Plays major role in UK broadcaster's digital migration project
25 September 2009 - itfc, the London-based video services provider, has helped Five complete the first stages of its digital migration project. itfc is preparing all acquired material - about 70 hours of programming a week - for transmission over the next five years. The company will initially prepare material for both tape- and file-based workflows as Five moves its operations to a digital tapeless environment.
The migration of tape-based workflows to digital file delivery for Fiver and Five USA went live at the end of August following seven months of detailed design, development and testing with itfc. The new workflow involves itfc delivering all acquired programming as files via Five's Pharos Mediator to Red Bee for transmission on Fiver and Five USA.
"The digital migration project has involved a huge collaborative effort between itfc, Five and others," said Rob Dickinson, project manager, digital migration project, Five. "Despite being a very complex project from both a technical and an operational point of view, itfc have helped us meet our original deadline - which is a fantastic achievement in itself. They've made a huge contribution to achieving the first milestones in our digital migration programme, and we're looking forward to working with them on the next stages."
The next stages of the project will see itfc implement file-based delivery of acquired files to Ascent Media for transmission on Five, and moving Five's non-linear editing from itfc to Five.
"We believe itfc is now delivering the largest amount of digitised programme material in the UK," said Chris Higgs, managing director, itfc. "Our staff have a wealth of experience in this area and we're very proud of our achievement. We have a great relationship with Five and look forward to continuing this over the next five years."
Dave Harris, director of engineering and technology, itfc added: "The biggest challenge was getting kit from different manufacturers to interface with each other. We kept the spec tight so that we didn?t have to spend vast amounts on expensive storage. The result is a very cost-effective, agile system."
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