Thomson Announces $5M HBO Order, by Claudia Kienzle

The winners in the toughest ratings fight have one thing in common: Thomson Grass Valley™ multiformat and HD digital news production systems.

They're installed at leading station groups in the top five U.S. markets -- and at leading news outlets worldwide. With a complete workflow that spans acquisition, production and playout, it's clear that when you're watching the news, you're watching Grass Valley technology at work.

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From the Editors

Thomson Announces $5M HBO Order

Company points to K2 success

by Claudia Kienzle, August 21, 2007

Claudia Kienzle is a News Correspondent for TV Technology Magazine.

BEAVERTON, ORE.
HBO has ordered $5 million worth of HD equipment from Grass Valley, including 30 K2 media servers that will be used to distribute all of its 26 channels in HD.

The K2 order includes eight 4-channel servers to be used for network play-out operations; 12 2-channel time delay servers to be used for multiple time zone support; two 4-channel ingest servers; two 40-channel breakaway servers to support late-breaking and live events; two 2-channel on-demand servers; and four 4-channel recovery servers. The servers will be installed at HBO’s main play-out facility in Hauppauge, N.Y.

Thomson officials say the latest order from HBO points to the success of the Grass Valley K2 Media Server, which has seen strong sales growth and rapid technological advancements since being introduced two years ago. According to the latest sales figures, available in April, 1,000 units had been shipped.

While current sales figures were unavailable at press time, “the order rate on K2 has been steadily increasing, with sales figures climbing steadily every six months,” said Mike Cronk, vice president and general manager of the servers and digital news production (DNP) product line for Thomson, in the server group based in Beaverton, Ore.

K2 units in rack

“The K2 media server has been a very successful product for us largely due to the IT-based, file-based workflow it enables for broadcast operations,” Cronk said. “It’s helped us retain our Profile customers and expand the business beyond the play-out of programming and commercials to include digital news production and other broadcast applications.”

The HBO order also calls for five new Grass Valley LDK 8000 WorldCam multiformat HD cameras for use in HBO’s digital production studios in New York City; as well as HD modules to upgrade and expand the existing Grass Valley Concerto Series router at the Hauppauge, Long Island facility.

MIGRATION FROM PROFILE

“Moving to the new K2-based distribution systems from Grass Valley will result in an improved electronic workflow and allow us to put safeguards in place to ensure the reliable distribution of our content,” said Charles Cataldo, senior vice president of studio and broadcast operations for HBO. “We wouldn’t trust our play-out operations to anything but Grass Valley server technology because we’ve grown comfortable with the mission-critical performance they will provide. Moving to the new K2 server systems is the next logical step in our evolution to high definition.”

HBO has already begun its comprehensive migration from Grass Valley Profile XP Media Platform servers to the latest generation Grass Valley K2 Media Server and Media Client systems and expects the installation to be completed by December 2007.

According to Jeff Rosica, senior vice president of Thomson’s Broadcast & Professional Solutions business unit, “HBO has been instrumental in the continuing development of the Grass Valley K2 server system and we’re pleased to continue to support HBO and help it achieve its goals as it moves aggressively into the distribution of HD programming to meet new consumer demand.”

Other K2 media server customers include the Tribune and Belo station groups; Fox owned and operated stations in the U.S.; ABC/Australia; TVNZ/New Zealand; and Astral Media in Canada.