Aicox presents Aveco's proposals for an automated, stress-free and error-free issuance

Aveco's portfolio, which includes proposals for creation, management and delivery, is articulated around its Astra solution with Studio, Ingest, MAM, MCR and ICP.

Automations both in studios and in broadcast continuity become more complex day by day as the number of channels, regional versions, or sources increase (external contributions, multi-studio, advanced graphics...). To analyze the new tools that broadcasters have at their disposal to avoid losing their heads in this complex environment, Aicox Solutions y Aveco They have organized a webinar in which proposals have been addressed both on premise and in the cloud.

Alejandro Paludi, Chief Sales Officer at Aveco; Jared Pieper, VP Sales Engineering & Support Americas en Aveco; y Javier Garcia, Director Broadcast & IT Aicox Soluciones, han sido los encargados de compartir con los profesionales que han participado en este seminario virtual las ventajas que aporta la empresa especializada en el diseño, distribución y soporte de automatización de la producción de estudios, la automatización del control maestro y los sistemas de playout de canales integrados en todo el mundo.

Throughout his almost 30 years in the industry, Aveco has deployed its solutions in more than 250 clients worldwide, from canales locales a grandes corporaciones as NBCUnivesal, ESPN Brasil, ARD, DMC Africa, Sky o Televisa. En este último caso, el broadcaster mexicano ha confiado en Aveco para el control de emisión de sus cinco canales principales (con 16 diferentes versiones geográficas), con una fuerte integración con el MAM de Tedial, así como para gestionar 26 diferentes masters en Televisa Networks.

Una de las últimas instalaciones a gran escala de Aveco la encontramos en la india ETV India, por cuyo proyecto recibieron el IBC Innovation Award en 2019. Sus soluciones han permitido automatizar la producción y reproducción de noticias en 24 estudios, para 24 canales de noticias 24 horas en 13 idiomas diferentes en directo y bajo demanda.

ETV Bharat has 5,000 journalists in 29 states of India, all of whom can produce news.
Aveco automates production, recording and live playback of these 24 channels, further providing automation of the entire workflow.

One of the characteristics that distinguishes Aveco is its continuous and close support. In addition to its headquarters in Prague, the company has offices in Los Angeles, Mexico, Miami, Bogotá, Sao Paulo, Moscow, New Delhi and Bangkok.

In October 2020, Aicox and Aveco closed a distribution agreement in Spain and Portugal covering everything from studio automation systems, master control room and broadcast automation, integrated playout systems to cloud-based master control.

Aveco's automation system stands out because it can manage on-premise video servers and cloud video servers, as well as channel in a box systems. Its proposal is outlined as a solution for production automation and master control for transfers between MCR and PCR that allows changing from a rundown of one study to the rundown of another with a single click, instantly moving the control for all PCR and study equipment.

Paludi highlighted that "Aveco offers independence and integration with all brands on the market to establish the workflows that the client really needs. The client decides which devices to work with with the maximum reliability of our systems."

He has also stressed that "since the 90s, almost all companies dedicated to automation have suffered dramatic changes in their policies, management teams, shareholders... and some have even disappeared or merged... However, Aveco continues with the same essence and values, evolving products and having the customer at the center of our strategy, taking care of them with the same policy for almost 30 years."

Astra Universe

The Aveco portfolio that includes proposals for creation, management and delivery is articulated around your Astra solution with Astra Studio (study automation) and Ingest (intake); Astra HAS (management), and, in delivery, Astra MCR (master control) e ICP (Integrated Channel Playout).

Its Astra solution is capable of controlling all the equipment through a user interface that connects with the servers to control, ingest, graphics, audio, studio automation... It is also possible to configure insertion of advertising and local or regional programs, a newsroom system, social media, traffic system or cloud playout.

When Aveco began its journey in 1992, it did so with a physical solution Astra MCR (on Prem) that over time has been virtualized, until it is now installed in the cloud.

Furthermore, currently, and thanks to its integration with Harmonic VOS360, Astra can integrate with physical systems installed on the server and cloud systems such as graphics, for example.

Depending on the maturity of the resources, and needs or model of each client, you can opt for a workflow on prem, in the cloud, or a hybrid solution. In the case of the cloud, Harmonic VOS 360 allows control by Astra MCR installed on prem.

One of the great advantages of Astra is that it uses a very intuitive and visual playlist which allows you to insert events on the fly in the playlist (for example, to launch a spot when scoring a goal in the broadcast of a match), or organize more complex secondary events with templates.

Also integrated with Xspectrum From Harmonic, Aveco's system offers to insert dynamic graphics or text, write metadata or generate automatic graphics as a countdown to announce a program, or publish manually or automatically to social networks such as Twitter (thus attracting viewers to the screen).

It is also possible to alter the programming at any time, and without any stress, to make way for the last hours of information, interrupting the playlist to go to a live event in the studio or outdoors and resuming the usual broadcast whenever desired at the point where it left off (for example a movie or an advertising list).

As for MAM concerned, Astra is offered in a basic version and a more advanced cloud-based version and on HTML5. Astra allows you to manage transfers, transcoding for both broadcast and deep archive; view both local and remote proxy; generate subclips by segmenting the material, auto-ingestion; recording of a live event that is being broadcast; version of that material...

In any case it is possible establish rulesFor example, send to a deep file, delete after certain days, configure transcoding depending on whether it goes to the cloud or local...

In this webinar organized by Aveco and Aicox, a demonstration of integration in the editorial office with Inews Avid quedando patente que con la misma interfaz es posible controlar el control maestro o un informativo completo; lanzar cabeceras; abrir micros; mover cámara robóticas; lanzar gráficos… gestionando con un solo comando control videoservidor, gráfica, robóticas, o mesa de mezclas de vídeo y audio.

Si algo cambia en el último segundo basta con mover el evento sobre el timeline de emisión y con él se moverán sus automatizaciones asociadas (de micros, gráficas, posiciones de cámara…)

Desde la misma interfaz, es posible lanzar un spot desde control maestro reduciendo así equipos y personal compatiendo recursos para informativos y continuidad.

Finally, note that in times of COVID-19 restrictions, it is possible work remotely without having the video server nearby. The client can be opened from anywhere in the world to work with teams in another location or with cloud systems. In the case of regional broadcasts, this approach allows the broadcaster to control the video servers of its regional centers from a single central headquarters.