At the EBU News Assembly meeting in Valencia this week, Eurovision Operations introduced a technical pilot for testing a new way to contribute audio-visual material to the Eurovision news exchange network (EVN).
| Sending a huge e-mail
The way file-based contribution works, could be compared to sending an e-mail, but then an extremely large one. A broadcaster which wants to contribute a recording, first uploads it to a local ‘mailbox’. The files "posted" there will be translated into a common content format (essence and metadata) and then transmitted by the system to the central database in Geneva. The material subsequently is distributed to all EVN users via the current satellite distribution system.
Choose your path
Three types of network can be used between the 'mailboxes' and Geneva, depending on the location: |  |
- dedicated circuits on the fiber network FiNE;
- the public Internet;
- V-Sat type DVB-RCS.
Expected benefits
The pilot aims to demonstrate new processes useful to the evolution of the Eurovision News Exchange service and to test and benchmark the network technology, including the local storage and processing solutions. The project may also define requirements for a future Media Asset Management system in Geneva. The pilot starts January 2009 and the first results should be known nine months later. Before the end of 2008 the test users will be selected. There is room for maximum ten test users.
For more information on this project, please contact: Didier Debellemanière (EBU) .