E-junior’s HD adventure

Children’s edutainment channel E-junior marked its 12th anniversary this year with a complete transition to High Definition (HD) coupled with new programming to reflect the high quality image broadcasts. In an exclusive interview with Vibhuti Arora, Fatiha Bensalem, Senior Channel Manager of E-junior, and Khaled Al Baloushi, Manager of Recording & Servicing at eLife, talk about the channel’s programming strategy and its transition to HD 

E-junior has been rated as the most viewed kids’ channel in the UAE since its roll-out in 2001, according to Etisalat’s TV Digital Audience Measurement System. Its recent migration to HD and the adoption of a brand new look and feel is aimed at further strengthening the channel’s position in the market.

Fatiha Bensalem, Senior Channel Manager of E-junior, has been responsible for content acquisition and selection at the channel, and has been involved in the HD upgrade from the word go. The upgrade, according to her, was necessary to keep pace with the fast changing world of broadcast technology.

“The channel’s transition to HD was necessary to live up to our commitment to provide the best in kids’ entertainment and to keep up with the shift for greater quality standards in the market. The viewers have a better viewing experience with the HD format. The process took about a year-and-a-half of intense planning and preparations from our technical team. Content wise, we had to ensure we had the licensing and the necessary quality checks to make the transition as smooth as possible,” says Bensalem.

The process began in Q3 2011 for a 2013 launch and saw the entire workflow revised to meet the demands of the HD migration. This was reflected in every part of the operation including the production, post, servicing and playout areas among others. Once the channel achieved technical readiness, preparations for choosing suitable HD content for E-junior also began.

“The transition was not just limited to the technical realm. Once we had the technical upgrades in place, the programming department took over and we worked very closely with the other teams to customise the facilities to our needs,” explains Bensalem.

“We changed our acquisition plans to work on HD. We apply stringent standards and practices when it comes to our audience to seek the right content. The transition was undertaken in a phased manner with some content going on full HD while the rest of it stayed in SD. In due course, the entire format was changed.”

E-junior’s migration to HD, however, was part of a larger transition to the new format within E-vision, the television arm of telecom operator Etisalat, says Khaled Al Baloushi, Manager of Recording & Servicing at E-vision.

This larger vision witnessed the launch of Etisalat’s new HD and 3G-capable HDTV playout centre that is entirely file-based from ingest to playout, with low-res and high-res workflow, cross-function control using a media asset management system as well as state-of-the-art rights management and scheduling along with the most modern multicast playout technology. This migration was undertaken by Etisalat in conjunction with systems integrator Qvest Media, which is a part of German Wellen+Noethen Group.

“The plan was to move to a full HD facility for all of Etisalat’s in-house channels. We started with E-junior followed by E-masala and Info channel, and plan to move on to the other unused playout facilities,” explains Al Baloushi.

Beyond that, in close co-operation, engineers from Etisalat and Qvest Media designed and specified an entirely new workflow model to advance Etisalat’s production processes.

Presently, Etisalat distributes more than 490 television channels in 21 different languages in various genres such as sports, movies, documentaries and music through its IPTV network and video on-demand. Now, nine complete HD/3G/SD multi-format broadcast chains come with the new HDTV playout centre which, contrary to the IPTV channels, can be produced with a fully-equipped TV infrastructure.

“Etisalat has the capacity to run nine in-house HD channels from the new playout centre. The rest of the channels on the E-vision platform are pass through channels, which we get from satellites as per our agreement with different companies. We have the target, however, to offer a bouquet of 700 SD and HD channels eventually.”

With the new installation, Etisalat offers the broadcasting chain as a fully-equipped and 100% managed infrastructure to national and international TV channels as well as feed suppliers for handling their broadcast management. It allows the telco to not only offer its broadcast customers a fully-equipped HD/SD multi-distribution platform for transmitting of broadcast content, but also, when required, handling of the entire content management.

The project

A total revamp of E-vision’s transmission facility at Al Dhaid was undertaken in 2012 beginning with the replacement of the Harris digital playout system with Omneon servers and Pebble Beach System playout. The entire system was transformed to a file-based operation with the adoption of a Video Production Management System (VPMS) from Arvato Systems for media asset management (MAM).

The MAM system was a key element of this project because as a telecommunications provider, Etisalat operates in a market environment that is characterised by fast-moving product lifecycles and huge innovation leaps, which not only place huge demands on technical and operative manoeuvrability but also on corporate culture.

The answer lay in ensuring that alongside the integration of a standardised workflow, nearly all processes relevant to production would also be incorporated into a central administration system. So in addition to workflow definition, there was also the challenge of specifying the system components and processes of a central MAM, which could not only work with a production format but also have the necessary interfaces and connectors capable of cross-process integration in all areas of the workflow, for example, ingest, transcoding, scheduling and traffic management, processing, archiving and playout.

The solution was found with German company Arvato Systems, whose MAM system makes it possible to integrate nearly all broadcast-relevant processes. With Arvato’s VPMS, Etisalat ultimately decided on a solution that seamlessly supports all production-relevant workflows in a software component and clearly-arranged GUI (graphical user interface).

