Easy file work -based playflow with playbox

With a use of IT -based equipment for operational areas and the implementation of a growing number of functions that may be within a “box” according to their customers requests, Playbox offers advanced storage solutions, automation, asset management and playout with maximum flexibility.

File -based workflows are not new to PlayBox Technology. Throughout his 12 years of life, this playout solution company has always worked on a Windows platform using IT hardware.

Initially, connections with the world used analog, SDI or so. Today there are two important changes.

There is greater use of IT -based equipment for operational areas, including video storage, graphics, news, edition, files and, of course, reproduction.

A second trend has been internal in Playbox Technology: the implementation of a growing number of functions that may be inside a “box”. Much of this expansion is the result of customer requests.

With the IT industry, continually striving to improve performance, add more internal functions makes sense - both technically and economically. The latest incorporation is the QCBOX winner for quality control, which joins a long list of modules around the Airbox automation and reproduction server that includes capturebox intake, Titlebox interactive 3D graphics, subtitlebox and subtitleplus subtitle solutions, Databox and Safebox content management, Alarmbox and many more. Using these applications creates an effective internal workflow between the components that are designed to work together.

That harmony is not always among the external boxes -especially those based on IT. A very common obstacle for those responsible for establishing file -based workflows is the range of file formats among existing equipment. Connecting them together on Ethernet can easily work.

Therefore, for daily work, some return to the old tape to achieve, for example, edition and reproduction based on IT. And, as an isolated event, one could have to face the expensive perspective, in time and money, to have to dump all disc files on a tape and then pass them to the format chosen for the new file -based system. It is not ideal!

With any format

Playbox Technology has a much better solution. Since it was a rookie company, its products have always had to work with all file formats, including the ‘spoiled’ of other manufacturers. Nowadays that task is in charge of Mixer: a high -range format conversion engine that manages all the most common formats and elaborates the content in the required format.

Mixer is a true Cinderella. Hidden in the catalog, without detail, it is, however, an essential part of the modern airbox, eliminating all format problems when working with compression codec (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.264, M-JPEG, JPEG2000, etc), containers (AVI, MPG, MOV, MXF, GXF, etc. speeds (PAL - 25FPS, NTSC of 29.97 fps, 30 fps, 24 fps, 50 fps, 59.94 and others), different audio codecs (MPEG, AAC, without compressing, ...) and different metadata.

Take advantage of the power of modern intel ‘core i’ technology of the mixer expands the unmatched capacity of Playbox Technology to work with any file format. There is no need to transfer the 1000+ hours file, turn the content edited to tape or reject external files. The mixer causes file-based reproduction workflow to become a ‘plug-and-play’ reality.

That powerful technology under the hood helps to go further, to offer complete workflow solutions. These include Edgebox for absolute remote redundant automatic reproduction from anywhere in the world; ADBOX providing additions without sewing or insertion of programs and Timeshiftbox offering time delays with ‘bug’ insertion and without loss of quality.