Broadcast Asia 2014: Masstech, Playbox to Show Integrated Playout System

PlayBox has joined the Masstech family and will come together at Broadcast Asia 2014 in Singapore for the first Asian demonstration of the company’s integrated playout system for broadcasters.

Boasting more than 14,000 channels on-air around the world, AirBox PRO and MassStore converge to enable an integrated playout system for all broadcasters. With the highest quality content presentation, our intelligent tiered architecture bridges Production, News, Library, Archive, Transmission, and new Media workflows. Demonstrations will include CaptureBox PRO multi-channel ingest server, the latest version of AirBox PRO playout and streaming automation, MassStore for News NRCS plugin and MassStore v8.0 streamlined asset management and digital archiving which was introduced in prototype at NAB.

“The AirBox integrated Automation Playout Server operates in concert with the Masstech Core Asset Management to enable the most complete and affordable solution,” comments Iulian Ionescu, Sales Director, PlayBox Technology. “CaptureBox PRO and AirBox created huge interest at NAB and will be demonstrated at Broadcast Asia as part of a complete working system controlled from a full unified graphic user interface.”

A successor to existing CaptureBox, CaptureBox PRO enables multiple channels of HD or SD content to be captured from HD/SD SDI digital feeds, analogue sources and MPEG transport streams. Four video sources can be monitored on a single screen and controlled via a new streamlined user interface. Audio levels can be monitored as loudness/true-peak displays and adjusted when required.

Content ingested to CaptureBox PRO is available for playback within a few seconds of capture commencing. The CaptureBox PRO feature set also includes capture-list import from third-party traffic systems, support for CEA-608/708 closed-captioning and automated VTR control via RS-422 with batch-capture listing.

AirBox provides automated content playout for satellite channels, cable head-ends, over-the-air broadcasters and corporate TV users. The latest version incorporates a GPU-enhanced graphics mixing engine which allows video rotation effects and depth-order laying effects to be performed in real time. Logo animation facilities are also added for applications such as titling, captioning or channel branding.

The audio capabilities of AirBox are expanded with support now provided for Dolby E and Dolby Digital Plus. In its automated playout mode, AirBox allows fixed-time scheduling for weeks ahead. AirBox can be used for live production as well as automated playout. Every clip in the playlist, except the one currently playing, can be trimmed, edited or repositioned seamlessly without stopping the current playout session.

Also making its Broadcast Asia debut will be the TimeShiftBox Duo time zone offset server. This has been developed in response to demands from broadcasters who need to re-transmit television channels across multiple time zones. It provides all the resources needed to perform accurate time offsets for any duration ranging from 10 seconds to more than one month. High bit-rate MPEG-2 4:2:2 I-frame compression ensures the maintenance of optimal video quality. TimeShiftBox is fully transparent to audio and ancillary data carried in the SDI stream. Optional character generation and graphics facilities are available.