Etere and ABS-CBN Disaster Recovery

03 September 2008

Alto Broadcasting System-Chronicle Broadcasting Network (ABS-CBN, the largest integrated media and entertainment company in the Philippines has selected Etere to manage its Disaster Recovery operations.

Founded in 1946, ABC-CBN (Alto Broadcasting System-Chronicle Broadcasting Network) is the largest integrated media and entertainment company in the Philippines. They also broadcast to the Filipino enclaves located in the USA and other geographical areas such as Australia, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe.
After choosing ETERE Automation for its four satellite channels (TFC Europe, TFC North America, TFC Middle East and Pinoy Central TV) in 2003, this leader in national television viewing has renewed its preference for ETERE for its latest channels and not just for the new ones. Given that ABS-CBN already runs more than 20 channels in its facility, ETERE was the perfect choice to expand the system using all the existing infrastructures. The extreme modularity of ETERE allows you expanding simply by adding the necessary pieces. Its distributed architecture, without a single point of failure, allows easy and unlimited expansion.

ETERE is a TV management system that is based on a SQL Media Asset Management system, able to integrate all functions inside a media company by automating and linking them together in a single consistent system.

Currently, ABS-CBN uses the following ETERE modules:
- Automation + Backup/Clone
- Etere Traffic
- Etere Web and Etere Browsing
- Etere Transcoding
- Etere Media Manager

All of these modules control the devices listed below for ABS-CBN:
- N. 56 PCs
- N.1 Seachange Videoserver BMS
- N.2 VTR for Ingest
- N.1 Master
- N.1 Evertz Logo Inserter
- N.2 Quartz Router via Etere Sarvaji

But what’s more important is that ABS-CBN safely operates and manages its archives taking advantage of the reliability of ETERE Disaster Recovery.

ETERE Disaster Recovery is an application created to remedy all the consequences deriving from any error or technical problem that could occur on the main installation.
When the main server or installation of a TV station is not working properly, the Disaster Recovery avoids interruptions and loss of data by putting into operation its backup system in replacement of the damaged one.

Etere Disaster Recovery is a replica-net configured to and aligned with the main one to allow switching from the first one to itself as soon as a failure arises.

Such functionality, as the one provided by DR, is all the more important when it is used within a TV station: being that the Playout of any TV station is subject to the audience’s judgement, it becomes of vital importance that everything put on air works perfectly.

To make it simple: if you are watching some news on TV Patrol World - the most watched news program in the entire Philippines - you will never realize that there has been a failure on the main server because DR would have already carried out the Playout without missing a single frame.

Disaster Recovery’s main task is precisely that to make sure that the Playout will not suffer any gaps due to any possible technical error.

Disaster Recovery is not just a system for data recovery but is also a system for the malfunctioning recovery: in a word it prevents a disaster!