Program Planning and Scheduling Suite
Planning manager module
The long-term planning is the first phase in creating a frame-accurate transmission schedule for one or more playout channels. The Planning manager produces a long-term planning with exports for TV guides, Air Time Sales (ATS) and schedule applications. A long term planning is already useful in an early stage. For example, the long term planning is often used as the basics for TV guides and Electronic Program Guides (EPG).
The Vivesta planning manager facilitates various tools to allow a more efficient planning workflow. For example, with the episode planning tool you can easily link any number of episodes to a sequence of slots defined by a pattern. A pattern can be a collection of related transmissions. This functionality allows a high level of reuse (same pattern, other episodes).
Schedule manager module
The schedule manager is a graphical scheduling application integrated with the Planning manager, Program- and media manager and Rights manager module to validate the schedule against the licensing rights. The integration with the Program- and media manager ensures all scheduled programs are automatically made available in the right play-out format (e.g. MXF IMX D10-30) on the right video server (e.g. Omneon or GV K2) on the right time.
The schedule manager can be used for scheduling programs and secondary events. The schedule manager does not limit the amount of secondary events, more secondary events can be added when required. Standard secondary events are graphics, router presets, wide screen signaling (WSS), aspect ratio conversion (ARC), subtitles, program triggers for interactive TV, etc.
Additional to producing a frame-accurate playlist, the schedule manager also allows for scheduled recordings of live (line) feeds. This functionality makes it possible to automatically capture feeds, associate the programs with metadata and play-out the programs delayed or in a loop (e.g. news channel with always the latest news). The schedule manager also makes sure ‘gaps’ or ‘program overlaps’ will automatically be eliminated based on the configured schedule rules. Schedule rules can be also be used to avoid programming violations or to enforce separation between commercials.
