OmniBus Systems will launch at the 2008 NAB Show of iTX BCP (Business Continuity Planning), a specially configured variation of the iTX production and playout system designed to support business continuity in the event of both short- and long-term outages of a primary transmission facility.

iTX BCP is a uniquely cost-effective solution that makes a range of business continuity strategies more practical and economic than ever before. Leveraging iTX's advantages of powerful software running on robust and cost-effective standard IT hardware, iTX BCP allows broadcasters and content owners to build a new level of security into their operations, without the large investment required to replicate the traditional playout chain.

This ground-breaking approach to the transmission solution for a BCP facility not only provides continuity of output, but also ensures that transmission can be maintained on a long-term basis with the same levels of branding and crafting present in the primary facility.

"No broadcaster wants to run the risk of going off-air and losing revenue because of a system failure," said OmniBus CTO Ian Fletcher. "Yet the great majority are not protected against disaster because it's been simply too expensive and complex for them until now. By replacing the complexity of the traditional physical transmission chain with a software-based solution, iTX BCP delivers a dramatic reduction in the amount of infrastructure required to provide a full backup facility. It brings a range of disaster recovery facilities within reach of any media operation, on any scale, and combines scalability, redundancy and quality of output to levels that have not been possible with conventional broadcast hardware transmission chains and device control automation."

The replication of content from the primary site to the backup is one of the most challenging issues when implementing a BCP facility. Where an IT-based solution is deployed for BCP, it is necessary for it to coexist with a conventional system, sharing the same library of content files and with processes in place for the transfer of media from the primary facility to the secondary site.

As a format-independent system, iTX BCP is ideally placed to deal with the wide range of file formats found in the content libraries of conventional solutions. Using existing files from the conventional primary transmission system in their native format without the need for transcoding or reingesting, iTX BCP also exchanges the same schedule and as-run log files with the traffic system, and accepts the same metadata used by the primary system.

iTX BCP provides a number of technologies for efficient and accurate site-to-site content transfer via either local or wide-area networks, along with selective transfer of content based on type, age or scheduled channel. Sophisticated error correction and retransmission capabilities ensure security of transfer.

To manage the insertion of evergreen content into a backup site transmission schedule, iTX BCP provides a unique service that automatically and intelligently replaces missing content with appropriate evergreen material of compatible duration, based on pre-defined business rules for the channel. This service will also replace scheduled live events when the live feeds are not available to the backup site, ensuring smooth continuation of output without the need for operator intervention.