bTV Selects Grass Valley’s EDIUS Editing Software for News Production

bTV, the first private national TV station in Bulgaria and the country’s most watched channel, has chosen EDIUS Pro 7 from Grass Valley for editing news in the field and at the station. With this purchase, bTV’s award-winning newsroom will now have one of the fastest editing systems for news production, with real-time capabilities and format versatility.

“Breaking news requires speed, and by implementing one of the fastest, most versatile editing systems, we are providing a valuable service to our viewers,” said Peter Dimitrov, technical director of bTV. “EDIUS is reliable, flexible, and the workflow it helps us establish answers all our needs.”

bTV purchased 40 EDIUS licenses, along with two training sessions through New-Tek Ltd., an official distributor of Grass Valley products in Bulgaria. Twenty licenses for EDIUS nonlinear editing (NLE) software have been installed on journalists’ computers and laptops for editing in the field.

“bTV evaluated a number of solutions and invested in Grass Valley’s NLE for several reasons,” said Yavor Yanakiew, general manager, New-Tek. “The station is a longtime Grass Valley customer, and its leaders had very successful trials with EDIUS. They were impressed with its reliability, speed and the ability to support a wide range of video formats.”

EDIUS also gives bTV more flexibility. It is storage agnostic, allowing integration with bTV’s existing Isilon storage and video servers. And in case of emergency, EDIUS can be configured for standalone usage with a single click without the database stored in the MAM system. EDIUS is designed for 4K/3D/HD/SD, and supports a broad range of formats, in real time, all on the same timeline and even in nested sequences.

“We’re excited bTV selected EDIUS for its newsroom editing system,” noted Said Bacho, senior vice president, EMEA, Grass Valley. “With EDIUS, bTV will now be able to quickly manage more resolutions, unlimited tracks and real-time editing in the field and at the station.”

Hinduja Group’s NXT DIGITAL HITS Platform Installs Grass Valley iTX Playout
NXT DIGITAL, the Headend-in-the-Sky (HITS) service platform from Grant Investrade Limited, part of the global Hinduja Group, has installed the iTX integrated playout platform from Grass Valley, a Belden Brand. Recently launched, the HITS platform will offer 500 channels to the fast-growing television market in India.

By implementing the latest version of iTX playout as part of the solution from Grass Valley, NXT DIGITAL has adopted one of the world’s most advanced, integrated playout platforms for broadcast television. NXT DIGITAL consolidates multiple broadcasters and provides a HITS distribution platform to cable networks. Networks can then customize the distribution for different subscription models, offering services such as video-on-demand (VOD) packages or using iTX to play a standard playlist of movies and special programs at fixed times on channels.

“India features thousands of programs in many languages. It is important to choose a technology that allows us to cater to differentiated market requirements in a flexible and efficient manner. Grass Valley technology, and iTX in particular, allows us to provide packages and bundle channels that are best suited for each market in the country,” said Tony D’Silva, managing director of Grant Investrade Limited.

The iTX technology also helps cable networks work with broadcasters as the India government mandates the digitization of cable services. More than 110 million homes in India are expected to make the government-mandated transition from analog to digital in the next 16 months.

“The broadcasting parameters of NXT DIGITAL are very similar to the direct-to-home (DTH) services that are common in India, but instead of helping end users, this service addresses the needs of cable networks and their subscribers in turn,” said Vynsley Fernandes, executive director at Castle Media, the company tasked by Hinduja with design to delivery of the HITS platform. “iTX gives the operators advanced technology with better support and provides us with comprehensive monitoring.”

NXT DIGITAL also installed Grass Valley’s iControl monitoring system, a highly adaptable television signal that’s compatible with multiple advanced electronic supervision technologies, including monitoring by exception. It offers electronic probing with macroblock detection, lip sync error and content mismatch detection using video/audio fingerprints.

Shaf Broadcast, a systems integrator, implemented the solution, as it has done at many other sites.

“We have the knowledge base and experience to deploy iTX solutions in partnership with Grass Valley,” said P.R. Suresh, director, Shaf Broadcast. “It will provide an excellent platform to NXT DIGITAL, and it’s an honor for us to be part of this project.”

“With iTX, we know NXT DIGITAL will be able to serve a wide range of customers throughout India,” said Andrew Thornton, vice president, Asia Pacific, Grass Valley. “The unified and streamlined workflows from iTX, from ingest to playout, help broadcasters reduce their operating expenses considerably. Besides reducing the cost and the time to deploy new services, iTX will also help NXT DIGITAL rewrite the traditional cost of ownership model with a solution that delivers the resilience and performance that world-class television facilities demand.”