digital

transmission

The Brughetti System

A montreal-based software developer is set to win worldwide recognition as it comes to market with the broadcast and post-production industry’s first integrated digital transmission system.

Based on a powerful, open-ended proprietary artificial intelligence database called Diplomat, The Brughetti System provides the industry with time-predictive data management, integrated high- and low-band communications and realtime graphics and editing capability.

The system makes optimized choices for any environment – analog, digital and mixed – on high-bandwidth, routing problems through the use of an integrated, Internet protocol compliant, communication subsystems and intelligent agents to expedite resource management and allocation.

These software features allow networked computer and video hardware systems, and their operators, to work as an integrated pool of resources, a critical asset in time-sensitive, live on-air conditions, says Brughetti Corporation president Paul Cirka.

Founded in 1993 by Cirka, a former executive vice-president with Discreet Logic, and David Clement, chief product architect and lead developer of the bbc’s News Software System, the company markets hybrid digital video and computer technology to the traditional tv broadcast market through the development of automation software products which manage and create media databases, format translators, user interface designs and distributed processing systems.

Brughetti has just entered the market, recently signing an important development deal with IBM Entertainment Systems for broadcast production and management systems, as well as an exclusive distribution agreement with Photron of Japan, a major broadcast equipment distributor.

As well, the company has signed a Beta site agreement to provide automation software for the management of hardware resources used for program playout, spot insertion and time-delay transmission with Canadian specialty channel, Showcase.

For an advanced technology company like Brughetti, its commercial fortune can change literally overnight.

At this point, Cirka primarily handles the business end of the operation, traveling widely in recent months throughout North America and Asia. His background is in urban architecture, but his knowledge of visual computing is derived from the business world.

His partner, Clements, is a talented Australian-born engineer who has worked in Vancouver and spent close to three years at the bbc, where he was lead designer of the acclaimed on-air News Software System.

Membrane over resources

Cirka describes The Brughetti System as a ‘membrane over resources,’ with three distinct application levels – on-air transmission, on-air graphics assembly and program editing.

What makes the system immediately attractive to the equipment-cost weary broadcast market is its opened-ended, cross-platform capability, and its capacity to integrate downloaded information from all sources including satellites and old analog vcrs.

‘Although we offer unique solutions to complex problems encountered on a day-to-day basis, we do not base our design philosophy on the benefits of future technology to relieve pressures faced today,’ says Cirka. ‘Our system deals with video components and computer workstations in a mixed resource pool.’

The Brughetti System’s implantation begins with the introduction of computers as control devices in a broadcast/post-production and transmission environment. As analog tape decks are replaced by digital file servers, the system has the capacity to ‘dynamically reconfirm’ the new component configuration.

Migration software

‘It allows you to migrate from your existing resource base (typically in Canada broadcasters are in a transition state and use both digital and analog components) to a digitally-based system, at your own speed and cost ability,’ says Cirka.

Demand for technology such as The Brughetti System is a reflection of the evolving broadcast market, says Cirka, a market that is more planned-out and long-term (richer) than the post-production market.

‘The environment is changing because of deregulation and the advent of more channels. Broadcasters want more efficiency, more bang for their buck. And it’s not only in North America, this is the case around the world,’ he says.

And one of the primary routes to becoming more profitable is via automation, in both the production and delivery systems.

Developed for, and in use by, bbc in London, The Brughetti System incorporates a trio of software products which operate on entry-level 24-bit Unix workstations such as the Silicon Graphics Indy and the IBM RS/6000. Other port arrangements are also being developed.

The software components, called Air, Pure and Slice, focus on clip management with spot insertion and playout, the creation of on-air graphics and program editing, respectively. Specialized modules have also been added, including World Mapper, Multipoint Tracking, Color Correction and Paint and Graphics.

Pricing (usd) begins as follows: Air (playout manager), $14,000; Pure (image creator), $29,000; and Slice (transition maker), $34,000.

Air: playout manager

Air is a fully automated, realtime digital clip playback manager providing for both manual and automated playout of clip and program assembly. Through hybrid resource management, this program creates and routes video clips, stills, audio and associated tracking information.

With Air, users can interact with storage data from all sources, including disc, tape, tape carts and live feeds. In short, the system performs all the traditional functions associated with video switchers, traffic and machine control systems, but in a totally automated post-digital environment.

Pure: image creator

Pure is a high-speed digital imaging system used for the generation and assembly of on-air graphics.

This program is designed specifically to handle the stress of live and last-minute graphics creation and modification. Its interface acts as ‘the interactive palette,’ using a stepwise, template-based assembly system.

Slice: transition maker

Slice is a software-based, long- and short-form, hybrid video/ audio editor. Its features include the ability to create realtime edits and special effects in a non-destructive CCIR601 (D1) operating environment, sourcing and mixing from a variety of inputs such as tape, disk, archival footage and live feeds, including sky feeds.

Diplomat: the core technology

Diplomat is Brughetti’s core technology, a proprietary high-level object-based modularized (open-networked) program.

Designed for the international market, all system end-user products use Diplomat to link task-specific operations into the pool of managed resources in local or wide-area networks. As a distributed database, it has the ability to manage time, set priority lists, resolve conflicts, allocate assignments and resources, as well as manage costs, says Cirka.

For example, Diplomat can react immediately to conflicts introduced by overrun or underrun of spot insertions. It can also foresee conflict such as simultaneous playout of the same spot on separate feeds as well as automatically copy and migrate duplicated spots onto a media server.

The development of Diplomat was financed with private investment over a tight, 18-month period, says Cirka, adding, Brughetti filed a u.s. Patent Office application in March.

Breakthrough deal

Brughetti’s breakthrough development deal with ibm was announced at NAB ’95 in mid-April.

Besides porting the system to the IBM RS/6000 workstation, the agreement also includes invaluable sales and marketing support and the development of a new software system to exploit various unique features of ibm’s MediaStreamer for the huge video-on-demand market of the very near future.

Cirka says Brughetti has ‘just entered the marketplace.’

Certainly, staff will double from 10 to 20 in the next year, and there’s a distinct possibility head office will be transferred to the intelligence-rich Boston area.

In the next four or five years, says Cirka, business levels will be in the multimillion-dollar range with the longer term plan to tackle the worldwide, multibillion-dollar interactive consumer market. This future market will need automation and infrastructure control technology.

‘We are headed towards a complete change in broadcast infrastructures and that market in the future will be 10 times bigger than the post (-production) market,’ says Cirka.

Vertical integration comes first

Big and smaller players are focused on developing the content and server technology required for this market, including corporations like Sony, Oracle, Dynatech, Chyron, Grass Valley, Tektronix and Avid, the latter perhaps qualifying as Brughetti’s main competitor.

Because the cost of interactive broadband architecture is so high, the market must necessarily be controlled and financed by multinational conglomerates.

Most of the fledgling development industry has been the easy but happy target of an almost all-encompassing wave of international strategic alliances.

‘We are concentrating on the vertical market now,’ says Cirka. ‘You need to be large to handle horizontal integration for investments such as video-on-demand.’