ST. PAUL, MINN.— One Minneapolis-area broadcaster is leveraging the full Tightrope portfolio to establish connections beyond master control.
Suburban Community Channels has been the Community TV and media resource connection for the northeast Minneapolis-St. Paul suburbs for more than 30 years, delivering 17 physical channels from its facility. As the local cable franchise authority for Comcast, the PEG broadcaster delivers eight channels of programming across 12 municipalities, including discrete government channels for each community. Suburban Community Channels populates its remaining channels with a variety of imported and locally produced content, the latter of which includes live broadcasts of high school sports.
Suburban Community Channels relies on solutions across Tightrope’s portfolio to manage all content. In master control, Tightrope Cablecast server and automation platforms deliver programming to Comcast viewers, simultaneously serving on-demand content to online viewers. Cablecast has played a significant role for the core master control operation, transitioning Suburban Community Channels from analog to SDI digital. On July 16, “On Location TV19” became the first channel in the cluster to transition to HD.
Operators can connect to the central Cablecast server from any location with web access, and schedule programming weeks in advance; or make scheduling changes on the fly. Cablecast also allows Suburban Community Channels to quickly add new channels and applications, the most recent of which was a video-on-demand service that offers city council meetings on the website of its member municipalities.
Additionally, Tightrope Carousel digital signage solutions support transitional broadcast feeds, including bulletin boards between programs. The Carousel systems also deliver a bright and lively mix of rotating informational programming for visitors and employees inside its lobby areas, providing an additional public-facing benefit for establishing community connections.
On board its production truck, the broadcaster uses a Tightrope Zeplay solution for slo-mo instant replay of highlights from varsity football and other local high school sporting events.
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