ENCO founded in 1983, pioneered digital audio and program automation for radio and TV. It offers a wide range of solutions for automated broadcast and production workflows, including captioning, AI tools, live virtual production, visual radio, and more. ENCO also extends its innovations to professional AV environments like conference rooms, lecture halls, and event venues.
At IBC2024, ENCO will showcase its automated video playout and live virtual production solutions designed for disaster recovery scenarios in TV broadcasting. The demonstration will feature ClipFire for automated playout, Qimera for virtual production, and EN-848 for closed captioning. These solutions provide seamless transitions and continuity of broadcast operations when primary systems fail.
The demonstration showcases ENCO’s solutions for broadcasters, demonstrating how they can swiftly recover from unexpected outages like equipment failures or network intrusions, ensuring uninterrupted broadcasting and safeguarding revenue streams, making them reliable and flexible.
At IBC2024 beginning this Friday, ENCO will showcase how its automated video playout and live virtual production solutions offer an immediate return to air when master control and studio productions unexpectedly go dark. ENCO will demonstrate disaster recovery scenarios for these mission-critical TV operations featuring its ClipFire automated playout, Qimera virtual production and EN848 closed captioning encoder, highlighting how each provides a seamless transition to a parallel workflow in their respective use cases. ENCO exhibits at Stand 8.C76.
ClipFire is a complete automated, channel-in-a-box solution that allows a single operator to ingest, schedule, edit and deliver media from one unified, easy-to-use platform. In disaster recovery mode, ClipFire runs continuously in the background, automatically synchronizing all existing playlists delivered through master control. It also imports traffic logs to ensure ad playout schedules are maintained and revenue streams are protected.
“ClipFire provides all the safeguards required to ensure continuation of broadcast schedules of the primary system,” said Ken Frommert, President, ENCO. “ClipFire’s flexible customization also ensures tight integration with the broadcaster’s specific media workflows, bringing peace of mind that the air chain returns to life with the flip of switch, picking up where it should in the playout schedule. This may be to compensate for a temporary equipment failure, or to continue service for the long term in the event of storm-related damage or an outside network intrusion.”
ClipFire’s convergence of the flexible and affordable makes it beneficial for daily use as well. “Broadcasters in several major markets use ClipFire for integrated channel playout of subchannels and OTT feeds,” he said,” adding that ClipFire is often used as a primary integrated playout system in several markets. “In the event of an on-air failure of any kind, ClipFire is prepared to transition into primary service without delay.”
ENCO’s Qimera live virtual production system can similarly support disaster recovery for continuation of studio productions, including live news programming from remote virtual sets. Qimera is a real-time virtual compositioning tool that allows customers to generate advanced virtual sets and augmented reality graphics anywhere. Built with modern production workflows in mind, Qimera’s core server provides the engine to enable the powerful production capabilities and professional presentation qualities required for news and live studio productions on short notice, while also supporting advanced production elements including AR/VR/XR graphics.
“The Qimera ecosystem is easy to deploy, manage and operate from any location, whether it be inside your TV facility or at a secondary site,” said Frommert. “In the case of the latter, that secondary site can very quickly turn into your primary set, and only requires a modest amount of space. The broadcaster simply needs an area with a green screen, and Qimera will recreate the experience of your main studios for viewers.”
While the enCaption brand has become synonymous with the ENCO name in recent years, IBC marks the first time that ENCO will present the market-leading live captioning system as a disaster recovery option. The main reason? ENCO’s new EN-848 Closed Captioning Encoder can generate live captions from third-party sources and failover to its internal, on-premise enCaption engine, ensuring that captions continue to air. ENCO will also demonstrate automatic failover from a cloud-based captioning service to a fully on-premise workflow for broadcasters without compromise to quality.
