Omneon Inc., a provider of media server and active storage systems, has announced that Jordan Media City (JMC) has enhanced ingest and playout operations for the Arabsat satellite service with Omneon Spectrum media server systems.

Installed at the JMC transmission center in Amman, Jordan, the Omneon Spectrum systems provide a scalable platform for the 28-channel Arabsat service and for additional growth of JMC's transmission business. Each of the two Omneon Spectrum servers at JMC carries 14 Arabsat channels to air. The Omneon Spectrum systems are integrated with Pebble Beach automation, which manages both ingest and playout. JMC chose to upgrade from its previous transmission server to the Omneon system because the Spectrum media server provides support for a file-based workflow with standard file wrappers and formats without the need for transcoding. The time savings realized through the new workflow enables faster turnaround of content to air and, as a result, more cost-effective operations. JMC is responsible for 108 turnaround services and more than 60 playout channels for approximately 30 customers. As Spectrum servers offer a single file structure for both HD and SD content, JMC will have the ability to provide HD services simply and with a minimal investment of time and technical resources.