Canadian Sports Broadcaster Deploys Front Porch Digital Solutions

Front Porch Digital announced that Canada’s The Score Television Network has deployed the company’s DIVArchive content storage management (CSM) solution. DIVArchive enables the seamless transfer of SD and HD content from ingest to editing, archive, and playout. In addition, the workflow at the 24/7 English-language sports television service relies on Front Porch Digital’s DIVAdirector media asset management system to track, browse, identify, and quickly access sports video content for production purposes.

Launched in 1997 and based in Toronto, The Score is currently available in 6.7 million homes in Canada. Front Porch Digital’s Canadian partner, Applied Electronics, managed the sale and implementation in support of the broadcaster’s transition to HD operation. The deployment illustrates Front Porch Digital’s success in the Canadian CSM market, where the company currently enjoys more than 80-percent share.

“The Score’s unique and efficient operations, which incorporate multiple distribution platforms, have benefited greatly from the efficiency of the streamlined workflow that DIVArchive enables,” said Oliver Gayagoy, vice president, Broadcast & Information Technology, Score Media Inc. “In addition, DIVArchive’s scalability continues to support our ability to keep pace technologically with the growing demands of our well-positioned content offerings.”

At The Score, DIVArchive manages server-based content storage and transfer between Grass Valley editing suites, archive, and playout. DIVAdirector enables The Score producers to identify desirable clips and send the associated essence files to Aurora for editing. DIVArchive’s partial file restore (PFR) feature allows an editor to call back only the footage needed rather than a whole file – the winning basket, rather than the basketball game, for example. PFR not only increases the efficiency of the personnel working on a tight deadline, but also improves the efficiency of the workflow as a whole by conserving bandwidth and optimizing the use of storage resources.

Front Porch Digital’s DIVArchive system supports preservation, management, and retrieval of media content by enabling interoperability between digital media storage devices, video servers, editing systems, and digital media workflow applications. Front Porch Digital’s DIVAdirector tracks assets in the storage system, allowing users to browse content in the form of automatically generated low-bit-rate proxies, to create frame-accurate shot lists, and to use customizable metadata to find and identify specific media using robust search tools.