D-Series DSX™ Playout Automation Solution Summary

Scalability
D-Series DSX automation delivers a complete set of basic and optional features to support diverse content-delivery business models and ensure competitiveness in the chase for market share. That means you’ll benefit from operational efficiencies, system reliability and, most importantly, the scalability to support channel expansion. D-Series DSX offers the following advantages:

• Delivers the bandwidth to expand across existing platforms and into new methods of media delivery
• Cost-effective addition of large numbers of new channels, allowing you to expand your content delivery capabilities and grow your revenues
• Supports the SMPTE-2021 Broadcast eXchange Format (BXF). BXF allows for the dynamic exchange of schedule and content metadata between compliant applications
• Provides the highest levels of reliability, ensuring your business continuity through:
  
  • The redundancy of system components, with automatic failover functionality to make any failure transparent to the viewing audience, regardless of the delivery platform  

Productivity
A number of features are built into the D-Series DSX user interface to maximize operator efficiency.

• Layouts can be tailored to operator preferences, making it easy to monitor multiple channels from a single operator station. A single operator can configure and monitor any combination of channels
• Operators can drag-and-drop content items from a cache list or information database into a playout schedule, easily accommodating last-minute schedule changes
• Flexible tools enable editing across multiple schedules at any time — even if the event is on-air
• Drill-down capabilities allow quick and easy viewing of all details for both primary and secondary events
• A horizontal timeline can monitor a single schedule or a group of schedules
• Multiple alternate schedules for each channel help manage the unpredictability of live events
• Comprehensive error reporting and summary tools allow an operator to avoid any on-air problems when managing multiple channels

Screen content can be split horizontally (top) or vertically.

Up to 10 schedules can be displayed with the horizontal timeline.

Flexibility
D-Series DSX makes the transition to a networked IP control environment easy. Already in use for data exchange and media file transfer between devices and applications, IP is now increasingly used for real-time playout control.

• Enhanced IP device interfaces anticipate control functionality of next-generation devices
• Device control and system communications are provided through both serial interface and Ethernet connections
• The Device Controller supports D-Series DSX through use of the Linux operating system to enhance system functionality, yield higher levels of performance and reliability, and deliver environmental and security improvements that result in higher ROI

Supporting Products
D-Series DSX automation is a member of the Harris media software suite — a family of applications designed to support the workflow within a media operation, from proposals and sales through media playout and delivery. D-Series DSX provides one system of interoperability using open messaging standards, such as BXF.

Harris applications that combine with D-Series DSX to enhance broadcast scalability and productivity include:

• Invenio®: The Invenio digital asset management system features a complete toolset that works with D-Series DSX to deliver an integrated asset management solution. Content metadata is fully shared between the systems, independent of which system ingested, logged or marked up the material, or whether ingest produced hi-res or proxy copies. Every D-Series DSX and Invenio user has the same data and access to the same material.
  
• Intelligent Media Mover™: There is an increasing emphasis in the automation arena on material movement, transcoding, repurposing and delivery. Intelligent Media Mover expands an automation system into a complete management tool, allowing the user to establish automated workflows for activities using simple graphical tools — material is automatically detected and processed according to user-defined rules and parameters. IMM workflows can support production — including editing, subtitle preparation and audio dubbing — or distribution.