Case Study

i-Vysočina:
a regional TV channel built around news and automation

A regional TV service for the Vysočina region spanning a web presence, web TV and traditional terrestrial broadcasting. Content is produced, dropped into a production folder and then automatically turned into the next hour of playout, with graphics built from metadata.

Operator: VIA PRESS s.r.o. / project brand under pHmedia Czech Republic s.r.o.
Broadcast launch: 14 September 2015
Project type: regional news television with automated scheduling, graphics overlays and a fast publishing workflow
Scope: Broadcast Selector for planning, SmartCASTER for playout, HTML5 graphics, EPG, weather and traffic data, plus redundancy
Products: Broadcast Selector, SmartCASTER, HTML5 graphics, integration workflow and playout supervision

Editoriallocal news and current events

Infotextgraphics, weather, traffic, data

CMSautomatic schedule assembly

Playoutautomated content publishing

Redundancybackups and supervision

Regionnews from the region and subregions

Starting point

A regional TV service that has to stay fast and current

i-Vysočina.CZ is a regional television service that works as both a web TV presence and a terrestrial channel. The core is speed: a report is shot, edited and placed into a production folder, and the system automatically prepares the next hour of playout.

Graphics are not assembled manually for every broadcast. They are driven by metadata entered during production, which lets the system automatically select the correct captions, infotext layers, weather and traffic elements without redundant operator work.

Assignment

Connect the newsroom to automated broadcasting

This was not a traditional station with manual schedule building. The aim was for Broadcast Selector to create the playlist from the internal editorial system and production folders, and for SmartCASTER to put it on air with very little manual intervention.

integration with the internal editorial system,
automatic publication from production folders,
HTML5 infotext graphics for news, weather and traffic,
automatic programme building from prepared data,
automated playout with redundancy support,
content for the Vysočina region and subregional contributors.

SAT Plus solution

Planning, playlists and playout under automation control

We delivered a system for scheduling and playlist creation that lets the station operate with a very small staff. Broadcast Selector plans, SmartCASTER playouts, and in between there is a substantial amount of automation for moving data, controlling the programme and publishing content.

HTML5 graphics are a big part of the channel and also power the related i-Vysočina projects. Thanks to metadata and automation, even a small team can look and operate like a large TV station.

Result

Production stays local, technology runs itself

The owner can focus on creating news and regional content, while everything else is automated. The result is a news channel that behaves like a fast, transparent and reliable regional service for the region and its subregions.

The project shows that a regional TV channel can operate as a fully automated system where speed of publication, HTML5 graphics, metadata and reliable content delivery are the key priorities.

Related projects

A family of regional and thematic channels

Over time, other projects were added around i-Vysočina that follow a similar pattern: fast news, automated distribution and minimal technical overhead.