WOWOW Selects SGI for Full HD Broadcasting Master Control Center

SGI SGI today announced that WOWOW, Inc., headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, has selected and integrated a content server supplied by SGI that is forming the core of a full high definition file-based program broadcasting infrastructure system. WOWOW, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, is the first private satellite and pay TV broadcaster in Japan to switch over to an entirely file-based program broadcasting infrastructure system, and offers three full high definition channels. The overall program broadcasting infrastructure system was developed jointly with Toshiba Corporation. Software products independently developed by SGI Japan are used on 16 SGI® Rackable™ standard-depth servers to import and search content, as well as to perform subtitle registration. SGI Japan also custom-designed the unique configuration of the content servers, which store the vast volume of program data used in the program broadcasting system. The programs, commercials, and other content, converted to file format, are stored with redundancy in a system capable of holding up to approximately 5,000 hours of content, making it the largest capacity system of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region. “In conjunction with the start of operation of three full high-definition channels, WOWOW Inc. began considering broadcasting equipment updates as long ago as 2006,” said Hirohisa Tanabe, chief engineer in the Master Control and Transmission Department Engineering Division at WOWOW. “Based on industry trends, we decided to switch to a file-based program broadcasting system. We have been receiving cooperation from SGI Japan since the initial stage of considering the switch to a file-based system, and have obtained satisfying results through SGI Japan's exemplary system integration. In the end, we are aiming to use an entirely file-based system for all program data handled by the channel.”