NPG - News Press & Gazette

News-Press & Gazette Company is a family-owned business based in St. Joseph, Missouri. NPG owns and operates media properties consisting of newspapers, radio and television stations across Missouri, California, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho and Texas.

The Goal

Modernization

NPG is steadfast in their commitment to “be the best and most reliable provider of local information, communication and entertainment”.

But NPG knew it had arrived at a crossroad with the television broadcast infrastructure at each of its ten local television markets. Limitations of their existing, highly-localized and predominantly manual workflows were effecting product quality. It was quickly acknowledged that a major infrastructure investment would improve product quality with a favorable return.

It was decided a new Broadcast Operations Center offering centralized monitoring & control would achieve greater technical efficiency and quality control. NPG also decided to commit any savings recognized from the improved operation back into the business to invigorate NPG’s local news production and distribution capabilities.

The Challenge

Maximum Coordination to Minimize Downtime

Colorado Springs, Colorado was the location chosen for the development of the Broadcast Operations Center (BOC). The BOC needed to allow both local personnel and staff out at the edge the ability to control in-market systems and shared fixed resources.

This cross-functionality would be required to allow better management of live segments, breaking news coverage, and staffing challenges at any location. Such flexibility would mean a sophisticated “handshaking” of monitoring and control systems be deployed and continually managed to ensure optimal service uptime. This would also require a secure IP interface to NPG’s IT Core in Missouri.

This multilocational focus would require strict technical and logistical coordination, plus operator training for an entirely new way to work.

The Solution

X-Y Flexibility with Resiliency

To achieve the required performance and functionality, ZTransform and NPG selected an IP-based Monitoring & Control platform as the backbone to a comprehensive solution. This platform allowed operations teams in the BOC and at the edge the ability to take control over the broadcast as scheduled or when unscheduled events required such. In addition to arbitrating control positions, the M&C system can actively probe all services for faults and alert the BOC and edge station TechOps staff to conditions requiring attention.

The upgraded HD master control platform, wrapped by a robust IP network, further enhanced workflows for content ingest, prep, and traffic/playlisting for over 40 channels of NPG program origination and distribution.

The Result

Total Visibility and Control

As a result of the improvements, NPG’s BOC can now monitor the quality of all services and network operating conditions for over 40 channels in ten locations, representing various network affiliations. The master control technology at each station is mirrored at the BOC, enabling remote locations to be manned – or for services to be controlled remotely from the BOC. This technology redundancy provides an added level of Disaster Recovery if ever required.

Station and BOC Operators now have an interactive, real-time, reliable view of all signal paths in both normal and off-normal operating modes. The collective operation’s automated fault-finding process vastly reduces mean time to recovery and is a major boost in quality of service management.

Key Technologies

The following technologies contributed to the success of the project:

Miranda Technologies:

NVISION Routers
Densite card based modular processing
Streaming IRD’s
Branding and down-stream keyers
Audio processing
Kaleido multiviewers
Edgevision Set Top Box automated monitoring and streaming
iControl Remote Station Monitoring

Harris Corporation:

ADC automation
MCapture transport stream recording
Invenio Proxy media prep
Broadcast supervisors
Motion automated media work-flows

Remote Station Monitoring & Control

IP-based Workflows

Automated Fault Detection

Key Services

Planning & Development

Detailed workflow mapping, space planning, technical furniture layout, electrical, acoustics and task lighting specification.

Engineering & Design

Design delivered included AutoCAD based architectural interface drawings, conceptual systems diagrams, build-to functionals, and wirelisting package with pinout details.

Systems Integration

Complete installation, configuration and commissioning services were provided. A key focus was on future growth and ease of system upgrades.

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Modernization

Maximum Coordination to Minimize Downtime

X-Y Flexibility with Resiliency

Total Visibility and Control

Key Technologies

Remote Station Monitoring & Control

IP-based Workflows

Automated Fault Detection

Key Services

Planning & Development

Engineering & Design

Systems Integration

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