Because Harris is an international communications and information technology company their effectiveness of a single-vendor solution was the main reason for being chosen, according to Larry Oaks, vice president of technology for Meredith. Oaks also cited scalability and familiarity of the Harris brand as secondary reasons. Meredith recently upgraded its HD broadcast operations at KPHO-TV in Phoenix with Harris broadcast equipment, and plans to implement a West Coast hub-and-spoke operation for three stations featuring Harris equipment.
“We are building a complete file-based solution in Atlanta to support a minimum of 12 HD streams and implementing a full-form centralized model, so we had to understand the traditional flow of content today and where we wanted everything to go,” said Oaks. “We needed to develop a system that worked hand-in-hand to provide an efficient and easy structure for the entire facility, stream-by-stream. We decided to look at single-vendor solutions to ensure a lower-cost implementation and integrated functionality among all of the components. We believe that the Harris solution delivers both of these benefits to support a very successful centralized, file-based broadcast operation.”
The integrated Harris ONE solution for the Meredith Atlanta hub features NEXIO AMP™ advanced media platforms, Predator II™ multiviewers, Platinum™ and Panacea™ routers, ADC™ automation, NEO® conversion gear, 6800+™ distribution frames, NetVX™ MPEG-4/H.264 encoding and video/audio networking, Harris DTS Neural Surround™ 5.1 and two-channel audio processing, CCS Navigator™ control and monitoring for all six stations, Videotek® test and measurement equipment, and IconMaster™ master control switchers and branding equipment. Oaks added that while every component is crucial to the success of the operation, the NEXIO AMP servers, NetVX encoding/networking, and CCS Navigator monitoring will play particularly important roles.