Flexible Automation with Sophisticated Scheduling

Broadcast Manager features flexible scheduling capabilities for easy automation of live streaming and ingest to files. Encoders can be started, stopped, or taken offline (such as for maintenance or upgrades) at scheduled times, with the flexibility of using of a different set of encoding parameters (including different compression formats) for each scheduled task if desired. Broadcast Manager can automatically switch upstream video routers to user-specified input sources for each scheduled task. A graphical scheduling interface provides an at-a-glance visual representation of scheduled tasks and enables easy identification of scheduling gaps and conflicts.

Fully customizable and editable asset profiles enable captured media files to be combined with user-defined metadata, additional media files (such as extra audio tracks) and resources (such as packaging shots, proxies and thumbnails). Files captured during scheduled ingests can be automatically associated with pre-defined asset structures. Complete assets can then be exported for subsequent processing by other Digital Rapids solutions or third-party applications.

Centralization Meets Simplicity

Broadcast Manager offers individual or group-based encoder management, significantly simplifying operation. Broadcast Manager can alert engineering and operations staff to events such as failures and scheduled task completions through configurable alert notifications. Error conditions can also be monitored by any SNMP-compliant network management system. Mosaic-style, multi-channel video confidence monitoring lets operators view the signals of multiple encoders at a glance.

Setup is streamlined through automatic detection of encoders on the network using discovery protocols, enabling seamless scalability and expansion. Encoding and streaming parameters are easily assigned to encoders through reusable project files.

Broadcast Manager tracks all activities and events in its internal database or through support for a variety of third-party databases including Oracle 10g®, Microsoft® SQL Server and PostgreSQL. User access can be managed locally or via industry-standard LDAP services. Rich scripting capabilities enable programmatic, scheduled automation of custom tasks with support for a variety of popular scripting languages. Developers can also integrate Broadcast Manager into their own custom applications and existing enterprise management systems through an easy-to-use Web Services API.

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