OmniBus Systems Enhances iTX For Internet TV And Streaming Applications

The award-winning provider of comprehensive broadcast automation, content management and workflow solutions, OmniBus Systems, has added new Internet TV and streaming capabilities to iTX, its software-based master control and playout applications.
Due for launch at IBC 2009, OmniBus iTX 1.3 incorporates key functionalities that make it an even more powerful platform for Internet TV and streaming applications, either as a stand-alone operation or as an extension of traditional broadcasting channels.
Already installed at the core of some of the industry's most innovative Internet TV services, iTX is the ideal platform for providers seeking the most flexible and powerful system available, without the high installation and operation costs associated with traditional technologies. iTX provides all the capabilities Internet TV providers need to produce a highly crafted transmission stream, including video/audio transitions, logo insertions, voice-overs and two-dimensional DVE moves for squeeze-and-tease effects.
It creates extra revenue opportunities by enabling the insertion of advertising based on schedule time, cue tones, GPIs, SCTE 104 or manual triggering. Format-independent and bit-rate-agnostic, iTX allows broadcasters or to mix both media formats and resolutions in the same schedule.
Compressed video files such as MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (H.264), DV25/50 and Windows Media - as well as wrapped formats such as MXF and QuickTime - are all supported in their native form and decoded by iTX during transmission. Broadcast HD, SD and lower bit rates can be mixed within a single schedule and are automatically up or down-converted by iTX. Live sources can be scheduled, mixed and branded along with recorded content.
Ian Fletcher, Chief Technical Officer of OmniBus Systems, said: "Internet TV presents it own challenges to providers, whether they are existing broadcasters or entrants to the market.
"Providers want to create services that deliver a high-quality user experience on a par with the standards of the best conventional broadcasting, but to do this with the traditional technologies used for the transmission chain is not cost-effective, and those technologies are also not the most appropriate for integrating into a data-intensive IT-based environment. iTX is the first solution to provide a full-featured platform for high-quality Internet TV, which allows providers to deal with requirements such as advertising substitution on Internet TV channels, replacing content that is not owned for Internet transmission, and altering or replacing graphic elements that may need to be displayed differently on computer screens."
OmniBus iTX is the next-generation solution replacing the conventional broadcast equipment used for the automation, master control and playout chain. iTX combines and exceeds all the functions of a conventional transmission chain in a single integrated suite of software applications running on low-cost and highly reliable IT servers.
With market-beating support for SD and HD, and an exceptional ability to integrate with third-party systems, iTX delivers the most powerful solution available while significantly reducing the investment required to launch and operate high-quality channels in broadcast, IPTV, mobile TV, disaster recovery and business continuity applications.
(KMcA/BMcC)