Spanish-language network Azteca America is using Telestream’s FlipFactory and Launch products to provide fast, efficient delivery of news content between the network’s California-based operations center and its 60 affiliate stations in major Hispanic markets throughout the United States.
Azteca America chose Telestream technology because of its ability to send video cost-effectively via IPTV infrastructure. The technology will automatically integrate with its news systems, providing support for SMPTE VC-1 and MPEG-2 formats, to meet tight delivery deadlines.
Azteca America supplies Hispanic-language programming for the affiliate stations. Last year, the company was approached by one of the owners who wanted to produce local news stories for some of the affiliates in Texas and Nevada. The network already had the production facilities but needed a solution to quickly and efficiently move content between locations for newsgathering as well as news delivery back to the local stations.
After looking at expensive satellite and fiber solutions, the company turned to Telestream and local reseller, Key Code Media, who tailored an IPTV solution to meet the requirements at a reduced cost. Azteca America purchased Telestream’s FlipFactory transcoding application and multiple Launch personal IP media delivery software applications to provide the workflow solution it needed.
Local reporters capture and edit news stories on laptop computer systems outfitted with a wireless card, Avid editing software and Telestream’s Launch software. News stories are dragged to a Launch folder, which automatically transcodes the content to VC-1 at 2Mb/s and transmits the media via the Internet to a FlipFactory server at the network operations center. A full two-minute story takes about 10 to 12 minutes to send to the broadcast server ready for air.
FlipFactory is also used to deliver material out from the network operations center. Once local news stories are produced, FlipFactory encodes and delivers material back to the affiliates, ready to air. Higher-speed Internet lines are used for delivery back to the affiliates to avoid bottlenecks. A 22-minute program encoded to an MPEG-2 file at 5Mb/s is delivered in just 16 minutes.
For more information, visit www.telestream.net.
