Playout has grown to more than just switching feeds and running local commercials, IDs and news stingers. Today, your playout system — and its operators — have to contend with a variety of tasks from how a system is operated day-to-day, what assets need to be controlled and managed, and how much resilience your business needs require. Grass Valley understands each of these concepts and more, so you get the perfect playout architecture for your specific requirements.
Addressing Regionalization and hub & spoke requirements
MULTIREGION CONTENT
Broadcasting different commercials to different regions for targeted advertising can be a challenge, but not with a Grass Valley solution.
In a centralized regionalized playout configuration type, the main network TV channel — coming from the central broadcasting facility — is not only sent to the national audience but also to different regional audiences. However, the regional audience receives local advertisements for local businesses. These advertisements are managed and scheduled at the central facility.
Managing the advertising for the national and regional audience from the central facility ensures maximum operational efficiency as the operator can use one user interface to manage all channels. Advertising revenue is increased due to the ability to broadcast regional commercials.
HUB-SPOKE REGIONALIZATION
Broadcasting both different programming content and advertisements to different regions can be a larger challenge than just regionalizing advertisements. And as stated, it's easy with a Grass Valley solution.
In hub-and-spoke deployments, a centrally located hub facility broadcasts a national feed to regionally located spoke facilities that require their own programming autonomy. The spoke facilities are spread over a wide geographical territory and need to broadcast locally produced programs and commercial content.
Grass Valley's solution allows the hub site to hand off programming to spoke sites that can perform cost-effective, regional playout with dedicated branding, including promos and commercials. When little or no local spoke content is planned — such as during overnight "lights out" periods when the spoke has minimal staff - the hub can control dozens of spoke sites remotely ensuring continued regional playout with maximum cost efficiency.
