Brazil. TV Bandeirantes, known as Band, launched its new Agro+ channel with Pebble Beach Systems' Marina and Dolphin systems at the center of its operations.
Agro+ is a channel specialized in agribusiness, a vital industry for the country, and was launched on June 22. With programming covering all aspects of this sector, this fully file-based channel is divided into two locations, its headquarters in Brasilia and the Master Control in São Paulo. Pebble's renowned Marina automation solution controls the Dolphin integrated channel devices, which handle channel branding, graphics and loudness control. The original technology was installed by Pebble's local distributor, Videodata, who also carried out the commissioning remotely for this new release.
"The system needs to be fast and responsive as we have operations in two cities; all our engineering is located in São Paulo, while the Agro+ studio and newsroom are located in Brasilia," says Thiago Perrella, CTO of TV Bandeirantes. "It was also a project with an extremely tight deadline, which, of course, gained greater complexity by having to be carried out under isolation measures."
Despite the obstacles imposed by quarantine restrictions, the facility was completed in record time. There were less than 10 days between the date the order was received until the live broadcast of the automated playout channel, which is a great achievement in the current circumstances. All installation, commissioning and training for the new channel was also successfully carried out remotely by the experienced Videodata team working from home.
"Agro+ was a unique challenge due to the limitations of the current pandemic," says Marcelo Blum, Architecture and Technology Manager at Videodata. "Using the existing hardware platform already installed in Band and implementing NDI outputs for the preview signals, the implementation could be completed in record time without the need for new on-premise hardware. This is truly the first time we have launched a new channel completely remotely, and the experience has been a huge success thanks to Pebble."
The Bandeirantes Network has been a customer of Pebble Beach Systems since 2008 and has a large playout automation system that includes more than 30 master control playlists and nine news and production switchers, with MOS integration for writing systems. In 2019, it launched the Smithsonian Channel in Brazil, fully based on Pebble technology and with local support also provided by Videodata.
"We have built a strong relationship with Band over the past 12 years and are thrilled to be working with the Videodata team again, especially on this unique mission to launch a new channel during the current pandemic," said David Russin, vice president of sales for the Americas at Pebble Beach Systems. "The remote operations on which Agro+ is based are becoming more common as organizations increasingly seek distributed workflows, and we are thrilled that Marina and Dolphin have been so vital in bringing this channel to the air with such speed, ease and simplicity."
