Indiana Public TV Manages Schedules with Myers ProLink


All eight stations of the Indiana Public Broadcast Stations alliance are now using ProLink from Myers Information Systems to distribute and share broadcast schedules, program offers and related metadata. By using ProTrack’s ProLink platform, a companion to Myers’ ProTrack TV application suite, a single station can centrally manage and schedule time slots for the recently launched “Indiana Channel,” a statewide channel focused exclusively on Indiana-centric interests.

Looking for a way to connect all of the stations, IPBS Executive Director Roger Rhodes said they chose ProLink because all but two of the stations already use the service, which also allows data to be accessed by non-ProTrack facilities as well. Adopting the platform also reduced workloads, according to Rhodes.

"During the Indiana Channel's roll-out phase, programmers spent hours entering the same data at each station” Rhodes said. “Today, the Myers distribution platform is saving time and money, allowing our stations to better allocate their limited resources." At the station level, Bonnie Rheinhardt, vice president of TV programming & operations at member WNIN found the process "Very fast, eliminating redundancies and mitigating errors. Once created, we can share the Indiana Channel across the state – with just a few mouse clicks the schedule can be implemented and ready for air at each station.”

"An efficient, collaborative workflow is one of the keys to success in these financially challenged times," said company president and CEO, Crist Myers. "We are pleased to extend this specialized ProLink service to the IPBS station group. They join other national and regional schedule and metadata platform distributors participating in this service, such as New York’s ThinkBright TV, the Florida Channel, the Minnesota Channel, Create, World, and V-me.”

ProLink allows users to share regional and national schedules, program offers and content metadata by way of its daily flow of information to participating stations. Its selections are menu-driven, providing a simple and efficient way to load program data directly to ProTrack station databases, ready to be incorporated into their on-air schedules. ProTrack–Myers flagship suite– is a comprehensive scheduling and business management system for single, multichannel and multi-station TV and radio facilities. It is actively used by more than 226 media outlets, supporting over 1,300 channels.