“VPMS allows for browsing, metadata generation and editing, draft editing with voice-over, audio editing as well as monitoring ingests and triggering the transcoding process. Its other features assist operators from all areas of production with channel management; scheduling, running, and monitoring video ingest tasks; video ingest, standards and practices, post production, graphics or playout as well as convenient ways for interfacing, controlling video servers and video movements for video playout and archiving. Operators can either use VPMS to carry out their production work or hand over their data to media asset management via compatible connectors and exchange formats,” explains Al Baloushi.

The biggest challenge that the team faced was to revamp the system on a legacy infrastructure, whilst adhering to stringent quality checks. Some of the existing content had to run on HD, which had to adopt the version passed by E-vision’s quality control (QC) department.

The content acquired by E-vision’s channels has to adhere to XDCAM50i, the quality standard compatible with Omneon servers. Different Omneon servers were deployed across the chain including its Media Deck for ingest, Media Grid for post and Spectrum for on-air. These servers are common to all of E-vision’s channels including E-junior.

Once the content is ingested, it is converted to XDCAM HD with 50 Mbit/s format and is flown into the chain.

The channel’s HD content may be delivered on hard drives, tapes, or as files but the VPMS converts it to the house format during ingest. Most of E-junior’s content, however, is delivered digitally through FTP via Aspera or Signiant.

“The content is passed on to the technical department as email links which can be easily downloaded on their servers. This is then ingested and starts the service workflows,” says Bensalem.

“The content is viewed after ingesting it on to clipJOCKEY, which is also part of the MAM system. The approved content is available on the video server in high and low-res to conduct standard and practice (S&P) monitoring, preparation for promotions and final approvals from channel managers.

“Previously, in SD, we used to have a much larger proportion of content that was rejected due to technical issues. Since we transitioned to HD, we have faced fewer rejections on account of technical glitches, mainly because we have moved away from tapes. Tapes are more likely to undergo damage in shipment and due to repeated usage and recycling. Now, I would say 95% of our content comes in digital file format, which has proved to be a great time saver for us,” explains Bensalem.

As with most such workflows today, the high-res files remain on the video server while the low-res version is created for viewing through the VPMS interface. The S&P department then reviews the content and decides if it is S&P approved, ready for edit or rejected. E-junior presently acquires 1000 hours of content annually, which is then serviced by the channel’s in-house team.

“The MAM performs QCs on each video file. When we confirm QC, the MAM system creates low-res files for viewing. They are then sent to programming and S&P,” chips in Al Baloushi.

The MAM-based quality checks are undertaken with Cerify and Baton for complete checks for compliance to formats, media regulations, and a wide-variety of content quality requirements.

“At E-junior, we have very strict guidelines to ensure that the content is not offensive to the UAE culture so the content is viewed very carefully,” E-junior’s Bensalem adds.

“We don’t comment on creative aspects but adhere to cultural considerations. Unsuitable content is either edited or rejected.”

The VPMS also comes with a package of backend modules for media management within workflow transfers such as format conversion, controlling different hardware or information sharing with external applications. The programming department creates promo requests on the VPMS system.

E-junior offers four audio channels. There is also the option to view programmes with subtitles, which is provided using DVB subtitling. Most programmes are offered in both Arabic and English. Subtitles can be switched on and off as per each viewer’s choice. The channel works with specialists to dub and create subtitles.

The broadcast infrastructure is connected to Etisalat’s video on demand (VOD) platform. Here, material ready for broadcast is available on demand for viewers as time-delayed streaming. This special function is enabled by Arvato’s VPMS in connection with What’sOn channel management and scheduling. This way, the programme planner decides, which content should be transmitted to the VOD platform by generating a list of material from What’sOn and transmitting it via XML request to VPMS. VPMS processes this request automatically, compiles the requested material, triggers a set transcoding into the desired file formats and finally transfers the material to the VOD system. This gives Etisalat a simple yet effective option for integrating broadcast material for second viewing.

Al Baloushi adds that subscription video on demand (SVOD) is also on the cards “as part of our plan to offer the latest to our customers” and a fully redundant Isilon system that can archive up to 5000 hours of tapeless automation with VPMS is part of this effort.

The Isilon solution will enable E-vision to store up to 10,000 hours of content in due course as it introduces SVOD, which will include both subscription based movies and/or programming giving subscribers unlimited access to specific programming for a regular fee. The service requires that the MAM can handle an additional 10,000 hours in the first phase. This will later be expanded to include 20,000 hours.

“We hope to add 10,000 hours within a year. Included in the subscription fee, will be charges to access the VOD library,” says Al Baloushi.

Etisalat and systems integrator Qvest Media worked together to ensure that alongside the integration of a standardised workflow, all processes relevant to production would also be incorporated into a central administration system. So, in addition to defining the workflow, there was also the challenge to specify the system components and processes of a central MAM that can work with a production format and have the necessary interfaces and connectors capable of cross-process integration in all areas of the workflow.

