Month: September 2018

testttt

Pebble Beach Systems Demonstrates Business Continuity using Orca

Posted on | by PebbleAdmin

 NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

 IBC 2018 Preview
Stand number: 8.B68
14-18 September 2018
RAI, Amsterdam

Local playout system fully synchronised with an identical system running in the AWS public cloud delivers DR functionality without compromise

Weybridge, UK, September 10th, 2018 – At IBC 2018 on stand 8.B68, Pebble Beach Systems, a leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, will be demonstrating its Orca virtualised playout solution in a full cloud-based Business Continuity application, with one channel running locally on the Pebble stand, and the backup channel running in the AWS public cloud.
Disaster Recovery has been a catalyst in the growing adoption of virtualised playout. However, this often means a cut down operation compared to the main facility, offering limited functionality and running evergreen generic material that buys time to get the proper schedule back on air. A business continuity system like the one Pebble will be demonstrating at IBC ensures there is absolutely no difference between the main and the virtualised DR systems: operators have access to the exact same interface, features and devices, using what is effectively a software playout layer. And most importantly, this means that viewers will not experience any difference in their programming should the need to switch between sites arise.
Changes to the main system playlists, including control actions, will be synced to an AWS-based Orca system, thereby removing the need for operators to manage the backup system separately. Automatic media and metadata synchronisation ensures that that playout can quickly switch between main and backup sites, and that media is always retrievable and ready to play in the event of a disaster.
Orca is a software-only all IP virtual implementation of the Pebble Beach Systems’ Dolphin integrated channel platform, running under the control of its flagship Marina automation software, deployed in a virtual machine (VM). Channels can be launched and integrated into a running Marina automation system very quickly, making it ideal for temporary and event-based services. While this solution is being demonstrated at IBC using AWS, the disaster recovery system can be deployed to anywhere compute power exists, including private data centres.

“Pebble will be demonstrating a full Business Continuity use case where the channel output and functionality remain the same, even in a disaster scenario. The Orca system running on a VM at IBC will be fully synchronised with an identical Orca system running in the AWS cloud. And centralised monitoring for both systems, via our Lighthouse web-based dashboard, displays low latency video previews and immediate alerts of errors, delivering peace of mind for continued operations if the worst should happen,” explains Stuart Wood, Technical Product Specialist at Pebble.

To mitigate against unreliable network connections, the system will utilise the SRT video transport protocol which enables the delivery of high-quality and secure, video across the public Internet. “With advances in IP technology such as SRT, customers now have the flexibility to select where they run their Disaster Recovery operation from, and the ability to switch between IP video streams much faster, compared to the traditional DR systems based on satellite distribution,” added Wood.
Both the main and backup systems, while totally separate, are monitored from a single centralised web-based dashboard using Pebble’s Lighthouse remote management and monitoring tools. This shows both playlists side by side, and lists any errors to provide actionable information on each system. Low latency monitoring using NDIÒ technology delivers a confidence preview of each system to the Lighthouse UI without the delays incurred by having to manage uncompressed video.
NDI® is a registered trademark of NewTek, Inc.

testttt

Pebble Beach Systems partners with EditShare showcasing shared storage

Posted on | by PebbleAdmin

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
 IBC 2018 Preview
Stand number: 8.B68
14-18 September 2018
RAI, Amsterdam
Improved redundancy, flexibility for preview channels, fast turnaround of late arriving content
Weybridge, UK, August 31st, 2018 – At IBC 2018 on stand # 8.B68, Pebble Beach Systems will showcase integration between its Dolphin integrated channel device and XStream EFS shared storage options from storage and workflow experts EditShare.

“We are encountering use cases for shared storage more and more frequently as the user base for Dolphin continues to grow and broadcasters seek to add to the resilience and flexibility of their operations,” says Alison Pavitt, Marketing Manager at Pebble Beach Systems. “EditShare has a huge amount of experience in production and playout workflows, and they offer guaranteed stream performance for these mission-critical applications. This makes their flexible and robust shared storage options a great fit in the Dolphin deployments we design with our customers.”

Dolphin is a compact and cost-effective integrated channel device which, operating under the control of Pebble’s Marina automation, delivers highly automated integrated audio, video and graphics functionality for ingest, channel branding and frame-accurate multi-channel playout. The flexible pipeline design enables the virtual output chain to be customised for each channel, specifying the order in which functions including graphics, effects, and aspect ratio conversion are handled within the system.
Having access to external shared storage which has backups of all locally stored content is an effective solution in a number of key use cases. In so-called ‘N+m’ redundancy scenarios there may be a number of channels playing out on Dolphin devices, with an additional spare device in the system as a backup. If any one of the main channels fails, the spare would be deployed, but there would inevitably be a delay while the content is copied across to its local storage.
Similarly, it’s possible that the additional ‘spare’ device may be wanted for use as a preview channel, but impractical delays are incurred if, again, content has to first be copied to its local storage.
With EditShare XStream EFS shared storage in the system, any Dolphin device can instantly access the content it needs to either playout the channel or to view a preview. And for fast turnaround applications, late arriving content onto the shared storage – either by file delivery or completed edits – can be played out immediately on any channel.
Architecting a system to have both local and remote storage also gives additional operational flexibility, enabling playout to continue, for example, during maintenance periods.

“Mission critical broadcast environments require playout solutions with reliable bandwidth and throughput.  There can be no lag or downtime,” comments Lee Griffin, Head of Marketing, EditShare.  “Integrating EditShare XStream EFS shared storage with the Dolphin distribution workflow allows Pebble customers to further automate delivery workflows and play content direct from storage that is backed by fault tolerant, highly scalable node-based architecture. It’s simplifying workflows with peace of mind.”