Turner Broadcasting Builds Business Continuity Process With OmniBus iTX

OmniBus Systems, a leading provider of comprehensive automation and content management solutions to the broadcast industry, has announced that Turner Broadcasting System, a Time Warner company, has created a business continuity process (BCP) utilising OmniBus iTX, the groundbreaking IT-based production, automation and playout system.
The new system is designed to provide short-term backup and service replication in the event of unexpected or planned interruption to Turner's Atlanta-based entertainment channels.
A key requirement for the BCP process was the ability to mimic existing workflows of the primary channel and emulate a fully crafted on-screen look with nearly seamless channel identity.
Although based on completely different technology, the iTX-based system is able to replicate the output of Turner's conventional transmission chains with intact channel branding and full integration with the primary facility's traffic and metadata systems.
The iTX BCP system supports the AMWA AS02 MXF OP1b format chosen as a standard across all of Turner's facilities. The format allows Turner to reference multiple audio files for a single piece of video, providing greater versatility in handling commercials and multi-lingual broadcasts.
To protect against gaps in the programming where live content is temporarily unavailable due to disruption, iTX supplies evergreen content to fit the schedule. Content is automatically selected and inserted into the schedule in accordance with a set of business rules applied by the iTX software.
Turner already uses OmniBus iTX to drive its Turner Mobile service, which streams the Cartoon Network and Adult Swim entertainment channels to mobile viewers.
Mike Oldham, Cheif Executive Officer, OmniBus Systems, said: "The entire issue of financial impact caused by outages is a serious one for any broadcaster. The loss of subscriber and advertising revenue and the cost of insurance against liability, can have a major impact on the bottom line.
"In this context, a well-implemented business continuity system delivers significant value to a business, as well as reassurance and operational flexibility. We are delighted that Turner Broadcasting has extended its deployment of iTX to create this innovative and versatile BCP system."
iTX BCP is a specially configured variation of iTX designed for business continuity process (disaster recovery) applications that includes media replication, fully redundant mirroring and remote operation after evacuation.
Based on OmniBus iTX software running on standard IT hardware, iTX BCP sources content automatically from existing video servers, transferring content as required to a remote location where an iTX playback engine interprets the transmission schedules to provide a parallel service.
For interuptions to live events such as basketball or other major league sports, it automatically inserts appropriate existing content to fill gaps in the schedule for which content based on the duration required and business rules defined for that channel.
Further information is available at: www.omnibus.tv
(KMcA)