In Demand manages thousands of hours of promotional material thanks to AJA

With more than ten thousand advertising videos each year that help operators promote their television on demand (PPV) and video on demand (VOD) offerings, In Demand has a powerful facility in New York.

In Demand, a leading American distributor of movies, sports and events that manages programming from more than 150 providers for the main cable and telephone operators, has just adopted AJA to streamline your workflows.

To support all this promotional content with more than ten thousand advertising videos each year that help operators promote their television on demand (PPV) and video on demand (VOD) offers, In Demand has powerful facilities in New York.

Owned by Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks, In Demand also serves as the production headquarters for Howard TV On Demand, the show's subscriber video-on-demand service. The Howard Stern Show, which includes daily headlines from Stern's satellite radio show, plus original programming and archival content.

To manage the massive amount of content passing through In Demand's production offices efficiently, Executive Director of Post Production Keith Koby has deployed a selection of AJA equipment to streamline workflows including T-TAP Thunderbolt adapters. “The T-TAP is ideal when you just need to monitor video or output video to another SDI monitor, but you don't need to capture anything,” said Koby. “We are adding several T-TAPs and are really pleased to have it as an affordable Thunderbolt alternative.” Koby also powers AJA's FS1 and FS2 universal frame conversion synchronizers, along with Ki Pro and Ki Pro Rack video recording devices, KONA 3G video input and output cards, Io XT input and output devices and a wide range of AJA mini converters.

In general, the promotional segments that In Demand creates are for “barker” channels to promote video on demand and television on demand programs. For example, to promote “Movies on Demand,” recording studios send footage to In Demand in a variety of formats, letting Koby and his team edit the clips into an original show that also includes a presenter recorded on chroma key. Koby receives HD and SD content that has to be edited together and converted to 4x3 SD footage, which is then compressed in the cable company's content guide preview window. In Demand relies on AJA's FS2 converters to scale this content correctly.

“What FS2 really does well,” Koby said, “is that with scaling there are no interlacing artifacts or abnormalities and the video is placed perfectly in the compressed window of the barker channel.”

Koby and his team strive to deliver the most professional, high-quality content to In Demand cable customers and FS2 allows them to do this at a very affordable price.

"To get the best video quality you need to be able to process live video through reliable hardware, like the FS2. We can 'up-res' or 'down-res' through the device, rather than just scaling in NLE software, which makes a big difference. With the FS2 we can not only deliver unparalleled quality to cable companies, but we can do it at a fraction of the cost," Koby explained.

Saving time and resources

After routing content through the FS2 for conversion or scaling, the material is sent to an AJA Ki Pro Rack, which In Demand has recently been using as an alternative to the VTR. The Ki Pro API automatically downloads any file on the network every ten seconds, streamlining a process that previously required more staff and was subject to human error. Using the Ki Pro in conjunction with an Io XT, a single person can easily record and send content to a transcoder instead of the previous method that required a minimum of two room operators.

“I really like the fact that with the Ki Pro we can maintain the original timecode for the field, especially because we frequently end up scaling and repositioning the materials,” Koby said. “It's also easy to get to the SAN volume, which is useful when you're capturing with set entry and exit points.”

Ingestion synchronization

In addition to creating promotional content, for the past seven years In Demand has also produced Howard Stern's subscriber digital cable channel, Howard TV On Demand. Koby uses AJA tools to ensure a seamless production pace. The In Demand control room manages 19 remote cameras, which capture, without censorship, the media star's radio show.

Simultaneously two FS2 video feeds are routed via fiber to one of In Demand's editing facilities more than four miles away. With the FS2 placed on either side of the ingest, you can achieve clean, coherent video running through independent frame sync so that computers can receive a strong signal continuously, even if the ingest fails.

Finally, using Hi5-3D mini converters with a 5.1 audio suite, In Demand tackles 3D projects for video on demand and produces 3D content for the Xfinity 3D channel. For the releases they make available on this channel, Koby and his team add stereo slates at the beginning and end, thus completing a quality control.