IBC 2018: Broadcast Solutions to introduce hi interface for media applications

Broadcast Solutions GmbH, one of Europe’s largest system integrators, will take two stands at IBC 2018, including the show’s largest outdoor display space.

Focusing on systems integration, the outdoor stand (O.E02) is accompanied by an indoor stand (Hall 8 D74) where Broadcast Solutions is presenting its answer to today’s and future challenges in managing media infrastructures.

Based on more than 20 years’ experience in system design Broadcast Solutions has developed hi – an intuitive and easy-to-use control layer for media appliances. Using the latest auto-discovery and zero-config technologies, hi reduces the setup and configuration time of broadcast and A/V-media systems dramatically via a user interface that provides easy control and monitoring of complex infrastructures, and resembles those of common smart mobile devices. 

Media technology has experienced several revolutions in recent years: from SD/HD to UHD, from baseband to IP, from monolithic core systems to modular and software-defined platforms. But with great power comes great responsibility – networked and software-driven systems offer unprecedented flexibility for broadcast and media environments, but require special caution. It is the user’s responsibility to define functionalities, workflows and control mechanisms for all the new devices. 

These configuration processes can take a lot of time and effort – and, in the worst case, need to be redefined each time a piece of the system has changed. Misconfigurations in an IP-based system have dramatic effects on the whole infrastructure with the result that the need to provide a fail-safe environment increases dramatically. This is why Broadcast Solutions created hi, which is intended to make the configuration process smart and easy, detects new devices automatically, and protects the user from false-configurations.

Built on decentralised software architecture, the hi system can run on almost any platform – a laptop, dedicated servers, server clusters, and also in data centres or on cloud services like AWS or Microsoft Azure. This architecture ensures uninterrupted availability, even in the event of hardware, power or protocol failures. Self-healing algorithms ensure that all parts of the system are up and running properly – even if they are distributed over different hardware platforms, or working from different locations.