World class automation, channel in a box and
content management solutions for TV broadcasters

Neptune

Neptune is a fully featured automation system designed to automate the acquisition, media management and playout of your TV channels. This highly versatile, proven solution enables you to easily manage and adapt to the evolving needs of your broadcast facility. Whether you have multiple channels of ingest, diverse and incompatible device pairings, or complicated outgest workflows, Neptune's modules can adapt to meet your needs.

Neptune currently controls more than 500 channels in over 40 countries worldwide. Why? Our clients feel that the unique combination of proven system architecture, our enlightened approach to workflow and our willingness to listen and respond to their technical needs make Neptune a sound investment both fiscally and technologically.

Integrated Media Management
Neptune is one of the very few automation systems that can be supplied with its own Media Management control system. The Anchor Media Manager offers the ability to create workflows under one database and user interface, reducing the need for silos of technology to automate tasks. It is also able to interface to well known third party middleware systems, such as SGL, Front Porch Digital or Masstech. Neptune and Anchor can be supplied with fully integrated Media Browsing to support the growing use of proxy workflows, allowing multiple operators to be involved concurrently in handling editorial approval, selecting advertising insertion points, creating promos and highlights packages or producing re-versioned programs for delivery across multiple platforms.

Neptune incorporates an SQL server database, which stores information about the facility's material assets, such as the ID, title, duration, material type and other metadata fields, whilst also tracking the location of all assets.

Interface to newsroom systems
Pebble Beach Systems provides an integrated two-way interface to newsrooms systems using MOS gateway protocol. A News List GUI provides a flexible solution using multiple video server decoders for fast changing news and sports playout. The list can be populated using MOS and events can be played in sequence, in parallel or if required in any random order.

Fault Tolerance across the range
Pebble Beach Systems' products are extremely reliable and have been designed so that critical on-air functions, such as control of devices and playlists, are safeguarded in the event of client and network failure. To protect against device failure, Pebble Beach Systems offers customers many fault tolerant options, such as mirrored ingest or playout, N+n and dual parallel controllers.

List sync protection can run across multiple systems, with out-of-sync alerts to warn users of potential issues. N+n is also offered for the more cost-conscious broadcaster, where one or more devices can back up multiple playout channels. If a main device fails, one of the spares is switched in automatically and playout resumes from the point where the failure occurred. The database and the device controllers can be backed up, and automatic or manual changeover is possible in the event of failure.

Features:

• Modern, scaleable, client-server architecture
• Standard hardware and operating systems
• Large range of device drivers
• Multi-functional clients
• Scaleable to 100s of channels and devices
• Unique integrated Anchor Media Manager for nearline and data tape library control
• Integrated browse tools with encode and transcode control
• MOS interface for news playout
• API available for 3rd party integration
• TCPIP or serial device control
• BXF, MXF,AAF,V-ISAN compliant
• Robust, reliable and proven
• Interface to EPGs