April 7, 2010
LOUISVILLE, Colo. — April 7, 2010 — Front Porch Digital, the global leader in solutions for migrating, managing, and monetizing media content, today announced that Golf Channel is phasing in the company’s DIVArchive™ content storage management (CSM) system to unify a fully automated, seamless, digital workflow, including digital asset management, master control play-to-air, and production archiving in combination with Avid® Interplay. In addition, Golf Channel has selected a Front Porch Digital SAMMA V.4 Robot to perform accelerated migration of content from its library of some 137,000 videotapes to inclusion in the secure, managed, digital environment.
DIVArchive was installed at Golf Channel in January, and its implementation is being phased in as part of the broadcaster’s HD transition that also includes standardizing on Sony XDCAM HD for field production and upgrading news and programming post-production to Avid systems using Interplay® and ISIS®. The transition, a three-year process, will culminate this summer with full implementation of a Digital Transfer Center based on a Sony PetaSite storage and carousel system.
“In our Digital Transfer Center, we have put together a thoroughly well-thought-out, robust solution to move content back and forth from acquisition all the way to deep archive,” said Ken Botelho, Golf Channel’s senior director of engineering. “Whether a clip is going to Avid for editing, being sent to producers for logging and review, being pulled up as high-resolution essence or low-resolution proxy, being parked in nearline storage, or being sent to deep archive, it is available in a single unified workflow that relies on best-of-breed technologies. And within that workflow, the system keeping order is Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive.”
In selecting DIVArchive to replace storage management from Masstech, Golf Channel has implemented a reliable solution with the versatility to handle the varied technology demands of play-to-air and production workflows now, while also being scalable for the future — including the addition of the vast legacy library. Golf Channel also values DIVArchive’s robust file management architecture, which will support logging software from Dixon Sports Computing.
Golf Channel selected SAMMA because decision makers there recognized their videotape-based assets posed two problems. For the time being, accessing and repurposing content on videotape is time consuming for archivists and producers. For the future, deterioration and obsolescing playback technology eventually will render them irretrievable.
Designed to perform accelerated high-volume migration, Front Porch Digital’s SAMMA Robot can digitize as much as 1,000 hours of content each week. Operating unattended around the clock, the automated system can handle seven streams at once, generating multiple digital formats in real time while also performing quality control. It is estimated that migrating Golf Channel’s entire archive, most of it now in Beta format, will take about four years.
“The Golf Channel’s Digital Transfer Center has the potential to become a how-to model for optimized handling of content within an efficient and highly functional end-to-end digital workflow,” said Mike Knaisch, president of Front Porch Digital. “DIVArchive is the leading CSM solution because its design is just as sophisticated as the workflow itself and now, with complete Avid integration, it is ideal for any environment requiring direct interface to the Avid Interplay platform. Meanwhile, our SAMMA Robot is the only product that can perform the high-volume, accelerated migration of content that Golf Channel and similar broadcasters require.”
Before the SAMMA V.4 Robot is installed at Golf Channel’s broadcast center in Orlando, Fla., it will be showcased at the Front Porch Digital Booth N5806 at the 2010 NAB Show in Las Vegas.
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About Golf Channel
Golf Channel is a multimedia, golf entertainment, and services company based in Orlando, Fla. The Golf Channel cable network, co-founded by Arnold Palmer and a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK), is available in more than 120 million homes worldwide through cable, satellite, and wireless companies. Exclusive partnerships with the world’s top tours allow Golf Channel to feature more live golf coverage than all other networks combined, added to a programming schedule distinguished by golf’s best news, instruction, and original programming. Golf Channel’s digital platform of businesses is led by www.GolfChannel.com, the number-one golf destination on the Internet, delivering unmatched coverage of the world of golf, as well as services that help the recreational player with how to play, what to play, and where to play golf.
About Front Porch Digital
Front Porch Digital is the global leader in solutions for migrating, managing, and monetizing media content. Front Porch Digital’s SAMMA product line performs accelerated migration of media content from vulnerable analog videotape to secure and readily accessible digital storage. Protected by three U.S. patents, the company’s DIVArchive content storage management (CSM) solution creates a unified system of digital storage from ingest to archive that is distinguished for superior functionality, scalability, performance, and customer satisfaction. In DIVAsolo, Front Porch Digital has combined the two technologies to form a cost-effective, end-to-end system for preserving, managing, and repurposing media content. More information is available at www.fpdigital.com.
PR Agency Contact:
Sunny Branson, Wall Street Communications
sunny@wallstcom.com
+1 (801) 533-2669
Front Porch Digital:
Michael Knaisch, President and CEO
mknaisch@fpdigital.com
+1 (303) 440-7930
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PR Agency Contact:
Sunny Branson, Wall Street Communications
sunny@wallstcom.com
+1 (801) 533-2669
Front Porch Digital:
Michael Knaisch, President and CEO
mknaisch@fpdigital.com
+1 (303) 440-7930