TVN 24:
No Margin For Error
In April 2004, TVN 24 sat down with Apple to discuss the possibility of supplying a channel-wide solution. By September, the system was up and running. The Xsan file system is currently divided into two — one for production and one for playout. Each makes full use of its 64 storage systems, and its Fibre Channel throughput speeds of up to 400MBps. The production system is linked to one Xserve for input and render, while both the production and the playout systems are connected to manager servers for control and approval. The systems are also connected to the newsroom with its Power Mac G5 workstations, while the playout Xsan operates over a primary Xserve RAID system, along with an identical back-up video server — with built-in redundancy to ensure the channel is never off-air.
“We’re already reaching the client limit of the Xsans. When we bought the system, we thought we had too much storage but now we’re looking to upgrade. People are using the software more and more — pushing it, improving content. That’s what I want to see.”
Sojka says: “The best thing about the system, for our purposes, is that it’s an open solution. It’s been designed so the key elements are all available off-the-shelf”. The main advantages of this approach are price (off-the-shelf products are cheaper than ‘black box’ solutions) and speed of development. “Apple’s development of the G5 is driven by the commercial not the broadcast market”, says Sojka, “unlike black boxes which are used by very few customers”.
This principle applies to Xsan as well. Sojka says: “When we got our first copy of Xsan, it was still a project in development. But it took just four months for Apple’s engineers to make it a stable and reliable system. In January 2005, we made a final reconfiguration based on our experience and made a few small tweaks suggested by Apple. Since then, Xsan has been running without a hitch. It is still hard for me to believe!”
TVN 24’s 50 Final Cut Pro licences are for version 4.5. Sojka says of the system: “It’s a very flexible tool — it can be as simple or as advanced as we want it to be. We can either arrange the workplace so that our 100-plus journalists don’t have too many buttons to press or, if we want to place more emphasis on a piece of footage, we can use professional editors. They work with the same software, the same configuration, the same network — they simply upgrade the story by using extra FCP features”.
TVN 24. Poland’s first 24-hour news channel was launched in August 2001. TVN 24 covers local and international news complemented by special reports and discussions, as well as documentaries. TVN 24 is available through the majority of Poland’s cable networks, as well the country’s leading DTH (direct-to-home) platform.
He adds: “We’re already reaching the client limit of the Xsans. When we bought the system, we thought we had too much storage but now we’re looking to upgrade. People are using the software more and more — pushing it, improving content. That’s what I want to see, that’s what contributes to the quality of our shows”.
Sojka is not concerned by the need to upgrade so soon. He says: “From a cost point of view, upgrading is not a problem. In my opinion, products like the Xserve RAID have the best price/performance ratio on the market”.
TVN 24’s Xsan system also integrates well with products from other developers. The Octopus Newsroom system, in particular, is described by Sojka as “a very nice tool”, and runs well alongside the Apple technology.
“When we got our first copy of Xsan, it was still a project in development. But it took just four months for Apple’s engineers to make it a stable and reliable system. It is still hard for me to believe!”
Overall, the speed and flexibility of the Apple solution has contributed immeasurably to the TVN 24 success story. Sojka concludes: “I wanted a system that could lead in the market, not fall behind. With Apple, I have that”.
