WCAX-TV, Vermont’s CBS affiliate, has selected an Omneon Spectrum™ media server system for fully mirrored ingest and play out of three channels. WCAX selected the Spectrum servers not only for their well-known reliability and scalability but also because the system flexibility accommodates the broadcaster’s mixed aspect ratio playout requirements.

Located in Burlington, WCAX is a family-owned station and the oldest in Vermont. The station broadcasts both syndicated programming and locally produced news and other content. As the broadcaster began the transition to HD, its goals were to implement a platform that would support local standard-definition (SD) production today and easily upgrade to support high-definition (HD) production in the future.

WCAX required a system that could seamlessly ingest and play out SD and HD content side by side, including 16:9 SD and HD, 4:3 SD anamorphic, and 4:3 SD. The station also needed a system that would enable a tapeless workflow and simplify operations overall by replacing two single-use playout servers (one for SD and one for HD) with a unified platform. Finally, WCAX wanted to provide a full 16:9 HD experience to viewers while avoiding the appearance of stretched or squashed images, supporting its goal of becoming the HD market leader.

To meet these requirements, WCAX purchased a mirrored Omneon Spectrum media server system, including two MediaPort 4102 I/O modules to support up- and down-conversion, and Omneon TrackTool to insert AFD information into clips to tag odd aspect ratios. Using TrackTool, WCAX operators can tag each program according to its formatting — in effect telling the playout server what the clip is and what to do with it. If by mistake a clip is tagged incorrectly when it is ingested, TrackTool enables an operator simply to change the clip attribute, a process that takes only a few seconds with no re-ingest needed.

The Spectrum system, running under the control of Harris automation, plays out three separate channels: WCAX’s main SD and HD program channels and WCAXtra , a second digital news and weather channel. Using the information set with TrackTool, SD content (4:3, 16:9, or Letter Box) is automatically played out with the correct aspect ratio on the upconverted HD outputs.  

“With the MediaPort 4102 and TrackTool, Omneon is ahead of everyone else; the rest of the world hasn’t caught up,” said Joe Tymecki, WCAX’s chief engineer. “We ought to know because we spent a year looking at every server out there. In the end, the Spectrum was the only one that was versatile and flexible enough to provide the playout we needed.” 

The Spectrum media server system is the industry’s most scalable, reliable, and cost-effective video server and storage infrastructure for television production, playout, and archive applications. Media server solutions from Omneon enable broadcasters to migrate from analog to digital, tape to disk, SD to HD, and single- to multichannel operations.

About Omneon
Omneon is a leading provider of flexible media server and active storage systems that optimize workflow productivity and on-air reliability for the production, distribution, and management of digital media. Omneon is a pioneer in the use of advanced IT technologies and open systems for broadcast applications, producing a modular and expandable video server architecture in the Omneon Spectrum. The company's MediaGrid active storage system delivers centralized content storage that is scalable in capacity, bandwidth, and media-processing power. The company has an extensive global presence with customers in 45 countries on six continents. Omneon is on the Web at www.Omneon.com.

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