NBC Inks Strategic Technology Agreement With Grass Valley Group Estimated Up To $25M
Network standardizes on Grass Valley solutions for central casting, news production, media asset management, HD servers
The order detailed today comprises four strategic areas:
Central Casting. NBC will standardize on the Profile® XP Media Platform and the Grass Valley™ Media Area Network™ (MAN) real-time, shared-storage system.
As part of this standardization effort, NBC will use hub facilities in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City to distribute commercials and programming for the 13 TVSD stations using multiple Grass Valley MAN systems, Grass Valley 7500 WB wideband routers, and Grass Valley modular products. In addition, select TVSD stations will deploy 7500 WB routers and modular equipment for integration into NBC's central casting topology;
News Production. Consisting of the latest version of the Vibrint™ NewsEdit™ nonlinear editor and the production version of the Grass Valley MAN shared-storage system, the Grass Valley Group's news production solution will extend into all NBC properties. The Grass Valley MAN system will support ingest, playout, and editing in a shared-storage environment as well as provide low-resolution browse capabilities.
One application of this news solution will be the transition of NBC's news production environment to a tapeless production system. The Vibrint system will be used for news editing.
Media Asset Management. NBC will deploy the Profile XP Media Platform and Grass Valley MAN systems as a foundation for its company-wide digital media asset management effort.
- High Definition: NBC has chosen the Profile XP Media Platform as the high-definition playback solution for its GEnesis system, a network-wide, Profile-based programming and commercial playout system.
"Grass Valley Group will provide a broad-based solution that we can implement across our entire organization—one with common tool sets and file formats that will enable us to increase efficiencies across the company," said John W. Eck, President, Broadcast and Network Operations at NBC.
"As a global media leader, NBC is charting an important course of workflow efficiency — one that ultimately will lead to increased content creation, distribution, and revenue-generation opportunities," said Tim Thorsteinson, president and CEO of the Grass Valley Group. "There is no greater driver behind our multi-million-dollar research and development efforts than workflow efficiency."
Today's announcement is part of the Grass Valley Group's Media Without Bounds™ initiative to enable broadcasters and video professionals to get any content, anywhere, any time. On display at NAB 2001 (Booth L10409), this initiative features open, integrated solutions that drive workflow and capital efficiencies to help these digicasters build flexible, powerful, and future-proof digital infrastructures and production operations.
About The Grass Valley Group
The Grass Valley Group knows more about high-quality video than anybody else—especially as video goes digital. The Internet. Digital cinema. Data-enhanced broadcasting. Interactive television. It's a world of Digicasting-one that demands Media Without Bounds solutions. 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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