Austin Independent School District Improves Workflow With NVerzion

SALT LAKE CITY —AISD-TV, the broadcast television station managed by the Austin Independent School District in Texas, has streamlined its file-based workflow relying on a new automation system from NVerzion.

AISD-TV provides a variety of local television programming and educational content to the Austin community via two channels distributed on cable, the Web and within the Austin Independent School District, which serves approximately students at 124 schools. AISD-TV was previously using an analog-based playback system, and migrating to a digital, file-based workflow with NVerzion enabled AISD-TV to automate tasks.

Integrated by ZVS Media, the system includes: NGest professional dubbing and recording software applications, NPoint video preparation software for segmenting and trimming, NControl router/cuts-only playlists, an NBase SQL media database manager, NCommand machine status and control, NTime event scheduling application, NConvert traffic interface, NGuide EPG tool, XPansion storage management software and EMC-Router Ethernet machine control.

“All of the production, programming, and distribution tasks at AISD-TV are managed by four people. Given the small size of our organization, efficiency is of utmost concern,” said Garry Wilkison, chief engineer at AISD-TV. “When we decided to modernize our master control operations, NVerzion was the obvious choice for automation based on cost, flexibility, and reliability. Our new platform automatically performs critical operations, including scheduling, recording, and playout, so that we can concentrate on the quality of production.”

The NVerzion system at AISD-TV controls a wide range of third-party equipment, including a Harmonic Spectrum ChannelPort playout server, Utah Scientific Utah-400 Series video/audio router, Compix Media LCG9000R character generator and production-shared EditShare Energy Series NAS archive system. By supporting interoperability with any manufacturer, the NVerzion platform ensures continuous and reliable operations while allowing AISD-TV to maximize its investment in existing equipment.

NVerzion automation is based on a highly modular architecture that guarantees the integrity of AISD-TV's on-air presentation by eliminating any single point of failure within the station's file-based workflow. Station engineers can bypass any piece of equipment that is not functioning properly. Relying on the scalable platform, the station has the flexibility to support additional channels in the future.