bTV Media Group taps PlayBox Neo for broadcast continuity
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Editor
| 23 August 2023
Leading Bulgarian TV and digital media provider bTV Media Group has invested in automated playout servers from PlayBox Neo for integration into a disaster recovery facility.
bTV Media Group 23Aug2023
Established in 2000, the main channel of the bTV Media Group, bTV, was the first Bulgarian private national television service. bTV Media Group’s thematic channels, bTV Action, bTV Cinema, bTV Comedy, bTV Lady and RING, are broadcast in HD format and distributed via cable, satellite and IPTV.

The facility at the Plana Teleport located 60 km from the network’s Sofia headquarters will safeguard bTV’s broadcast channels against any discontinuity in the main transmission feeds.

“PlayBox Neo was a logical partner for this project as its ProductionAirBox Neo-20 playout servers operate very effectively in our news, studio productions and outside broadcast operations,” explained Peter Dimitrov, technical director of bTV Media Group. “We were keen to provide full 1:1 protection for our main channel which carries a polythematic mix of programs plus a hot spare playout feed for our other five channels: bTV Action, bTV Cinema, bTV Comedy, bTV Lady and RING. All are produced and transmitted in HD. The new installation integrated easily with our existing traffic management software.”

“The PlayBox Neo team recommended a solution comprising four HD dual channel Channel-in-a Box playout servers with SDI and streaming inputs and outputs,” added bTV Broadcast IT Manager Ivailo Pashov. “Integrated into the system is TitleBox Neo-20 graphics preparation software which allows efficient management of fixed and rolling text as well as static or animated channel branding images. We also have SafeBox Neo to manage content and playlists moving between our central storage at the DR center and the playout servers. Our headquarters are connected to the DR site by a dedicated fiber link.”

PlayBox Neo Channel-in-a-Box is a turnkey playout server solution for broadcasting a single or multi TV channel both available in HD or UHD. It provides a workflow to keep a channel on-air by combining scheduling, ingest, playout, CG and interactive graphics within one box and remote tools to enhance QC checks, preparation and monitoring.

SafeBox Neo is designed to replicate remote content to local playout server folders for safe playback. New content arriving in any of the remote watch-folders is automatically copied or moved to the local playout storage. New daily schedules are transferred along with their associated content. File paths in the playlists are automatically updated according to the new local storage. Expired daily schedule content is automatically deleted or moved to a pre-defined folder for manual deletion or archiving. Deletion can be performed automatically or with user approval of deletion lists.

“Off-site DR centres are a very good safeguard against unforeseen circumstances such as regional power failure or flooding at a broadcast network’s primary playout facility,” commented PlayBox Neo CEO Pavlin Rahnev. “Well designed systems such as the one being used at bTV provide a high level of security including automatic alerts to relevant supervisors. They very quickly cover their investment cost in terms of business continuity and as part of a fully professional workflow.”