CentralCast Options What is the future of master

control at your station?

Don Lockett CPB Moderator

Support for Participation in TV Multi-Station Master Controls • CPB grants up to 50% of eligible

project costs - $50,000 cap • Closes June 30, 2013

http://www.cpb.org/grants/grant.php?id=421 www.cpb.org

Michael Boylan President & CEO WJCT Public Broadcasting

Licensee Location WJCT Jacksonville, FL WEDU Tampa, FL WBCC Cocoa Beach, FL WFSU Tallahassee, FL WFSG Panama City, FL WUCF Orlando, FL WPBT Miami, FL

11 PTV stations

Licensee Location WILL Urbana/Champaign, IL WTTW Chicago, IL WPBA Atlanta, GA KERA Dallas, TX

11 PTV stations

Robert Daino President & CEO WCNY

Centralcast LLC

Centralcast LLC Licensee Location

WMHT Albany, NY WSKG Binghamton, NY WNED Buffalo, NY WLIW Plainville, NY WNET New York, NY NJTV Englewood, NJ WCFE Plattsburgh, NY

10 PTV Stations

Centralcast LLC Licensee Location

WXXI Rochester, NY WCNY Syracuse, NY WPBS Watertown, NY

WGBH

Michael Foti Director of Engineering WGBH Educational Foundation

WGBH Master Control Services

Michael Foti Director of Engineering

Current Scope - the capacity to serve more stations

Licensee Location

WGBH – 2 streams Boston, MA

WGBX – 3 streams Boston, MA

NHPTV – 5 streams Manchester, NH

Boston Kids & Family (Mayor’s Channel)

Cable only: Boston, MA

WORLD Channel National Feed

68 markets

Why Outsource Master Control? - 165+ independent licensees in the PTV system - Technology and low interconnect costs make remote MC

operation viable - In 2011, 68% of stations operated at a loss – compared

to 14% in 2007 - Stations can shed cap-and op-ex costs to resource

editorial content and audience, member engagement

NHPTV Case Study -Transition from university to community licensee, loss of state funding in 2012 -Identified opportunities for economies of scale in operations in the areas of:

Master Control, Engineering and Traffic Finance, Compliance and Procurement Local Development and Membership Marketing Programming and Research Creative and Promotion

NHPTV Case Study -NHPTV’s master control, engineering and traffic now provided by WGBH:

- Traffic logs: transmission and record schedules - Ingest and play out of programs and interstitials - Advanced branding including automated line ups - Management and storage of media - Real-time closed captioning for live and first air. - DTV Encoding and multiplexing to air ready ATSC stream - Broadcast system maintenance (support)

Lessons learned: What you need to pay attention to -Define and proof Traffic and Master Control work flow processes -Document processes and provide staff training -Have a contingency for substitution of missing media -Clear demarcation of responsibilities, station vs. MC hub -Have a contact list for escalation of technical or programming issues. - Detail the streams that are being delivered over the air or to cable and satellite directly. The Nielsen data that needs to be inserted

WGBH’s Approach to Master Control - Build trust, start early and listen - Clear lines of responsibility and accountability - Consistent and frequent in-depth communication - Project director assigned throughout transition - Affordable services, tailored to each client specific needs

WGBH’s Credentials -State of the art facilities -Infrastructure built to be scalable, relatively low cost to add channels -Expertise with the public television landscape and distribution (PBS, APT, pledge, etc.) -Experienced IT & Engineering staff in place -Extensive bandwidth, multiple telecom providers in facility -Full service facility (TV production studios, performance-recording studios, captioning services and post production)

Georgia Public Broadcasting

Vicki Hamilton Interim CTO GPB

So why Encompass? Business Expertise - Manage more than 800 channels / 2500 digital files daily - “Best-of-breed” approach to workflows - Staffing solutions that enable live programming without extra costs - Management team involvement / commitment

So why Encompass? Technical Acumen - Largest media client of vendors means extra focus on new technologies & support - Disaster recovery is ‘built-in’ given geographic diversity - # of POPs allow GPB to get information to/from anywhere, any time

Marc Jaromin President & CEO mjaromin@stratusbroadcast.com

22

Questions & Thoughts

Support for Participation in TV Multi-Station Master Controls • CPB grants up to 50% of eligible

project costs - $50,000 cap • Closes June 30, 2013

http://www.cpb.org/grants/grant.php?id=421 www.cpb.org