editing, playout, subtitling, logging and reporting - from a single PC," said Indrek Lepp, director of division of TV & AV services at Levira.
"We also value the fact that PlayKast allows us to grow as we grow and to scale up our operations as we launch more channels. The selection of Mediatrade as a systems integrator was made through a long tender process because of their technical expertise and the quality and range of products they offer."
ON-AIR's K-series software is being used for ingest and playout. Sony VTRs are controlled remotely by ON-AIR Kapture for HD and SD material, while channel branding files are transferred directly to Levira from Sweden. Media files are stored centrally using Rorke Data's NAS and XenData's tape storage, while media transfer is controlled by ON-AIR's Media Library.
PlayKast plays out the video, audio and subtitle files for up to four languages. Audiovisual files are routed to Sweden over a dedicated media connection using JPEG2000 compression, with a separate path for subtitle files. In Sweden, the Softel subtitle inserter adds DVB subtitles to the ON-AIR stream. The whole signal is then compressed using MPEG-4 for uplink and encrypted transmission.
For further information:
www.on-air-systems.com
(DS)