Channel One Russia Selects AmberFin iCR For Major File-based Ingest and Transcoding Installation
Basingstoke, England, 21 November 2011 – AmberFin, a leading developer of file-based media ingest and transcoding solutions for content owners, broadcasters, sports organizations and post-production houses, today announces a major contract with Channel One Russia, the country’s original and pre-eminent television broadcaster. Working with leading Russian broadcast systems integrator, Okno-TV, AmberFin will install its iCR intelligent content ingest and transcoding system at Channel One Russia’s production headquarters in Moscow. This strategic investment will enable the former state broadcaster to migrate to file-based workflows without the need for extensive investment in baseband video transcoders and processors.
AmberFin’s iCR family of modular software products, digitize and transform new and archived content, combining a service oriented design philosophy with intelligent use of cost-effective generic IT. This enables customers to save time, increase revenues and grow in-line with business demands.
Currently, Channel One Russia acquires content from numerous international suppliers, many operating in the U.S, Asian and European markets. Consequently, material arrives at its broadcast operations centre in a broad range of formats, many on tape, so prior to post-production and prime time playout, all the material needs be ingested and transcoded into a single common file format.
After extensive evaluation of market options, Channel One Russia selected AmberFin iCR as the most efficient and effective solution to its file-based workflow challenge. “We were attracted to iCR because of the system’s high quality file conversion capabilities combined with an intuitive GUI that will help our operators in their day-to-day operations,” commented Igor Yadykin, Deputy Chief of Technical Department at Channel One Russia. “To provide such a sophisticated migration route to harmonised file-based workflows is great: to achieve it without major new investment in transcoding and processing infrastructure is fantastic.”
Initially, Channel One Russia has been running an evaluation project with AmberFin iCR operating on two workstations – one providing file-based transcoding facilities and another enabling SDI content ingest and transcoding operations. With this trial successfully completed, the broadcaster plans to integrate iCR into a corporate transcoding facility with a greatly increased number of servers used.
In winning this major contract, AmberFin and Okno-TV beat off stern competition from rival technology suppliers. Mikhail Kalanchekaev, Head of Broadcast IT at Okno-TV believes that this contract marks an exciting period for them in the Russian market. “iCR has proved to be a powerful and versatile file-based workflow solution at Channel One Russia: already we are in discussions with the customer about how they can extend their investment in this exciting technology. Russia is a dynamic, fast growing market and we see great potential for our partnership with AmberFin in the future.”
About Channel One Russia
Channel One Russia (known as the Public Russian Television until 2002) went on air in April 1995 as the successor to the Ostankino State TV and Radio Company, which had been the key broadcaster in the USSR with a reach of 99.8% of the Russian population. Having inherited not only the transmission bandwidth, but also the priceless professional experience of its predecessors, Channel One quickly rose to the leading position among Russian TV channels and has held it fast ever since. In April 2010, Channel One Russia celebrated its 15th anniversary.
About AmberFin
AmberFin is a company at the heart of solving file-based workflow problems for content owners, broadcasters, sports organizations and post-production houses. The AmberFin Media Factory, based on the iCR family of modular software products, digitizes and transforms new and archived content, combining a service oriented design philosophy with intelligent use of cost-effective generic IT. This enables customers to save time, increase revenues and grow in-line with business demands.
Unique to the Media Factory system, AmberFin’s industry first approach to Quality Control, known as Unified Quality Control (UQC), introduces a QC mark that brings a new level of trust to media assets. UQC uniquely combines an automated process with a human touch, enabling more efficient and effective decision-making and new levels of confidence in the file creation and transformation processes.
AmberFin has experienced growth of 90% in the last year thanks to hundreds of iCR systems being deployed worldwide. Systems that are trusted where quality matters by some of the world’s leading media organizations including Sony Pictures, NBA, Turner Broadcasting, ZDF, NRK, National Geographic, BT, Discovery and Warner Brothers.