Author: Samantha Baker

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Pebble and Virtual AI announce partnership to provide innovative FAST solutions for the broadcast market

Posted on | by Samantha Baker

Epsom, Surrey, UK, September 6, 2023. At IBC 2023 Pebble and Virtual AI will be showcasing FAST solutions based on Pebble’s Automation 2.0 product and Op2mise from Virtual AI.

Pebble and Virtual AI have partnered to address the growing FAST market, the two companies are combining market leading playout solutions with advanced traffic and planning capabilities to bring new levels of functionality for FAST services.

Neil Maycock, Pebble CCO, explains “There is a lot of press about FAST and some high-profile deployments, but the majority have been simple channels to test consumer demand and assess the commercial opportunities. It’s clear that there is the need for increasing sophistication with FAST services, even including capabilities such as live. Given Pebble’s strong heritage in Playout and the strength of our solutions we are delighted to partner with Virtual AI to address these more demanding applications.”

“Op2mise is proud to offer a top-tier scheduling product tailored specifically for the fast-growing FAST sector,” says Simon Osman, Commercial Director Op2mise.AI, “As viewers and platforms increasingly seek a broadcast quality experience, our solution stands out. Op2mise creates value for TV Schedulers & Media Buyers by leveraging the power of automation, data analytics and optimisation. We are excited to showcase our commitment to delivering excellence in detail.”

Pebble and Virtual AI will be at IBC, booth# 8.B75, where they will be demonstrating the capabilities of Pebble Playout and the Op2mise solution, supported by experts from both companies to discuss any FAST requirements.  

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About Virtual AI

Op2mise creates value for TV Schedulers & Media Buyers by leveraging the power of automation, data analytics and optimisation.

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Pebble strengthens their long-term commitment to the enterprise playout market with the release of Automation 2.0

Posted on | by Samantha Baker

Epsom, Surrey, UK, 30 August 2023 — At IBC 2023, Pebble are announcing a major release of its market leading playout solution, with Automation 2.0. This release represents a major R&D investment to address two key market requirements, cloud deployment and security.

Pebble Automation has been adopted by leading broadcasters across the world supporting the most demanding playout requirements. The solution already supports on-prem, hybrid, and cloud deployments, but Pebble has identified the market requirement for more efficient cloud deployments and greater levels of network security. This has been achieved with Automation 2.0 through redesigning core aspects of the system architecture and incorporating state of the art technology.

Miroslav Jeras, Pebble CTO, explains: “Instead of trying to address security issues individually, we decided to introduce changes on an architectural level bringing the internal communications in line with the latest industry best practices. By doing the overall security refresh and consolidation of communication protocols, we have also optimized Automation for public cloud deployment scenarios.”

The company is showcasing Automation 2.0 along with a host of other upgrades to its playout and IP infrastructure management product portfolio at IBC. “It is very important to Pebble that our customers know that when they partner with us, they are buying into a company that continually invests in our portfolio ensuring their solutions stay current and meet their evolving needs,” stated Peter Mayhead, Pebble CEO, “I’m looking forward to meeting customers at IBC and sharing the great progress we’ve made”.

Pebble has recently launched a campaign highlighting Playout and the company’s strong capabilities to lead in the media and entertainment market. Pebble will showcase Automation 2.0 at IBC booth# 8.B75. To book a meeting visit: Leaders in Playout.

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Korean broadcaster CJ OliveNetworks launches eleven channels with Pebble  

Posted on | by Samantha Baker

Weybridge, Surrey, 10 July 2023 – Pebble, the leading automation, content management, and integrated channel specialist, announces that leading Korean broadcaster CJ OliveNetworks has successfully launched one of the most technically advanced multichannel setups in APAC. The installation, completed with channel partner Besco, combines Pebble’s world class Automation, Integrated Channel and Pebble Remote solutions, to bring 11 fully redundant channels to ​​air. As a result of their collaboration, the project was honoured with the Excellence Award for Channel System at the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting+ Awards 2023, highlighting Pebble’s commitment to delivering exceptional channel systems to the broadcast industry. 

CJ OliveNetworks, an entertainment and media subsidiary of South Korea’s CJ Group, provides a full house of broadcast and digital services including managed broadcast transmission of 64 local and international channels. To meet current growth and future expansion it required new flexible infrastructure that could support a combination of SDI, NDI, ST-2110 and transport streams, hosted on COTS hardware.   

