NOORSAT Expands with PlayBox Technology
Playbox Technology has supplied and installed a 16-channel turnkey playback solution for the Arab satellite teleport Noorsat based in Bahrain. This adds 16 new channels to Noorsat’s existing 32 channels that focus on satellite-based DTH TV services to the Arab world, offering TV companies instant reach to all satellite TV dishes in the area.
The turnkey project included the supply and installation of Playbox AirBox playout and TitleBox interactive graphics systems as well as the associated video and audio monitoring, conversion, multi-viewing, distribution and routing from Leitch. This was to fulfil the requirement for a compact playout facility offering simple operation for this large-scale requirement that also included full on-site training of both the engineers and operators.
As a step towards meeting Noorsat’s prerequisite to maintain the highest possible video and audio quality, Playbox AirBox and TitleBox use ASI streaming, rather than SDI outputs. To the same end, the 16 channels use AirBox playout and TitleBox interactive graphics in one workstation providing an economy of hardware and infrastructure while the compression codecs in the signal path are minimised.
For ease and security of operation the workflow is fully automated from the five CaptureBox ingest servers through the PlayBox 8TB NAS server to the AirBox and TitleBox playout servers to air. For this PlayBox SafeBox interprets the transmission schedules and ensures that all media is ready and in place well before transmission. Any missing media is flagged up and notified to the operators.
Monitoring of the 16 channels is achieved using two plasma screens, one for the transmission feed and the other for checking off-air, fed by two 16-channel multi-viewers that place the 16 channels onto the screens. There is a router for audio monitoring.
Installed and commissioned in November 2007, by mid January 2008 already 15 of the 16 new channels are now in service. Nachaat Waheeb, VP Engineering at Noorsat said, “The sixteenth channel is for testing and development, so our new playout is already full. We are very happy with the PlayBox playout solutions. We chose PlayBox in the first place because it meets all of our customer’s needs, and now, if we wanted more, we would choose PlayBox again.”