ABSTRACT
Playout operations have become content preparation and delivery factories, where agility and adaptability are the prime concerns as the future becomes increasingly harder to predict and change occurs at a faster pace all while competitive pressures constantly increase. While integrated playout delivers numerous benefits, it still requires dedicated hardware for each channel, suitable for 24/7 linear broadcast, cable and satellite television channels. A principal characteristic of the discrete master control approach is that the functions of the master control system are mostly performed by dedicated, purpose-built hardware. Centralization generally leads to fewer on-air errors and shorter outages resulting from the capabilities of the monitoring and control system. The network must have sufficient bandwidth to adequately support the remotely controlled operations, monitoring and distribution. Automation provides the efficiencies that allow for a single operator to manage a large number of channels simultaneously or for a station to run a program stream "lights out" without any operators.
