TVB Hong Kong installs Sony’s new production and content management system

Sony has announced the successful installation of its MediaBackbone Sonaps network production system and MediaBackbone Ensemble content and storage management system within the newsroom of Hong Kong broadcaster TVB. 

Sony and Television Broadcasts Limited, a leading commercial television station in Hong Kong, embarked on the newsroom transformation towards the end of 2012, in addition to a planned upgrade of TVB’s production equipment to High Definition.

TVB also required file-based operation, increased flexibility and storage, more workstations and an integrated library system. Sony says a phased migration approach ensured that the challenges of migrating from an SD system to a total HD tapeless workflow were overcome without affecting TVB’s daily operations, and Sony’s engineers were also deployed to ensure that TVB’s staff were fully trained in the day-to-day operations of the system.

A Sony spokesperson says that following the implementation, TVB has successfully transformed the overall workflow of its newsroom – from ingest, editing and playout to archiving – and fully migrated to a file-based workflow using XDCAM HD and XDCAM EX formats. Content shot by camera crews can now be uploaded directly to TVB’s Sonaps central storage from an ingest terminal or Sony HD non-linear editor (NLE), XPRI-NS, even from remote sites.

Mr Norihisa Mizuno, Head of Broadcast & Content Creation Solutions, Professional Solutions Company, Sony Corporation of Hong Kong says: “It is critical for broadcasters to implement a workflow that works practically and not just technically. Newsroom managers should ideally have an end-to-end workflow which covers all the steps through to delivery. 

Mr Lam Chun Wing, Chief Engineer of the TVB Broadcasting Department, says they chose to work with Sony as they were able to fulfil specific news production requirements.

“In addition, Sony’s system offers more storage hours in HD, the bandwidth supports more HD NLE with file-based export, plus file-based import and XDCAM ingest,” he says.

“To maintain a competitive advantage in the industry, broadcasters need to keep up with the latest production technology trends, competitors’ services and audience behaviours. Being able to react quickly to changes is an important aspect.”