KCET Builds Burbank Station on SeaChange Media Architecture


LOS ANGELES: California public television station KCET has selected SeaChange International’s video servers and storage for its new Burbank broadcast facility. SeaChange will deploy a completely tapeless broadcast workflow solution based upon the SeaChange Media Architecture.

At the heart of KCET’s operation is the SeaChange Universal MediaLibrary (UML) storage system. The UML will be used as main storage (equipped with 1 TB drives) and near-line storage (with 2 TB drives) with a per “brick” capacity of up to 144 TB. The SeaChange MediaGateway Mirroring Tool will mirror the contents of the main UML to the near-line archive. This enterprise-class UML storage server infrastructure features an industry-leading performance of 17 Gbps throughput. It supports hybrid NAS and SAN connections, allowing KCET to access iSCSI, CIFS, NFS, and FTP files without reconfiguration or NAS gateways.

For ingest, quality check, and play-to-air, SeaChange will provide the MediaClient 8200 and MediaServer 1200. The MediaClient 8200 is a modular software codec that serves as a building block for play-to-air systems. It offers multi-resolution and multi-format operations with a high I/O density of up to 12 SD or 8 HD channels. The MediaServer 1200 is a standalone video server with the same features as the MediaClient, with built-in storage space of up to 16 TB. Both the MediaClient and MediaServer will be controlled by KCET via the Pebble Beach Automation software and will have back-up support by SeaChange’s MediaController Tool, a software application for performing simple ingest, playback, clip trimming and recording functions.

The SeaChange storage and server systems will be integrated seamlessly with the SeaChange Media Architecture based on open standards via 10GigE IP backbone. The SeaChange infrastructure interfaces freely with third-party applications like Pebble Beach.