Grass Valley Group Unveils First Open, Scalable System For Facility Control

Highly configurable Encore system lets media companies tailor control-system capabilities to maximize routing, network investments

Nevada City, Calif., January 31, 2001 — Giving media companies of all stripes the ability to get just the level of facility and routing control they need-and to easily expand that control as those needs change-the Grass Valley Group today announced Encore™ , the first open, scalable solution for facility control. The next-generation system provides broadcasters and other content creators centralized and distributed router and machine control, remote monitoring and diagnostic capabilities, and signal-integrity analysis to expand the capabilities of their LAN, WAN, and video networks, thus maximizing their signal-management infrastructure investments. And with a design that will enable tighter integration with automation systems, third-party routers, and other equipment, the Encore system will promote even greater inter- and intra-facility integration.

"If you're a post house with a single PC and a router, Encore can handle that. If you're a national network that needs fully redundant router, server, and tally control, video-signal analysis, and remote monitoring and diagnostics, Encore can handle that, too," said Tim Thorsteinson, president of the Grass Valley Group. "And if you want to add more devices next week, next month, or next year, Encore can handle that as well."

Today's announcement is part of the Grass Valley Group's overarching media infrastructure solution, which provides the hardware and software "spine" for applications and distribution media ranging from digital media production and transmission to digital presentation and the Internet. To be showcased at NAB 2001 in Las Vegas (Booth L10409/P), this powerful set of hardware and software products is part of the company's Media Without Bounds™ initiative for enabling Digicasters to get any content, any time, any place. The Grass Valley Group's media infrastructure technologies addresses these concerns by offering the routing, signal and format conversion, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-based remote monitoring and diagnostics, asset and applications management, and shared and distributed storage options required to meet the complex needs of Digicasters and their facilities.

Whether broadcast, Internet, telecommunications, or some other application, the emergence of the scalable Encore system reflects two critical trends touching all high-quality content providers: the increased adoption of open, organic, and highly networked infrastructures; and the need to manage those infrastructures in a cohesive fashion. In the same way they gained control over sprawling networks of servers and desktop PCs, today's content providers need similarly scalable methods for controlling an increasing number of media production, storage, and connectivity devices.

What makes the Encore system so well suited for these content providers is a highly configurable design-one that lets them deploy just the right level of device control, but without sacrificing the ability to extend the scope of that control.

Grass Valley Router Momentum Bodes Well For Encore System

With more than 1,000 Grass Valley™ Series 7000 systems shipped in crosspoint configurations ranging from 32x32 to 1024x1024, the Grass Valley Group's routing systems continue to gain rapid worldwide acceptance. From high-end digital satellite distributors and broadcast control centers to Internet production facilities and telecommunications companies, the systems are becoming a critical link in increasingly sophisticated LAN, WAN, and video networks. That use will broaden even further with the release of the Grass Valley Group's new compact routers, also announced today (see "New Grass Valley Group Routers Break The Mold," January 31, 2001).

The Encore scalable facility control system leverages the popularity of Grass Valley routers by offering an open, Ethernet backbone-based design that lets media companies tailor control system capabilities to suit their particular needs.

Encore: An A La Carte Approach To Facilities Control

Building an Encore control system is as straightforward as it is sophisticated: indeed, its modular design allows for an a la carte selection of facility control options that include matrix configuration, machine control, centralized and distributed capabilities, and SNMP-based remote monitoring and diagnosis. And when used in conjunction with the next-generation Grass Valley 7500 Series routing systems, the Encore system offers an unprecedented video signal-analysis capability.

At an entry level, an Encore system user can configure the crosspoints of a lone routing matrix-and easily expand that control to include a theoretically infinite number of additional matrices. It's also easy to add machine control: whether it's a tape deck, video server, editor or tally, an Encore system can provide Ethernet-, serial-, or General Purpose Interface (GPI)-based machine control either from a computer desktop or through a hardware control panel.

The Encore system is also flexible enough to provide centralized or distributed management of all devices under its control. A broadcast group, for example, could use the system to send programming material from a central location to servers spread across its station chain. But the group could just as easily use the Encore system to enable personnel at each station to review programming material on a central server and use that material if they so choose.

To ensure optimal uptime, users of the Encore system can deploy an SNMP agent to proactively check the status of devices that reside on one or more facility networks. It can report that status information-such as an over-temperature condition that may indicate a faulty fan-to a remote monitoring and diagnostics package such as the Grass Valley Group's NetCentral™ software for SNMP-based remote monitoring and diagnostics (see "Grass Valley Group Bolsters NetCentral Software For Remote Monitoring, Diagnosis," January 31, 2001) to trigger an action such as the paging of a technician.

The Encore system, used in concert with the Grass Valley 7500 Series routing systems and the NetCentral software also offers unprecedented signal-integrity analysis, monitoring, and notification. The Encore system can constantly analyze the signals on a 7500 Series matrix and send an SNMP-based alert to the NetCentral software should a signal deviate from a defined set of parameters. Upon receiving this notification, a technician will be able to use the video output monitoring features of the 7500 Series matrices to easily trace the fault to its source.

To provide even further openness and flexibility, the Encore system will feature advanced application programming interfaces (APIs) for tighter integration with automation systems, third-party routers, and other equipment.

Support For Compact Grass Valley Routers

The Encore system is also designed to support the troika of recently announced compact Grass Valley routers: the Concerto™ Series, Tempo™ Series, and Bravo™ Series lines (see "New Grass Valley Routers Break The Mold," January 31, 2001). The powerful Concerto Series of routers enables users to mix formats within a single frame with unparalleled flexibility. The Tempo Series of routers offers the unique capability of letting users reconfigure input/output ports to suit the demands of a particular application. And the Bravo Series of routers provides an entry-level series of fixed-configuration utility routers. Each of the new router lines offers a flexible, future-proof design for a variety of applications-from multi-screen presentations to video and audio over broadband networks to traditional television-related uses-and all feature the high-quality video, audio, and data routing for which the Grass Valley Group is known.

Pricing And Availbility

Pricing for the Encore system begins at $850 and scales according to the size and sophistication of a routing system. It is scheduled to be available beginning June 2001.

About The Grass Valley Group

The Grass Valley Group knows more about high-quality video than anybody else—especially as video goes digital. Interactive television. Digital cinema. Data-enhanced broadcasting. Internet. It's a world of Digicasting—of Media Without Bounds™. Whether online or on the air, the Emmy award-winning Grass Valley Group, a privately held digital media leader, has the hardware, software, and new media technologies to get content wherever it needs to go.

For the latest Grass Valley Group product information, visit www.grassvalleygroup.com.

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