AUTOMATED  PLAYOUT

Oireachtas TV relays the business of the Irish Parliament to over 1 million homes across Ireland.  Libirel Communications Ltd were awarded the contract to provide the 24/7 automated TV channel which was launched on 22 September 2014.

For the core of the system Libirel commissioned Si-Media and worked closely with them to provide a system composed of Ingest Servers, Playout Servers, MAM, QC and a 2 Year Media Storage.  The Automation System provides a live output from the 6 Chambers of the Parliament with a quick turnaround replay of the highlights as soon as the days proceedings have been completed.

In addition to the graphic capabilities of the Si Media system, Libirel Communications Ltd., also provided Ross Xpression Characters Generators in each Chamber and a GVG Subtitling system to enhance the graphical presentation of the Channel.

The system was custom built with quite a few features specific to the requirements, and work schedule, of the Houses of the Oireachtas.  Attention was paid to the provision of a Main and Standby Workflow with the addition of remote access control over all elements of the system.

The main Transmission Control Room houses both planning and transmission control.  A flexible KVM Matrix gives each operator position the ability to access any server. The Channel plans, in advance, the 24hr schedule which is translated to the daily playlist.  As a Channel with a high level of Live content, flexibility is a requirement along with the ability for manual intervention.  The Control Room has multiviewer displays to monitor all sources as well as the transmission playout.