Top Philippines Broadcaster To Install $1.5M Viz Ardome MAM System

Vizrt has announced a $1.5 million sale to GMA Network, the premiere broadcast television network in the Philippines, for its Viz Ardome media asset management software. GMA Network broadcasts to over 12 million households across the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

This sale supplements GMA Network’s first order for Vizrt products, including a complement of real-time broadcast graphics products purchased to cover the results of the Filipino national elections held on May 10, 2010.

With the recent purchase of Viz Ardome for media asset management, GMA Network intends to migrate to a tapeless, file-based workflow.  Viz Ardome is a modular, open, scalable media asset management platform that integrates seamlessly with Vizrt graphics products, broadcast automation systems, and petabytes of media storage.

“GMA remains steadfast in acquiring top-of-the-line technologies to produce high-caliber shows and deliver news and information in the shortest possible time,” says Felipe L. Gozon, GMA Network Chairman, President and CEO. “We have adopted many green practices within our compound. This time, by going tapeless, we are able to contribute further to the reduction of carbon footprint. This is part of our corporate social responsibility.”

The Viz Ardome MAM allows instant access to content and tight integration with leading production tools, including newsroom systems, nonlinear editing systems, traffic, and playout automation.  Among the systems that GMA Network plans to integrate with Viz Ardome are multiple Apple Final Cut Pro editing seats and the Harris D-Series broadcast automation system currently in use at its network operations center in Quezon City in Manila.

“We chose Viz Ardome because it’s a powerful, mature, software-based infrastructure that passed all the tests we conducted,” says Jay V. Fuentes, E.C.E., head of the MCTOA Division, Engineering Group at GMA Network. “During this ‘proof of concept’ testing, we determined that Viz Ardome met all technical parameters we set, including the operational speed and efficiency we must have.  Our intention is to use Viz Ardome as a way to manage our wide array of broadcast media assets, including syndicated programming, soap operas, primetime dramas, documentaries and archival content.”

Vizrt technicians are currently coordinating with GMA Network engineers, as well as Composite Technology, the systems integrator and dealer in Manila, to lay the groundwork for implementation of Viz Ardome within its facilities.

“We’re delighted that GMA Network has decided to base its new MAM infrastructure on Viz Ardome software,” says Martin Burkhalter, CEO, Vizrt. “This is a clear vote of confidence to our leading technology, as well as our efforts over the last years to build up our organization in Asia.  We are fully committed to support GMA’s goals to move to an efficient tapeless, file-based media asset management workflow.”