IBC 2017: Pebble Beach optimises Marina for multi-lingual playout
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Michelle Clancy
| 14 August 2017

Pebble Beach Systems’ Marina platform has been optimised to help broadcasters manage their multi-lingual playout operations, whether for SDI, IP-based or virtualised infrastructures.

The company says that playing out channels across regions where content is delivered in multiple languages brings a specific set of challenges for the broadcaster or service provider and adds that managing all of the audio, voiceover and subtitling requirements is complex in itself, and when files are missing, fail to play, or require substitution the situation can rapidly become unmanageable, particularly when Dolby surround sound needs to be considered. Marina, a centralised ingest, content management and multichannel automation solution, can these coordinate multiple systems, the company explained; it has developed a series of tools for Marina which simplify the management of complex multi-lingual workflows and help to ensure that the language playout conditions will be met, whether the services are being delivered via SDI or IP.

For instance, Marina has the ability to handle multiple output audio configurations from a single SDI or IP player. Its configuration tools are designed to enable the creation of bespoke language sets, so that audio and subtitle sets can be grouped for different territories or regions. And, it detects the language within the MXF file when the content is received, and if a file should fail to play, or the preferred language file is not available when the content is delivered, its configuration rules enable the dynamic substitution of the next preferred language file.

"As content providers acquire rights to distribute media worldwide, the demand to produce and play out content in multiple languages is increasing,” explained Ian Cockett, CTO at Pebble Beach Systems. “This typically involves the acquisition, management and control of multiple-language versions of each piece of core content. However, efficiently managing this media while keeping international playout centres cost-effective, can be a truly daunting task.”