Raj Television Network Selects Omneon Spectrum Servers

Omneon, a leading provider of scalable media server and active storage systems, has announced that the Raj Television Network, South India's leading Tamil broadcaster for news and entertainment, has deployed the Omneon Spectrum media server for multichannel SD broadcasting, including four-channel ingest and six-channel playout.
The move means Raj Television can now store as much as 10 days or 500 hours of programming in digital files rather than on videotape, enabling automated rather than manual playout with corresponding improvements to efficiency, reliability and broadcast quality.
At Raj Television, the Spectrum systems interface with AP ENPS for electronic news gathering, Apple Final Cut Pro for editing and Orad DVG for three-dimensional graphics and channel branding.
Omneon partner and local systems integration company Shaf Broadcast Pvt implemented the project, which went on air in June 2008.
Founded in 1994, Raj Television operates two channels with diverse programming that includes music videos, movies, game shows, talk shows, serials, comedy and news.
The installation of the Spectrum servers is part of a facility upgrade corresponding with the rollout of Raj's first 24-hour news station, which began broadcasting in June 2008. In addition to an increasing viewership in South India and Sri Lanka, Raj Television has recently expanded its reach into the Tamil community in Malaysia via Astro-DTH, a major direct-to-home player in the region.
Mr Ravindran, Director of Raj Television, said: "The Spectrum system simplifies our operation considerably by enabling us to schedule and perform simultaneous ingest and playout and by affording real-time control of our complex broadcast workflow.
"We have been impressed with how easy it has been for us to learn to use the system. Significant benefits were experienced and almost immediately, not only for our team, but also for our viewers, who saw the improvement in relability and quality."
The Omneon Spectrum system enables broadcasters moving to a tapeless environment to use the latest digital technologies to increase efficiency without increasing the complexity of their operation.
The Spectrum media server is the industry's most scalable, reliable and cost effective for television production, playout and archive applications - a solution that is transforming the economics of broadcasting for television operations worldwide.
(KMcA)