Thus, seamless VPMS integration can be best illustrated in the production area of channel management and scheduling. The choice of a programme planning tool fell to What’sOn, the solution of Belgian software developer MediaGeniX. The modular architecture of this scheduling system enables programme planning that is tailored to the specific requirements of Etisalat. The What’sOn package enables programme planners to control and organise their entire programme scheduling, contracts and rights management as well as advertising and campaign planning. As the production step preceding ingest, the programme planner also decides which content should be broadcast and at what time. The What’sOn operator additionally uses the planned broadcast list to prepare a material request, which is then sent via the SOAP interface in XML format to the VPMS.

Automated ingest

It makes no difference whether the requested material is on tapes, external hard-drives or on other mobile storage media because the ingest technology is equipped for every type of medium, such as tape, file or feed ingest. On the other hand, what all ingest variants have in common is that they can be converted to the same production format while they are in the ingest process. Etisalat was impressed with the XDCAM HD with 50 Mbit/s format, which has now been integrated as the standard format along the entire production chain.

What this means for the concrete ingest process is that the programme planner first sends the material request to the VPMS media asset management system. Based on this material request, the ingest operator checks to see whether the material has been delivered in a pre-defined production format. If this is not the case, VPMS immediately triggers the transcoding of the material in the course of the ingest process.

The Up, Down and Cross converters by Snell as well as a transcoding server by Harmonic (formerly Rhozet) convert the data to the desired in-house standard format before it is stored on a central Omneon MediaGrid production storage server with more than 900 hours of storage capacity, using the Omneon video server selected by ingest. But as a special feature, not only is the original high-res data transcoded and ingest in XDCAM HD 50 Mbit/s, a proxy file in MPEG4 with H.264 coding is automatically created, which is saved on a cluster server by Hewlett Packard (HP) with 20,000 hours of storage capacity to enable LowRes editing.

The harmonised production standard as well as the creation of high-res and proxy files gives Etisalat a highly accelerated workflow, a hugely increased production efficiency and all the production cost benefits associated with that.

QC, low-res production and edit in place

Once the material has been transcoded, ingest and sent to a central storage unit, VPMS again takes control and initialises a quality check of the data. An interface to a file check system from Baton ensures that the technical data quality, for example in terms of the production format and picture and sound quality, is checked. This way, around 100 hours of material can be monitored every day for conformity. Parallel to this QC, the material can be accessed at any time for further processing, with the system architecture generally allowing for two different production paths. This allows the standards and practices editing function to carry out high quality low-res production based on the MPEG4 proxy files.

Additionally, PreviewClient is used as an extra production tool for VPMS, to completely edit the material based on the proxy files. VPMS then creates the corresponding high-res file in the background, which is later transferred to playout. The advantage of this method is that in the case of important content or if the team’s own post-production is already at full capacity, high-res editing will no longer be necessary. If there is more time and staff capacity in production, the material can also be intensively edited in a post-production environment.

At a total of four fully-equipped Apple Final Cut Pro editing workstations, the cutters can use in-place editing to process the material. This means that the cutter can edit and make the material available right on the Omneon MediaGrid storage system in high resolution, which eliminates the time consuming transfer of the material and enables fast turnaround. As an alternative to storing the material on the storage unit, it can also be saved in a high-res archive based on Isilon servers. Similar to Omneon MediaGrid and the HP low-res storage, Isilon archives are fully redundant in order to prevent potential data loss.

“One of the particular challenges was to design and equip the technical infrastructure with a workflow that is as easy and intuitive as possible for alternating operators. Another challenge was to create the platform as compatible as possible for various standards and formats, so that Etisalat can offer an infrastructure that adjusts seamlessly to even the most diverse production and broadcasting requirements. To accomplish this, we specified the system components and processes of the central media asset management system from our partner Arvato Systems. The cross-functional control will systematically be pursued in all areas such as ingest, playout, central storage, studio automation as well as video, audio and graphics editing,” says Thomas Mueller, General Manager, Qvest Media Dubai.

Transfer to playout

As soon as the material that is ready for broadcast is available on the MediaGrid or in the archives, the scheduling management tool of MediaGeniX comes into play again. Based on the broadcasting list which is also transferred to playout in the form of an XML file, automation requests the required clips in the VPMS. Once the data has been made available it is then transmitted to the Omeon Spectrum playout server.

From this point on, the Neptune automation by Pebble Beach Systems takes over full control of the material and any necessary playout processes. Alongside Dolby encoding and audio and video monitoring, graphic tasks such as the channel branding for on-air promotions are also placed in the playout environment. Using a graphics system mainly based on Miranda and Vizrt components, graphics, overview tables, channel logs, lower thirds and writing can be added flexibly during broadcast. Creating graphics is facilitated by pre-defined templates which can already be filled with content such as texts and pictures in the programme planning phase. This way, not every single graphic needs to be provided by a graphics designer, but can be created by a programme planner in a recurring and uniform look through the use of templates. Real time rendering of the final graphics is done during broadcast.

For the multicast of the material in HD and if necessary in SD, a total of 20 channels are available to Pebble Beach Systems automation on the Omneon playout servers, in order to provide for nine complete broadcast chains.