Broadcasters Choose Enterprise-Class OmniBus iTX

OmniBus Systems has announced that more than 750 channels of OmniBus iTX have now been installed in critical applications with broadcasters around the world.
The groundbreaking enterprise-class iTX production and playout system has been chosen by some of the world's most prestigious broadcasters for its ability to drive flexible new prime time channels and power innovations such as the rollout of the industry's first 1080p24 HD service.
With a roster of users including AT&T, Turner, DIRECTV, CNN, ABC and the BBC, iTX is being used for large-scale, high-end applications that require the ability to integrate into complex environments, provide exchange of data with the broadcaster's business and traffic systems and respond instantly to input from a variety of sources.
OmniBus CTO Ian Fletcher said: "Applications such as these highlight the capabilities iTX has for giving broadcasters the tools to go far beyond what was possible with the previous generation of playout technology.
"These broadcasters are making big advances in the quality of their offering to the audience and in the sophistication of the operations needed to deliver it. So, far from using IT-based solutions to provide an unsophisticated and limited 'channel-in-a-box' functionality, they are exploiting the open and flexible potential of iTX to create entirely new enterprise-wide infrastructures and taking broadcasting into the next stage of its evolution."
iTX provides a level of integration and interactivity that sets it apart from other IT-based products, allowing broadcasters to use it at the core of operations that require a high degree of responsiveness to late-breaking events, last-minute interventions and instant changes to on-screen graphics and information displays.
Unlike other IT playout products, iTX has powerful facilities to enable the kind of regional opt-outs and commercial breaks across multiple regions with last-minute changes that today's broadcasters need to drive revenue.
iTX's ability to form a network-aware matrix of channels provides the outstanding resilience necessary for a prime time frontline broadcast infrastructure, with automated failover, comprehensive system-wide monitoring, alerts and diagnostics.
Tim Mendoza, Executive Vice President of OmniBus, said: "The rapid uptake of iTX by major broadcasters, including IPTV and DTH organisations, is a great endorsement for OmniBus. But even more important is the fact that these broadcasters are using iTX to do things that could not have been done before, for both technical and economic reasons.
"The introduction of other IT-based products that provide playout functionality clearly indicates that there is now a general migration toward open standards in broadcasting. The important issue for the industry to understand is that real technological advances and business advantages do not come from simply using an IT-based product that provides a limited function 'in a box'. The major broadcasters are showing that, with powerful enough IT technologies, such as iTX, they can explore entirely new revenue-producing avenues that would otherwise be too cost-prohibitive using legacy proprietary products."
Further information is available at: www.omnibus.tv.
(KMcA/BMcC)