SOUTHWICK, Mass.—WSBE Rhode Island PBS has upgraded its ATSC encoding system with an OTT origin server solution from Comark Digital Services (CDS), Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark announced.  

The broadcaster has added the CDS origin server to meet the OTT streaming requirements for its main HD program. The origin server temporarily stores the station’s video collection on disk and responds to content requests from the content delivery network (CDN). 

CDS provided factory integration, configuration and testing of the origin server in its Southwick, Mass., lab facility. The server was then shipped to the station for installation and final configuration and commissioning.  

The Origin Packager provided by Hitachi-Comark is an addressable, just-in-time packager that encrypts the video content in the most popular ABR formats. Using its cache mechanism, the Origin Packager reduces encoding and storage requirements and provides high throughput to deliver content to any CDN.

“WSBE Engineering gives the highest rating to the Hitachi-Comark Sales Team and Technical Staff” States Richard Dunn, Rhode Island PBS director of Engineering.  “Their planning and support resulted in a smooth, hassle free, integration.”   

In 2019, CDS delivered a new software-based ATSC encoding system that delivers the highest possible video quality to WSBE’s OTA viewers. This flexible software-based encoding solution is capable of providing simultaneous MPEG-2, H.264, HEVC as well as HLS output formats. The HLS output format is used for streaming OTT services.  

More information is available on the Hitachi-Comark website. 

SOUTHWICK, Mass.—Transmitter manufacturer and RF specialist Hitachi Kokusai Electric Comark and Gaian Solutions, a developer of dynamic content delivery products and solutions for the TV ecosystem, have signed a deal appointing Comark as an authorized reseller, integrator and service provider of Gaian’s software and cloud-based solutions for NEXTGEN TV, Comark said.

The deal, announced Oct. 14, calls for Comark to focus its Gaian-related efforts on the North American broadcast television market.

“We can easily provide, integrate and deploy NEXTGEN TV headend stacks to broadcast customers,” said Tim Hosmer, director of Comark Digital Services. “Gaian’s cloud suite in conjunction with a NEXTGEN TV headend stack allows broadcasters to start exploring the benefits of A/344’s dynamic interactive content and datacasting opportunities.”

Comark, which relaunched last year as Comark Digital Services (CDS) to help broadcasters transition from ATSC 1.0 to 3.0, operates a full laboratory to test equipment, integrate it and demonstrate solutions to customers using best-of-breed technology.

The agreement calls for CDS to offer Gaian’s GaiaTV3.0/Edgeplex Starter Suite for lab and field testing of NEXTGEN TV deployments and test receivers. The suite offers tools to test dynamic ad insertion, broadcast/receiver app generation, OTA signage/digital kiosks, lower-third ads as a service and automotive apps for maps, traffic and weather. The turnkey offering includes app templates and training for use with any 3.0 transmitter.

“The market is at a place where solutions that point broadcasters to revenues and new business models is the need of the hour,” said Ashwini Koppisetti, head of marketing at Gaian. “The Gaian platform addresses precisely this problem. The Gaian platform is not just a technology solution but a business and go-to-market solution with mature and proven business models featuring NEXTGEN TV solutions for broadcasters.”

For a comprehensive source of TV Technology’s ATSC 3.0 coverage, see ourATSC3 silo.