Cowles California Media Company is using Omneon Spectrum media server systems in conjunction with Omneon ProCast CDN at its California-based TV stations to support its multichannel master control operations. Integrated by Advanced Broadcast Solutions (ABS), the systems enable the Cowles stations — KION-TV/KCBA-TV and KCOY-TV/KKFX-TV — to move high volumes of data from one location to another using a limited amount of bandwidth. The company can now also operate master control for multiple stations from a single centralized location.
Paul Dughi, president of Cowles California Media, said the data transfer speed and efficiency provided by the server and content delivery systems have allowed his company to leverage existing production and master control resources while expanding his company’s family of broadcast stations.
The platform currently supports a total of six stations across two markets, as KMUV-TV (Telemundo) and NION-TV (CW) also are run out of the Salinas facility. Should Cowles expand its station group further, the platform can accommodate the addition of new channels or subchannels.
“Working closely with ABS and Omneon, we have successfully applied accelerated content distribution technology at the station level to establish streamlined, cost-effective operations for our geographically distributed stations,” Dughi said.
The ProCast CDN high-performance file transport engine uses acceleration technology to enable the high-speed transfer of media files over a 45Mb/s dedicated circuit between KION-TV/KCBA-TV in Salinas and KCOY-TV/KKFX-TV in Santa Maria. With the ProCast CDN transport engine, the Cowles broadcast facilities can send large media files from a Spectrum media server at one station to a Spectrum server at the second station, more than 150 miles away, as fast and as simply as if the action were a local transfer. Unaffected by distance, the file transfer speeds achieved with the ProCast CDN are orders of magnitude greater than FTP transfers.
Content ingested and prepped in Salinas is delivered to Santa Maria via the Omneon content delivery platform, which operates in conjunction with Sundance automation to ensure that the appropriate content and data are transferred. This content, stored locally on servers in Santa Maria, is switched and played out from master control in Salinas. The Santa Maria station provides master control only for its local news programming, although operators there can take over switching and playback at any time, as needed. Cowles also uses the Omneon content delivery platform as a backhaul for moving locally produced spots, promos, and other contribution content from Santa Maria to Salinas for prep.
