Month: April 2020

Company reports key financial metrics that build on the success of the last two years
Weybridge, UK, 30th April 2020 – Pebble Beach Systems, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, today announced a strong set of results for the year ended 31 December 2019, with all key financial metrics ahead of 2018’s impressive figures.
The company increased its gross margin, and the net cash inflow from its operating activities. At £3.8m, the adjusted EBITDA figure was 52% higher than that for 2018. Revenues were also significantly up, at £11.2m compared to £9.2m in 2018, an increase of 22%.
Pebble CEO Peter Mayhead commented:

“This strong display of financials is excellent news for our existing customers and prospective Pebble users. It sends a clear signal to the industry about our stability and success as a supplier, and about continuity of supply and support for existing users. It also demonstrates that we are in a strong position to invest in R&D for the future of the company, enabling us to enhance our offering and increasing our ability to meet the market’s requirements as the industry continues to transform.”

John Varney, Non-Executive Chairman of Pebble Beach Systems Group plc, said:

“2018 was a year of transformation, and 2019 has been a year of validation. We have shown that the steps we had taken were what the market, in which we occupy a leading position, needed. We concluded the year having shown that we can both deliver upon our expectations and we can innovate. We are a key component of this industry that changes rapidly and is always at the forefront of technological innovation. We are fortunate to have some hugely talented individuals within Pebble Beach Systems who are constantly delivering new and exciting solutions that enable us to maintain our position as a leading supplier of broadcast automation to the world’s largest broadcasters.”

Remotely configurable features including automatic playlist loading help broadcasters adapt to remote working during COVID-19 pandemic
Weybridge, UK, 3rd April 2020 – Pebble Beach Systems, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, has an unrivalled track record in delivering specialist solutions to meet the automated ingest, content management and playout requirements of the international broadcast community.
During the current crisis remote access and operation are under the spotlight like never before. Broadcasters are looking for secure, easily deployed ways in which they can ensure continuity of service.
For owners of Pebble’s Marina automation platform, the Auto List Loader feature helps ensure that programming isn’t interrupted, and that playlists are loaded reliably and automatically regardless of where the system’s operators are situated.
The Auto List Loader, which can be remotely configured on Marina systems by Pebble engineers, enables broadcasters to run a process loading files from a local drive, or a network share, automatically into Marina. This ensures the playlists remain updated without operator intervention being required. Marina simply polls a watch folder to check for ‘triggers’, that is playlist files, events, or blocks of events which meet pre-defined criteria, and these are then appended to the playlist.
As the global health crisis escalates, remote working has become mandatory around the globe. French culture channel ARTE relies on Pebble’s Marina solution for its playout operations, including the management of playlists across multiple locations and countries. Their team also uses Pebble’s web-based Lighthouse solution to monitor ARTE’s playlists in a consolidated view within a web browser, whether at the broadcast facility or remotely and securely from their homes.
In light of the changing global circumstances, ARTE approached Pebble to expand its Lighthouse deployment to adapt its offering. Pebble responded by promptly adding new user accounts for the operators and the maintenance team, allowing them complete access to view playlists, timelines and statistics from their respective remote working locations. ARTE has also deployed the Channel Exception Monitor, which gives a consolidated view of any playlist errors across all channels, enabling early intervention if, for example, media is missing, or there are timing errors or invalid metadata in the list.
Additionally, early last week, one of Pebble’s customers based in Spain, a service provider handling playout for 25 channels, was advised that the entire team was to work remotely from Tuesday onwards. This gave them less than 24 hours to transfer the control of all of their playout operations to staff working from home.
Pebble’s engineers acted immediately to provide access to the Dolphin integrated channel device remotely, adding a compressed IP output to the pre-existing SDI output, all within same channel pipeline. They were able to configure most of the software whilst the preview channel was running. The Pebble team succeeded in making this happen by end of day Monday, and the operators have been reviewing content, graphics and subtitles remotely since.

“The situation during the ongoing global health crisis changes daily. We’re all having to make adjustments and adapt to this new reality in many new ways,” says Peter Mayhead, CEO at Pebble Beach Systems. “In testing times where unlimited access to facilities, and even free movement, can no longer be taken for granted, broadcasters are looking for ways in which they can ensure continuity of service and Pebble is here to help.”