Bahrain TV Embarks on Archiving and File-Based Workflow

The Information Affairs Authority’s (IAA) Bahrain Radio & Television
division (BTV) has chosen Masstech
Group, Inc. to embark on an enterprise wide
initiative using Masstech’s TOPAZ+XT version 7.5 to digitize and preserve all
its content for workflow efficiency.

The first of a kind project for the Kingdom of Bahrain will involve building a
digital archive for 55 years of BTV’s broadcast content, with capacity for
decades to come. Bahrain TV is currently upgrading all six of its channels to
HD and the TOPAZ archive will perform the material handling to Harmonic’s
Omneon playout servers under the control of Pebble Beach automation for precise
HD file based workflows. TOPAZ’s inline high speed transcoding (HQS) technology
will enable interoperability for bridging workflows between BTV’s content
creation platforms – these include Avid Interplay, Apple FCP and Adobe Premier.

Shaima Al Hamid, director of Technical Affairs at IAA, said: "We chose Masstech because they have more
built-in versatility to provide us with a complete solution for digital
archiving, ingest, QC and metadata management. The TOPAZ system will enhance
production giving our staff instant access to archived video footage with the
ability to search and view low resolution proxies at their desktop. It is very
important for us to preserve and protect our media assets as we invest in more
channels and generate more content."

Masstech’s TOPAZ+XT, in all-in-one HSM, CSM, HQS and media
asset management (MAM) system facilitates metadata entries in Arabic and
English to improve programme planning, coordination, reduce costs, and enable
more streamlined operations.

At BTV’s facility in Manama, the installation will
comprise IBM servers, a DCS3700 150TB nearline cache, a Spectra Logic multi-frame
T950 LTO-5 library, Pulsar-2 QC, 15 XT-Ingest appliances and Masstech’s
patented DRAC redundancy – all integrated and managed by TOPAZ.

Brad Redwood, VP Sales and Marketing at Masstech, said: "We are thrilled to be part of Bahrain TV’s
transformation – accelerating the migration from videotape to digital
archiving. In our 10th anniversary as a MAM leader, we are excited to welcome
BTV to Masstech’s global family of installations. For over a decade, we have
been delivering MAM solutions to leading broadcasters who value our highly
skilled support services and capitalize on the full benefits of streamlined
asset management. TOPAZ’s scalable open platform with interfaces to new media
and business systems will support the Kingdom’s ambitious expansion plans for
years to come."

Masstech will demonstrate the features of TOPAZ+XT at NAB 2012 from 16 to 19
April 2012 in Las Vegas.