ATN, Home of MTV Arabiya, Deploys Middle East's First Omneon MediaGrid for Tapeless Workflow
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Mar. 06, 2008
Omneon, Inc. today announced that Arab Media Group (AMG) has selected both the company's MediaGrid active storage system and its Spectrum™ media servers as the foundation for a tapeless infrastructure for its television broadcasting company, Arabian Television Network (ATN), located in Dubai Studio City. ATN, the home of MTV Arabiya, represents the region's first deployment of the MediaGrid, which uses an innovative grid-based architecture to provide active online storage.
"In Dubai, our approach is to implement the newest solutions first," said Maryam al Falasi, general manager of ATN. "Our market is growing at such a pace that we need to not only keep up, but lead."
"The fast processing and real-time scaling of both capacity and bandwidth on the MediaGrid were key factors in our decision to use it at the heart of our workflow," said Afzal Lakdawala, director of broadcast services at AMG. "In addition, the realities of our market mean we expect to enjoy fast growth, so the easy scalability of the Spectrum system was also key. As we have worked with Omneon, we have also appreciated the company's outstanding beginning-to-end service — all the way from workflow definition to installation, training, and support."
The workflow at ATN is being phased in, with full implementation set for April 2008. At that time, Pro-Bel Morpheus automation will direct migration of media content from ingest on Omneon Spectrum servers to online storage on the MediaGrid where up to 27 TB will be available for editing from 10 seats of Apple® Final Cut Pro®. Spectrum servers will also provide six channels of SD playout. Transcoding will be performed by Anystream, subtitling by Softel, and graphics incorporation by Chyron. Harris Broadcast Master will execute presentation scheduling, and the archive will be managed by SGL's FlashNet.
"AMG's new subsidiary has a forward-thinking approach to technology, basing its workflow on a tightly integrated combination of state-of-the-art systems," said Geoff Stedman, Omneon vice president of worldwide marketing. "At Omneon, we believe that this concept makes for the most efficient workflow, one that will position the Arab Television Network to be a standard-bearer for production quality and broadcast reliability in the fast-evolving market."
ATN transmits programming to about 36 million households — an estimated 200 million viewers — in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, and other countries in the Middle East. It launched 24-hour MTV Arabiya in November 2007 and will launch Nickelodeon Arabiya and other new channels this year.
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.
About Arab Media Group
Founded in March 2005, Arab Media Group (AMG) is the largest media organization in the UAE. Its business interests include nine radio stations, three newspapers, television, online, distribution, printing, events management, and outdoor advertising. Its most recent ventures are the launch of MTV Arabiya through its ATN subsidiary and the launch of Virgin Radio.
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