Digital solution streamlines ingest of commercials
and replaces tape with automated workflow
Nevada City, Calif., June 2, 2005 - Telestream, the leading provider of broadcast workflow automation solutions, today announced that Belo Corp's Television Group has selected FlipFactory ® TrafficManager to replace manual tape-based processes with more efficient, automated digital workflows. Telestream's FlipFactory TrafficManager is now deployed to 12 of Belo's 19 television stations. Roll out to the remaining stations is expected to be completed by the end of 2006.
Belo selected the Telestream solution because they recognized the future was about moving from tape to digital technology. More and more commercials were being received on digital catch servers. While this improved delivery to the stations, they were left with the very manual and costly process of dubbing reels, maintaining tape machines, and re-ingesting content onto broadcast servers.
"We were looking for a way to get everything off tape efficiently and to correlate all our incoming content into one location," said Reed Wilson, Engineering Project Manager for Belo. "Telestream's FlipFactory TrafficManager does just that. It gives us one location to look for all of our content, and it automates file conversion and transfer to our play-to-air servers."
FlipFactory TrafficManager provides a vastly more efficient, file-based workflow for Belo. The Telestream system was initially purchased to automate the ingest of commercial content being received from digital catch servers provided by DG Systems, Vyvx, FastChannel Network, and Media DVX. Belo quickly discovered that the Telestream system could provide the same tapeless benefits for promo and tag work being produced in-house on Avid or other edit systems. At most Belo stations, TrafficManager is also used to streamline transfer of Pathfire-delivered syndication content. According to Wilson, "Telestream does the heavy lifting of rewrapping content into the appropriate format for direct, digital transfer to our play-to-air servers."
In addition to Telestream's FlipFactory TrafficManager, Belo has standardized on the Sundance Titan multichannel automation system and the Grass Valley 3500 Series Profile SD and HD media servers. A key aspect of the new digital workflow is Telestream's ability to automatically accept not only the media itself, but crucial metadata coming from the catch servers and Avid edit systems. Importantly, Telestream's TrafficManager automatically converts and hands off both the media and the metadata to the Sundance and Profile systems, providing a hands-free workflow for Belo operators.
"The combination of Sundance and Telestream at the Belo stations has greatly improved the workflow for digitally delivered commercials and programs," said Robert C. Johnson, President of Sundance Digital, Inc. "This is an excellent example of how vendors can collaborate to increase efficiency at broadcast facilities."
Belo also uses FlipFactory TrafficManager to create low-resolution QuickTime copies of all incoming commercials, making them accessible to anyone at the station through the Sundance Web Inventory application. This also provides the ability for staff to respond to client commercial inquiries by sending the QuickTime file as verification.
Bottom line says Wilson, "Telestream's FlipFactory TrafficManager saves us time and money. It frees up time for our operators to do other things. We've drastically reduced our tape stock as well as tape machine maintenance and head replacement."
About Telestream (www.telestream.net)
Telestream's products have set the standard with the world's leading media and entertainment companies, corporations, and government institutions for the encoding, organizing, and delivery of digital media. Customers rely on Telestream products for convenient, cost-effective, and robust digital media access and exchange over IP networks. The company's automation applications and smart media organization solutions streamline workflows for broadcasters and media companies, as well as content owners and content creators in government, higher education, and corporate markets. Telestream and its team of video experts are located in Nevada City, the "video valley" region of Northern California. The company is privately held.
About Belo (www.belo.com)
Belo Corp. is one of the nation's largest media companies with a diversified group of market-leading television, newspaper, cable and interactive media assets. A Fortune 1000 company with 7,600 employees and $1.5 billion in annual revenues, Belo operates in some of America's most dynamic markets in Texas, the Northwest, the Southwest, Rhode Island, and the Mid-Atlantic. Belo owns 19 television stations, six of which are in the 15 largest U.S. broadcast markets. The Company also owns or operates seven cable news channels and manages one television station through a local marketing agreement. Belo's daily newspapers are The Dallas Morning News , The Providence Journal , The Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA) and the Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, TX). The Company also publishes specialty publications targeting young adults, affluent populations and the fast-growing Hispanic market, including Quick and al dia in Dallas/Fort Worth, and the d , El D and La Prensa in Riverside. Belo operates more than 30 Web sites associated with its operating companies. Additional information is available at
www.belo.com or by contacting Carey Hendrickson, vice president/Investor Relations & Corporate Communications, at 214-977-6626.
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