The implementation of Pebble Beach Systems’ Dolphin and Marina solutions has provided Scripps Networks Interactive with enhanced resiliency.
Scripps Network Interactive (SNI), a developer of lifestyle-content for TV and the Internet, has successfully broadcasted 33 of its channels from the Knoxville Broadcast Operations Centre using Pebble Beach Systems’ Marina automation and Dolphin integrated channel systems.
For this project, the Pebble Beach Systems team was tasked to design a system that would isolate and protect each playout chain while allowing synchronised operation. The team then architected a multi-domain system: One domain managing ingest and content management, with a second and third domains dedicated to primary and backup transmission, and a forth domain that holds a fully redundant disaster recovery (DR) located out of state.
Scott Wilkerson, engineering manager at SNI, explained: “Our goal was to eliminate as many points of failure as possible. We wanted a more user-friendly UI, column-based editing and synchronised databases. The system had to be easy to maintain, and offer complete redundancy.”
The ingest and content management domain is integrated with a Harmonic ingest server to which files are delivered from an upstream file-based workflow. Despite the high level of isolation, according to Pebble Beach Systems, the domains are able to synchronise metadata, and playlists are mirrored automatically between primary and backup transmission domains.
John Ajamie, senior vice-president, US operations, SNI, added: “Looking back at the development stage, Pebble has met or exceeded our expectations. The increase in efficiency, couple with the reduction in hardware, has enabled us to take on additional work and grow the department.
“This new infrastructure has also positioned ourselves to spin up any content stream the business requires much faster than historically.”
