Slagr TV: a music TV channel remotely operated without its own master control room

A TV channel built around music, metadata and simple operation

Slagr TV was founded by musician, lyricist and producer Karel Peterka, and the channel launched on 3 February 2012. From the start, it was a music-focused television channel with strong emphasis on music databases, on-screen information and an operating model that had to remain simple for non-technical staff.

The specific challenge was that the client did not want to build its own playout workplace or handle complex broadcast technology locally. The goal was to separate content and commercial operations from the technical layer and manage everything remotely.

Enable remote operation without local technical facilities

The project was meant to simplify all remote processes so that the Slagr TV team could focus mainly on content and software, while the master control room, playout and supervision remained inside SAT Plus infrastructure.

• management of a large music library and programme metadata,
• automatic music selector for song choice and rotation,
• broadcast layout, lower thirds and on-screen metadata through SmartCASTER,
• fully remote playout from our datacentre,
• support for live inputs from Dubne in the Czech Republic,
• online operator training without building local broadcast infrastructure.

Broadcast Selector, SmartCASTER and a remote master control room

The key role was played by Broadcast Selector, handling metadata and the automatic music selector for everyday song selection and rotation. It was followed by SmartCASTER as the playout solution for transmission, lower thirds and metadata shown directly on screen.

We placed the entire master control room outside the client site, in the SAT Plus datacentre. This allowed the Slagr TV team to stay separated from the technological complexity of the project and work mainly with software, content and occasional live inputs.

From one channel to three stations

The project originally started with one channel. Over time, the operation expanded to three separate stations: Slagr, Slagr Muzika and Slagr Premium. This increased the demands on planning, music rotation, separate playlists, teleshopping blocks and central supervision.

This is where the advantage of the remote model became clear. Expansion did not require building a new local playout centre, only adjustments to software, workflow and the central technology in our own environment.

A satisfied client and broadcast operations without technical burden

The result is a model in which the client is fully separated from the technical complexity of broadcasting. Slagr TV can focus on programming, music, commerce and communication, while playout, backups, monitoring and availability remain on the SAT Plus side.

The deployment also includes Inspector for supervision of potential outages or schedule inconsistencies. In practice these do not occur, and like with our other clients, our fully backed-up infrastructure allows us to maintain an SLA of 99.99%.