(arvato Systems) Cologne/Gütersloh, 16 March 2012 – German public broadcaster “Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk” (MDR) has been a customer for many years and trusts in the experience of arvato Systems (former S4M – Solutions for Media). MDR chose the arvato Systems broadcast IT experts for the modernization of their “content management system television”. With state of the art technology the broadcaster goes another step towards a file-based future.
Since the end of 2003, MDR employs the modularly designed Video Production Management System (VPMS). Over the years the system was extended with additional functionalities to fulfill the growing demands of the public broadcaster.
In order to continue using state of the art IT technology and to establish the necessary conditions for the switch to high definition, the VPMS system as well as the hardware have been updated. New video servers and editing suites were linked to the system. For the whole project, MDR was not only customer, but also had the role of the general contractor.
“The replacement of software and hardware during ongoing operation was a challenge” says Wolfgang Fessler, head of the business segment -editing- at MDR. “The new technology was implemented step by step and at the same time a wide range of different trainings took place. With VPMS we have now a well-proven system which also fulfills our technological requirements for the future.”
VPMS plays a central role within MDR’s television production. Amongst other things, it controls the ingest process from video signals and manages all HiRes storages for high resolution video material. The long-term storage of HiRes material is realized through the connection with FESAD. Through a special workflow, VPMS is used as distribution platform within the broadcasting organization. Via this mechanism editing suites (AVID and FinalCutPro), control rooms, different departments, broadcasting centers, and the video file transfer with ARD are linked together. Additionally, interfaces to the newsroom system and to the planning system were implemented.
“By having a huge number of interfaces, VPMS is able to control any processes and workflows” says Stefan Hollmann, business segment -planning television- at MDR. “And this is possible from any desktop PC using the web application VPMS MediaCenter.”
The new VPMS version is also able to work with HD file formats which is a precondition for the switch to HDTV.
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