Playout servers at DVinfo.net
DV Info Net

Go Back   DV Info Net > The Tools of DV and HD Production > Open DV Discussion
Register FAQ Today's Posts Buyer's Guides

Open DV Discussion
For topics which don't fit into any of the other categories.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old December 5th, 2008, 09:48 PM   #1
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: St. Catharines, ON
Posts: 63
Playout servers

I'm looking into buying a playout server for my church. We deliver CCTV programming to roughly 800 apartment units in an old folks home, and we're looking to run programming on more than just Sunday morning. We need something thats relatively easy to use, and that will allow us to switch between the live broadcast and the prerecorded events. Any suggestions or things to watch out for?
Matt Ratelle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 13th, 2008, 10:33 AM   #2
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: St. Catharines, ON
Posts: 63
Has anyone here heard of bug.tv? I hear they offer Mac based software for video playout, but I can't seem to get clear responses out of them. Has anyone used their system?
Matt Ratelle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 24th, 2008, 12:06 PM   #3
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: St. Catharines, ON
Posts: 63
no one out there has experience with automated playback?
Matt Ratelle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 24th, 2008, 01:33 PM   #4
Major Player
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: cape town South-Africa
Posts: 251
Matt,

Try this boys - Digital Signage, Isenzo Mediacaster digital signage software

They are busy implementing their playback "systems" @ Cape Town TV, South-Africa.

Greetings from the Third World.
Herman Van Deventer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 24th, 2008, 06:01 PM   #5
New Boot
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 17
Otav

I just did a bit of a survey for playout server software for Mac OS X for a satellite tv playout. We looked at FORK (Building4Media), OnTheAir Video (Softron Media Services), Sienna (Gallery UK) and Class-1 (bug.tv).

Ok, I guess I should say we WANTED to look at all of these; after sending several emails and leaving several voice mail messages that went unanswered, we closed the door on Bug TV. Another integrator in Holland that had used them once said that he's not sure what's happened, but they have been singularly unresponsive for several months.

The FORK solution is quite high-end with a price to match, but has nice features. Sienna has some great products (like VirtualVTR), and helped provide solutions for the recent Olympic games but has admitted they are currently a little weak on the scheduling part of their playout solution.

We haven't made the final decision, but we are leaning towards OnTheAir Video. It seems the most "Mac-like", and is scriptable and open (nothing proprietary), offers a complete ingest and automated playout solution with optional graphics overlays (on live streams as well), and is the most cost effective of the bunch. You can get a demo version from their site and play with their software to check it out.

Be advised these are not cheap pieces of software; the prices for even a one-channel playout solution from these companies range from around 1300 euros to around 7500 euros. You will also need to add at least one graphics card in your playout server, so add another 1000 (Blackmagic) to 2000+ (Kona).

Hope that helps.

Russ
Russ Speiser is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 25th, 2008, 03:57 PM   #6
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: St. Catharines, ON
Posts: 63
I've had the same problem with BugTV...they never get back to you! Hmm...Okay. Those solutions may be a bit pricey in terms of having to buy the software and all the hardware. We're looking at a budget of around 4000 dollars for this project I would say. Perhaps we'll need to reconsider.

Last edited by Matt Ratelle; December 25th, 2008 at 04:00 PM. Reason: addition
Matt Ratelle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old December 30th, 2008, 03:30 PM   #7
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: St. Catharines, ON
Posts: 63
Russ, I downloaded the OnTheAir demo, but I found myself wondering where the program was. Was I missing something? It seems like a very simple program, and I'm sure I'd be shocked by the pricetag if I found out. Scheduling seems weak at best. I don't relish the idea scripting the play times with iCal. Is there no better option at a reasonable budget?!
Matt Ratelle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 16th, 2009, 02:19 PM   #8
New Boot
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 17
Just saw this on MacinTouch, maybe it's more to your liking: plyxim dot com - Exibia

Russ
Russ Speiser is offline   Reply With Quote
Old January 17th, 2009, 05:11 PM   #9
Regular Crew
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: St. Catharines, ON
Posts: 63
Russ, thanks for the link! We've got a few programmers in the church(one of which works with video compression and playback in the medical field) and are now considering designing our own system. I'm still hesitant to do that because of obvious reasons, so maybe that suggestion will be what we're looking for!
Matt Ratelle is offline   Reply With Quote
Old February 24th, 2009, 01:40 PM   #10
New Boot
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 17
New playout solution

Just to keep this all in the same thread in case anyone else is looking for similar info, I just found a newcomer for doing high-end playout (TV stations, etc.) on a Mac: ToolsOnAir Apple based broadcast solutions

They got a Pick Hit at IBC in 2008 for their "TV Station In a Mac" suite of products, and apparently are following in the lines of BUG.tv (except they answer the phone...). If you contact them there's a demo available, but right now it's still in beta, with a 1.0 expected in a month or so.

Russ
Russ Speiser is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 12th, 2009, 09:22 PM   #11
Major Player
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Kirkland, WA
Posts: 474
Anyone get a chance to try out Exhibia or Just:Play from ToolsOnAir? Also, any indication on pricing on the ToolsOnAir stuff? (I guess I could just call...)
Ryan Douthit is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 14th, 2009, 12:40 AM   #12
Tourist
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: New York
Posts: 4
Airbox from Playbox is a universal content playout and streaming server. 24/7 unattended operation.

Video Streaming PLAYBOX.TV
Belinda Pan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 15th, 2009, 01:03 PM   #13
Major Player
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Kirkland, WA
Posts: 474
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan Douthit View Post
Anyone get a chance to try out Exhibia or Just:Play from ToolsOnAir? Also, any indication on pricing on the ToolsOnAir stuff? (I guess I could just call...)
Just ran a test of Exhibia and it's a very clever use of of a Mac Mini. For webcasting (our use) there is a small formatting issue, which I've contacted the developers about and am waiting to hear back on. Issue is that it outputs at screen resolution and mac widescreen isn't 16:9, so output is all letterboxed (even if native 16:9). I can compensate using Wirecast's crop feature, but I'd like the source to just be right.

For $500 it's actually a very cool little package. You can download a demo version from their site:

plyxim dot com - Exibia
Ryan Douthit is offline   Reply
Reply

DV Info Net refers all where-to-buy and where-to-rent questions exclusively to these trusted full line dealers and rental houses...

B&H Photo Video
(866) 521-7381
New York, NY USA

Scan Computers Int. Ltd.
+44 0871-472-4747
Bolton, Lancashire UK


DV Info Net also encourages you to support local businesses and buy from an authorized dealer in your neighborhood.
  You are here: DV Info Net > The Tools of DV and HD Production > Open DV Discussion


 



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 07:03 AM.


DV Info Net -- Real Names, Real People, Real Info!
1998-2024 The Digital Video Information Network