Starz Entertainment has installed the Observer Enterprise system from Volicon at its distribution facility in Englewood, CO, to monitor 31 SD and 14 HD channels across the company's premium STARZ, ENCORE, and MOVIEPLEX channels. The Observer system enables the Starz broadcast operations group to monitor off-air channels and gives its engineers tools for both monitoring and troubleshooting. The system also supports compliance for closed captioning and for interstitials run on the Starz Entertainment premium channels.
The Observer Enterprise is a fully redundant, automated record-and-search appliance for media monitoring and compliance. Unlike the previous recording system at Starz, which required client software to watch video, the Volicon automated logging and monitoring system gives staff throughout the company immediate desktop access to 90 days of recorded video and audio data through a single Web browser client application.
Providing greater recording capacity at variable bit rates and resolution, the Observer offers higher-quality streaming and efficient use of network bandwidth, which makes it easier for Starz staff to quickly identify anomalies in audio and video.
The Observer also enables monitoring of all audio tracks, including Dolby, PCM audio, and SAP audio, and allows operators to shuffle the languages identified as primary and secondary audio tracks. This will be particularly useful for Starz as the company introduces its first Spanish-language channel, along with two new HD channels, in August 2011.
