Slovene Media Operator TSmedia Chooses Front Porch Digital for Content Management at Planet TV

Front Porch Digital announced that TSmedia d.o.o., the media arm of Telekom Slovenia Group, has installed a DIVArchive content storage management (CSM) system and DIVAdirector media asset management (MAM) system in its facility in Ljubljana, Slovenia. TSmedia is using the system to archive, review, and restore assets for the Planet TV channel, which TSmedia launched on Nov. 5, 2012, with a full schedule of movies, series, documentaries, UEFA CHL, and reality shows, as well as live evening news, sports, and weather.

To manage Planet TV’s wide scope of content, TSmedia needed a system that handled the archive in a very simple way while still supporting requests for content in many possible formats. The goal was to set up a fully automated station with a completely tapeless workflow in order to minimize the number of people required to operate the station, and at the same time minimize the possibility of human error.

“Like so many broadcasters in our market, we operate on a very limited budget, but we still wanted a premium technology that would allow us to store and index content easily,” said Marko Kroflic, a senior developer at TSmedia who was responsible for systems integration on Planet TV. “Now with DIVArchive and DIVAdirector, we have a system that provides automated file retrieval, library collection, and restoration of clips back to our news system for editing without any loss of quality. We were able to set up a digital archive at a fraction of the cost of big enterprise archives — and the best part is the system can be very easily expanded as our needs require and budget allows.”

DIVArchive resides among TSmedia’s automation system, video servers, production system, and network-attached storage (NAS). Users rely on DIVAdirector’s Web interface to access the archive and review clips. The DIVArchive system speeds up the workflow by automating media-clip archival from the video servers to the NAS. Every part of the system architecture can easily expand in order to support additional channels.

“TSmedia is our first customer in Slovenia, and their installation is proof positive that DIVASolutions are accessible to small broadcasters,” said Rino Petricola, Front Porch Digital senior vice president and managing director. “TSmedia has started with an extremely small but highly scalable solution that is exactly tailored to their current requirements, which made it possible for them to keep their initial investment in line with the available budget. As the channel and operation matures, DIVArchive will grow with it.”