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As Discovery US celebrates its 20th anniversary later this year,
the company will provide increasingly connected consumers with the
highest quality viewing experience through the digital, file-based,
high-definition ready, owned-and-operated playout facility which
began broadcasting today. In this digital age, the Discovery Television
and Technology Center, located in Virginia leverages the latest
technology to ensure that Discovery's commitment to quality extends
all the way from production to air.
The aim of the Center's specialized technology, systems and staff
will be to guarantee that when viewers tune into any of Discovery's
US Networks they will be met with quality programming provided at
superior broadcast standards. Discovery states that the facility
is a fusion of broadcast and information technology that enables
the use of digital files paired with high-bandwidth data networking
instead of video tapes for the storage and distribution of all programs,
commercials, and other broadcast elements.
As a result, the center provides cost-effective flexibility that
can evolve with Discovery as it brings content to a growing number
of subscribers through traditional and new media. With system integration
services provided by Ascent Media Systems & Technology Services,
the true design and operational center of the facility is the glass-enclosed,
circular master control area that can support any mixture of up
to 64 channels of HD or SD programming. The master control features
three on-air supervisor posts, with the ability to add one more,
and is surrounded by ten transmission pods that can be easily configured
to control as little as one or as many as six of Discovery's US
Networks in various combinations based on business needs.
Additionally, the design will result in tremendous operational
cost savings, while providing the ability to ensure proper signal
monitoring during key programming day parts. The center boasts eight
active media ingest/QC suites that can be grown to ten, a HD/SD-hybrid
live events control room, two non-linear post-production suites
and a transmission operations center (TOC). The fully integrated,
server-based venue also hosts a massive digital data archive and
on-site physical media library. After the initial content ingest,
the entire end-to-end workflow occurs in a tapeless manner employing
five video servers that provide 2000 hours of online storage and
a nearline tape archive that supports up to 90 petabytes of high-resolution
content.
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