MADISON, Wis.—The Wisconsin Educational Communications Board (ECB), the public media hub in Wisconsin, partners with the University of Wisconsin to deliver television and radio content statewide through six TV stations, six TV translators and 39 radio stations, reaching audiences through PBS Wisconsin, Wisconsin Public Radio and our most recent partner, Milwaukee PBS.
We manage TV master control operations with the primary goal of ensuring that content is delivered to all stations with uninterrupted service. Automation plays a key role in making that happen, and we rely on Crispin’s RapidPlayX 2000 and CORE master control automation systems with the webRPX playlist tool to keep us on the air.
Out With the Old
Our previous aging automation was no longer supported by its manufacturer, prompting our search for a new, reliable system. Crispin’s technology stood out from the field.
We started running the Crispin automation in shadowcasting mode alongside our existing software to let the system prove itself, and within a few weeks, we were confident about cutting over to Crispin exclusively. Maybe an hour after that cutover, I remember our executive director walking down to see how things were going. I said, “Great, we’re all going out to lunch!”
The new system has increased our broadcast reliability and reduced user errors significantly. We’re comfortable knowing that the system is running and just works.
The Crispin system’s scalability is a benefit as we add more coverage for viewers statewide. In 2023, Milwaukee PBS approached ECB about expanding our Crispin system to include managing their master-control needs. We started by running similar shadow-casting tests and even before we cut over, we got our first big test.
Wisconsin’s governor was delivering a speech to be broadcast statewide. Milwaukee PBS was planning to use their previous master control, but soon realized they were more comfortable with ECB’s service. Even though it was still early in the test phase, they asked if they could take our Crispin playout on-air for the speech, and the broadcast was seamless with no issues. That was the historic day we went on the air in Milwaukee for the first time.
Disaster Recovery
Like all stations, we are always preparing for a natural disaster or event that takes us off the air. With Crispin’s support, we’ve established an off-site disaster recovery (DR) location on the University of Wisconsin campus.
Our initial DR goals were to just survive and stay on air with whatever we could pass through, starting from scratch and building up. We soon decided we’d rather immediately continue broadcasting media previously scheduled for air from our DR facility.
Crispin developed a new application for its AssetBase peer synchronization technology to create a separate, fully synced off-site database that ensures we can continue media acquisition and playout of our full programming schedule in a seamless cutover. Other than sending data from A to B, our primary and DR Crispin systems operate separately and really don’t know about each other.
It doesn’t need to be a full-blown emergency for this DR system to serve our broadcasting needs—if our primary location is doing maintenance work or there’s any situation where we would otherwise need to shut down, we can easily switch over to our alternate site and maintain on-air continuity.
Most broadcast errors are user-related and Crispin’s intuitive software interfaces have significantly reduced those instances. If we ever do experience any issue—system or user-related—we know Crispin’s support will provide the peace of mind and reliability essential for public media.
More information is available at crispincorp.com.
