ADC™ Device Server and Config Tool

Installation and Operations

Global Media Transfer

Global Media Transfer

Overview

Global Media Transfer (GMT) is Automation Solutions’ technology for automatically copying media among the devices controlled by the automation system, as it is needed for playout on a Transmission list. If a video server assigned to a Transmission list does not have a piece of media available in its storage collection, GMT will attempt to find the material in other media devices and copy it to the playout video server. This process occurs in the background and requires little or no operator intervention.

Purchase Note: GMT is a for-purchase option to ADC systems. Contact your Automation Sales representative for details.

Reference Note: For more information reference the ADC GMT Configuration and Operations Guide document.

GMT Transfer Modes

GMT supports four transfer modes or mechanisms for copying media: fibrechannel transfers, baseband transfers, archive transfers and wide-area network FTP transfers.

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Fibrechannel transfers – Media may be copied among video servers linked by a fibrechannel connection. Fibrechannel transfers are data transfers of compressed MPEG or JPEG files and occur faster than real time. Fibrechannel transfers may occur between devices controlled by multiple

Device Servers.

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Archive transfers – Media may be copied to or from an archive device either by the normal background GMT process, or manually through the Media Client application. Archive transfers are data transfers of compressed MPEG or JPEG files and occur faster than real time. Archive transfers may be "single-hop" or "double-hop" transfers. Single-hop transfers copy the media from the archive directly to the requesting playout video server. Double-hop transfers copy the media from the archive to an intermediate video server, and then execute a fibrechannel transfer from the intermediate video server to the requesting playout video server. Archive transfers may occur between devices controlled by multiple Device Servers.

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Baseband transfers – Media may be copied from a baseband source device, such as a cart machine,

VTR or a video server’s decoder port, to a video server’s encoder port. Baseband transfers are real-time transfers. Audio and video are automatically routed from the source device to the destination device according to the A/V routing tables configured for the GMT list. Baseband transfers may be "single-hop" or "double-hop" transfers. Single-hop transfers copy the media from the source device directly to the requesting playout video server. Double-hop transfers copy the media from the source device to an intermediate video server, and then execute a fibrechannel transfer from the intermediate video server to the requesting playout video server. Baseband transfers may only occur between devices controlled by a single Device Server. Only the fibrechannel "hop" of double-hop baseband transfers may occur between devices controlled by multiple Device Servers.

© 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. 12/17/2015 | Page 440

ADC™ Device Server and Config Tool

Installation and Operations Global Media Transfer

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WAN FTP transfers – Media may be copied among video servers using the video server’s native FTP transfer mechanism. This may be accomplished on a local-area or wide-area network. FTP transfers are data transfers of compressed MPEG or JPEG files and may occur faster than real time, depending on the bandwidth available on the wide-area network. Only the local video server, designated as the site manager, need be controlled by a Device Server.

GMT Components

GMT consists of three fundamental components: Requesters, Distributors and GMT lists.

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Requesters – are virtual media devices assigned to a Transmission list and associated with destination devices (playout video servers). Media that is not available in the Requester’s destination device is requested from a Distributor (or Distributors) associated with source devices.

Requests are made when events enter the lookahead of a Transmission list and cannot be registered with any of the physical media devices assigned to that list.

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Distributors – are virtual media devices assigned to a GMT list and associated with source devices.

These source devices may be video server ports, cart machines, VTRs, archives or ProxyFTP devices.

Distributors create and run events on the GMT list to accomplish the transfer of media to the requesting destination device. A single distributor can only support a single transfer mode, depending on the type of its associated source device, but may be "pointed to" or linked with other

Distributors supporting other transfer modes. By "chaining" Distributors in this manner, search paths may be created to pass requests through a number of Distributors of different types. The first

Distributor whose source device contains the requested media will execute a transfer - of that

Distributor’s type - to the Requester’s destination device.

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GMT Lists – are modified Transmission lists used exclusively by GMT. Distributors assigned to the

GMT list will create events to execute transfers of one type or another. Non-real-time transfers

(fibrechannel, archive and WAN FTP) are executed by events registered and run by the Distributors.

Baseband transfers are created by Distributors but run by the physical media devices assigned to the

GMT list.

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(OPTION) Push Lists are simply Transmission Lists used for a specific purpose other than on-air playout. Push Lists are used to "push" media from a source device to a destination device ahead of time. Under normal circumstances, Requesters request missing media at roughly the same rate as events enter the lookahead of the requesting Transmission List. GMT is driven by the Transmission

List and will fulfill requests for missing media as events undergo the registration process.

A Push List allows GMT to move ("push") media in advance of the Transmission List. The traffic department may create a "push list" log consisting of spots needed for air tomorrow. The log file may then be translated into a playlist file by the Traffic Translator and loaded into the Push List.

A Simple GMT System

The illustration below shows a simple fibrechannel GMT system.

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A Requester assigned to the Transmission List queries the destination device for availability of media. If an ID on the Transmission List cannot be registered by the destination device (because the

ID does not exist in the destination device), the Requester passes a request to the Distributor.

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The Distributor is assigned to the GMT List and is in communication with a source device. If the

Distributor, after querying its source device, finds that the media is available, it will create an event on the GMT List that will initiate a Fibrechannel transfer.

© 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. 12/17/2015 | Page 441

ADC™ Device Server and Config Tool

Installation and Operations Global Media Transfer

The Distributor will run the event on the GMT List and the media will be copied from the source device to the destination device. Once the copy process has begun, the source device will inform the system that the media is now available for registration on the Transmission List and playout.

© 2015 Imagine Communications Corp. Proprietary and Confidential. 12/17/2015 | Page 442