“We are excited to become an integral part of CJ OliveNetworks expansion and proud of the work that we have done as a team,” said Samir Isbaih, Pebble’s VP Sales, Middle East and APAC. “The pandemic and travel restrictions prevented on-site visits but with the assistance of our valued partner Besco and through remote access, the system was ensured a smooth process from commission through proof of concept to test, install and going live.” 

​​​​​The solution now live at CJ OliveNetworks features Pebble automation controlling playout of 33 integrated channels in an 11+11+11 redundant configuration. Each on-air channel can be fed from any one of three integrated channels to provide extremely high availability. All channel are of similar design with 2110 and SDI inputs and outputs plus NDI monitoring.  Logical processors include loudness control, audio shuffling, DolbyD encoding, SCTE104 and closed subtitling. CJ OliveNetworks is the first customer to use the RT Software plugin for advanced graphics. CJ OliveNetworks also utilizes Pebble’s internal graphics capabilities. Furthermore, CJ OliveNetworks are controlling external third-party Tornado CG.. The integration of Pebble Open API with CJ OliveNetworks’ in house Traffic and Media Management system enables seamless communication between the two platforms. With this integration, CJ OliveNetworks can now easily interact with Pebble’s live playlist and media metadata. 

Besco, the leading equipment and services provider in Korea, was instrumental in specifying, testing and installing the system. Besco also supported Pebble in translating its user manuals into Korean, and provides first line support on the company’s behalf. 

Besco CEO, Young Bae Kim, said: “Pebble has market leading solutions with the features that provide the flexibility CJ OliveNetworks need. Pebble systems have extensive redundancy schemes, backed by excellent customer service ensuring ultimately on-air reliability. We’re looking forward to growing this partnership in the APAC region.” 

Choi Tae-Hyoung, General Manager at CJ OliveNetworks said, “We wanted to build a future proof flexible solution that could perform uncompressed IP, compressed IP and SDI in the same system and in the same server with a modern user interface. Pebble systems were the clear winner in enabling us to move forward for our clients. We are immensely satisfied with the whole process from inception to execution.” 

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About Besco 

For more information please visit: http://www.nbesco.co.kr/ 

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Pebble welcomes new product owner to drive next generation functionality of Pebble Control

Posted on | by Samantha Baker

Pebble’s award-winning self-contained IP connection management system, Pebble Control, wins industry recognition as an experienced new Product Owner joins Pebble to move forward with upcoming features.

Epsom, Surrey, UK – 18 January 2023: Pebble, the leading automation, content management, and integrated channel specialist, is pleased to announce new developments with its Pebble Control solution. Nikolaos Katsampekis has been appointed as Product Owner for Pebble Control, which recently won a major industry award, and plans are set for introducing next generation functionality ahead of this year’s NAB Show in Las Vegas.

Katsampekis joins the company from Grass Valley where he led a team engaged in the design and development of control and monitoring solutions, specifically, Human Machine Interfaces and orchestration solutions for SDI, Hybrid and IP Networks. He joins the company at an exciting time; Pebble Control Free was launched last year, winning an industry award in late 2022. It enables broadcasters to work with entry level access of 15 concurrent input and output connections for free. The industry award recognised Pebble Control Free as being one of the best innovative solutions that have made an impact in the media and entertainment industries in 2022.

Pebble Control is a self-contained, scalable, and easy-to-configure IP connection management system built specifically to enable broadcasters to make the leap to an all IP facility without the need to deploy a bespoke enterprise solution. It leverages full support for the NMOS (Networked Media Open Specifications) suite of protocols produced by the Advanced Media Workflow Association to facilitate networked media for professional applications.

Pebble is taking an active role in developing the NMOS roadmap too and firmly positioning itself at the forefront of the open standards debate. It participates in the NMOS steering committee and chaired the NMOS IS-07 initiative, which replaces the need for wired GPI connections in an IP environment. The company also chairs the NMOS Modelling activity which aims to ensure immediate interoperability of installed IP devices.

“I am delighted to join Pebble at this time and to use my expertise to drive forward plans and build on the great work already delivered on the Pebble Control solution,” says Katsampekis.

“As we head into what looks to be a landmark NAB, we are delighted that Nik has joined the team,” comments Miroslav Jeras, Pebble CTO. “We are rolling out new and improved next generation functionality ahead of the show and we’re looking forward to sharing our insights on the importance of open standards and interoperability at NAB itself. We are confident that Nik’s experience and proven track record in the industry will help us ensure that the next generations of Pebble Control continue to be the leading solution for IP connection management, control and monitoring.”

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