News

BBC Launches Tapeless Radio Production with VCS and SADiE (20/9/2006)

VCS, the German specialist for IT solutions and services for professional broadcast enterprises, has created, in conjunction with SADiE, an entirely tapeless and networked production and playout environment for BBC Radio & Music. The system has recently been officially accepted and commissioned for service in London. The sheer scale of this joint solution is unique and thoroughly integrates SADiE craft editors in the VCS dira! production and playout systems operated by the BBC's radio networks.

The unique benefit of this networked production and playout solution lies in its intelligent handling, not only of projects and large files containing broadcast items, but also of the production and programme-related metadata. Furthermore, it seamlessly integrates the tools already used by the production teams. The solution's core component is a shared production database that facilitates project management and creates a fully networked working environment, not only in the production studios but also at the desktop. Users can initiate projects and commence processing with a desktop version of the SADiE editor prior to final editing in the production studio on full-scale SADiE craft workstations. Key to this workflow is the networking of these production workstations.

Another critical part of the system is based on intelligent project synchronisation. SADiE and VCS have developed an intelligent solution, now being successfully implemented by BBC Radio & Music, to maintain data integrity and optimise the network bandwidth requirement of large projects. This intelligent solution also embraces security procedures that are a key component of dira! systems, including redundant data saving and the management of users' rights. This development paved the way for the employment of the BBC's mass storage solution for saving media objects, and for giving all the production teams access to the entire storage resource.

Dr. Karl-Willi Pieper, Head of Media Broadcasting Solutions at VCS, remarked, "We are delighted to hand over this production system integration project to the BBC and to celebrate another major milestone together. It is the largest undertaking of its kind to date. Tapeless production is a lighthouse project within the EBU (European Broadcast Union): no other broadcaster in Europe has integrated as many production workstations in a project as the BBC, no other project has so thoroughly integrated two software products, and for the first time production workstations have been very closely incorporated in the broadcast production process."

Joe Bull, Managing Director of SADiE commented, "We are proud to have been a partner in this exciting project and of our long and successful relationship with the BBC. The collaboration with VCS has been of the highest order and we were jointly able to overcome some significant challenges to bring the project to fruition. We look forward to working together with both the BBC and VCS on future projects".

Following the BBC's acceptance of the project at the beginning of June, the system is currently being used for training purposes. It is scheduled to go live when the BBC moves into its new studios in the renovated Broadcasting House and associated buildings.

www.sadie.com

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