“The CloudAir platform is one of the most exciting new developments in broadcasting since the transition from tape-based to file-based content management and playout,” says Don Ash, PlayBox Technology Managing Partner and Director, Sales. “This is a real game-changer with the potential to empower literally thousands of new programme streams, quickly, easily and very affordably.

“Available either on a standard licensing or SaaS (software-as-a-service) basis, CloudAir will offer broadcasters and content owners unsurpassed freedom in the style and scale of their operation and in the way they want to fund their business. It is designed for start-up ventures, established television channels and anyone who wants to deliver content, from a single event to a 24/7 television channel.”

Tata Communication' cloud-based media platform, operational later next month and offering full IP-based connectivity control to customers, features CloudAir. Through the integration of CloudAir, Tata's broadcast playout system offers an OPEX-based service “that enables existing broadcasters to target their investment capital where it is most effective, such as in the production of original content. The OPEX model is also perfect for any organisation wanting to start a broadcast channel, whether for viewing on air, online or via both transmission media.

Ash continues: “CloudAir is a unified workflow environment based on an extremely powerful set of software centric modules. It will provide all the features PlayBox Technology customers appreciate plus unsurpassed flexibility in format handling and transcoding. Our software development resources enable us to support practically any standard in today’s fast-evolving world, whether for terrestrial, satellite or online viewing, live, near-live or catch-up. The PlayBox Technology team understands the specific needs of broadcasters and can respond rapidly to issues such as new encoding protocols and transmission standards. 
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Live productions are facilitated by a Live Show clipboard which allows insertion and/or execution of various events or live streams. CloudAir accepts MPEG1/2/H.264, HDV and DV streams from practically every known production platform providing AVI, MPEG, WMV, Quick Time or MXF content. Files from third-party servers are natively supported. CloudAir also delivers on-air graphics which can be controlled interactively. Customers can preconfigure the templates to match their requirements, eliminating any need for subsequent manual interference.


Modules include ingest, source transcoding, quality control, MAM, production, post-production, subtitling, scheduling, playout and transmission. CloudAir can be operated in fully automated mode with the option of making schedule alterations or live inserts at any time in response to late-breaking news.


All CloudAir modules are controlled via a new unified interface which can be used locally or remotely via a standard HTML web browser. Each element of the control interface provides the information an operator needs to process the task in hand, including the freedom to decide the order in which these processes are performed. Automated alerts warn if any element of a schedule requires additional attention before being transmitted.

See PlayBox Technology at IBC stand 8.B70