News Technology & Live Sport
immediately available for use by anyone with culturally unacceptable material or adding pre- Gravity’s ‘Scheduler’ software provides a
the rights to access it. The system operates over prepared material, such as advertising with streamlined graphical interface that allows the
age 36.
a private MPLS network that provides a very local content, all within seconds or minutes of user to set up encoding and decoding events,
high quality of service and highly efficient use the transmission point. again on a clear and comprehensive timeline.
of the bandwidth, therefore enabling broadcast- This means that a schedule with a recording in-
resolution video to be delivered quickly while Simultaneous advantages progress can be previewed both before and
taking into consideration changing network during ingest. Further, the user can schedule a
conditions, and often at a cost far less than that The heart and soul of Gravity is its speed. new recording or playout, either as a one-off or
Continued from P
of satellite transmission. Gravity is ultra-fast, and it has to be to provide as a series of recurring tasks.
value to editors and producers in a live news
Focus on the story, not the technology environment. The speed at which Gravity It’s easy when you know how
performs its numerous tasks, simultaneously,
Editors, producers and journalists in the gives newsrooms competitive advantages that Eliminating the guesswork in getting media
field are often challenged with considerations cannot be found elsewhere. For example, into a system quickly and accurately is central
of format and delivery when they would rather Gravity simultaneously ingests multiple live to making it work as a whole, and editors like
spend their time focused on the urgent business feeds - regardless of format or resolution - on to use tools with which they are familiar.
of getting a story to air. With Gravity, that the same timeline. Similarly, Gravity can also Gravity’s Package Production Tool (PPT) is
consideration is eliminated because the format simultaneously publish in multiple video intuitive, feature-rich software with fast, multi-
in which content is shot or encoded becomes formats and compression rates, seamlessly, in track, editing tools. In fact, with PPT, editing
irrelevant. Gravity handles differing formats real time, without rendering - a huge time saver can actually begin within seconds of ingest.
with ease and effortlessly performs multiple, in both directions. Moreover, if a producer wishes, it’s easy to view
simultaneous transcode operations in the captured media, shuttle through the material
background. The user can just cut the story, Monitoring the situation and add notes and set marks along the way -
designate the distribution channels, and let all while the video is still encoding. With
Gravity automatically deal with the blizzard of Video, by its nature, needs to be seen, and Gravity it is possible to cut a piece together
file formats and publishing requirements producers like to see it in front of them, on while a live event is still in progress and
necessary to get it to its destination. their desktop. Gravity’s unique single-screen publish before the capture ends.
monitoring system provides the ability to Another feature of Gravity’s PPT software is
A global village needs a global newsroom present multiple, low bit-rate proxies of that it enables a flawless handoff of material
simultaneous live feeds on one screen - another generated in the newsroom to external craft
The term ‘newsroom’ is a bit of a misnomer. essential productivity gain when time is key. editors such as final cut Pro or Avid Media
Today’s newsroom extends far outside its If you’re going to move vast amounts of Composer for longer form post-production
immediate walls, with production teams data, you’ve got to know where it is and where work, or be transferred to distribution or
deployed in virtually every corner of the planet. it’s going. Gravity’s asset management software archive systems. Gravity is also compatible with
The ability of Gravity to allow for split-second - with its powerful SQL database - enables a MOS protocol, enabling it to interface with
remote encoding, collaborative editing, asset user from a central operations area to track, systems like the AP’s ENPS and Omneon servers.
management and distribution through Internet- sort and report on all stages of the production
based proxy generation, all in real time and from process from ingest to editing to publishing. Its Failure is not an option
anywhere in the world, is of tremendous benefit user-configurable interface puts every
to journalists, producers and news directors. management function within split-second reach Gravity’s content storage capacity can be
International considerations are also central the user, including the ability to view, search, virtually unlimited, with high levels of
to a recently added feature ‘Gravity LiveEdit’, log and assign projects, as well as provide redundancy. And because Gravity can be
which enables the user to manipulate pass- remote control of encoding, decoding, configured to eliminate any single point of
through channels on-the-fly, removing transcoding, sequencing & system monitoring. failure, it can automatically and seamlessly
SSL’s Gravity asset
switch to back-up mode without interruption.
manager provides an
The system's Media Manager software
overview of the entire
constantly checks all system components and
system and control of hardware for errors and warnings.
the media processes. Edward R. Murrow had gravity - in the
elegance of his delivery - probably best voiced
during his war reports from Blitz-afflicted
London during World War II. Echoes of
Murrow’s intro "This….is London" resonate to
this day with a number of American network
news programmes. Gravity’s delivery of the
content that comprises the news is also elegant,
and broadcasters who want a cost-effective
way to vastly accelerate their newsroom
workflow would be well-advised to ‘see it now’.
38 IBE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2008
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