Sony Partners PlayBox for HDXCHANGE
PlayBox Technology has partnered with Sony to provide playout solutions for Sony’s HDXchange networked content management system. The integration of PlayBox with the HDXchange workflow provides a complete seamless end-to-end workflow from ingest to playout, allowing edited content to be immediately available for transmission, as and when required.
The integration of PlayBox adds full-blown playout capabilities that include automation, with the detail defined by customer requirements. Typically the playout workflow involves AirBox servers pulling required material from the HDXchange networked central store into its own playout server’s own store that is dedicated to playout. This operation starts with playlists, created in ListBox or other scheduling or traffic management systems, that are delivered to AirBox. AirBox then checks for the content in its own store. If any required items are missing, it looks in the HDXchange central store and, when found, initiates the copying to the AirBox store over the network as a background task. If any required content is not found, this is flagged to the user for further action. The AirBox automatically plays the material as defined by the playlist. Manual operation is also possible.
HDXchange is a collaborative SD/HD environment across platforms and networks. It operates with a variety of files types including DV, XDCAM, XDCAM HD, HDV, DVCAM and MXF. The material for transmission is stored as MXF or MOV files running at data rates from 18 to 50 MB/s, using 4:1:1 or 4:2:2 sampling. AirBox stores these files directly and outputs the video in the required television format. This can include up or down resizing that is automatically executed in the AirBox mixed playout engine.
The PlayBox capabilities can include a full range of tools such as TitleBox for live on-air interactive graphics and text, SubtitlePlus for subtitles and CaptureBox for direct ingest as well as the AirBox playout server. This equipment is designed for reliability and can be supplied as a fully redundant system with triple redundant power supplies.