Insight Communications Purchases Vela's RapidAccess Servers for Two Locations
Insight now has three RapidAccess installations -- its first was installed at the Louisville, Ky., facilities earlier this year, followed by the installation of a RapidAccess server at its Bowling Green site and a RapidAccess II at the Northern Kentucky facility in Covington. The Bowling Green facility maintains the first RapidAccess installation to feature a Gigabit Ethernet connection and a Network Attached Storage (NAS) array. Configured with 144 GB of disk storage, the system can hold up to 40 hours of long-form material for the facility's six government access, public access, local origination, and educational access channels.
"As we looked to eliminate the bulk of our video tape equipment and streamline costs, Vela's RapidAccess emerged as the obvious choice for our facility," said Insight Communications' Local Programming Manager Sheryl Morris, of the Bowling Green site. "RapidAccess provides all the functions we need -- recording, storing, and playing back media files -- in one, simple unit that is easy to operate. With Vela we got the technology we wanted, the service to back it up, at a price that fit our budget." In Northern Kentucky, ICN6 is Insight Communications' source for exclusive local programming. In June, the station began the process of eliminating ¾" technology from its playback facility.
ICN6 staffers selected the RapidAccess II video server, which provides one outgoing analog signal. Equipped with a GPI interface and 54 GB of disk storage, the video server provides the station with a 15-hour capacity for recording and playback. The completely modular design of RapidAccess enables Insight's Northern Kentucky facility to expand the number of inputs, outputs, and the amount of storage as its broadcasting needs evolve.
"Improving quality, cutting expenses, and increasing efficiency were the main reasons to switch to the Vela system," said ICN6 Program Manager Joe Zink. "The success of Insight's Vela system in Louisville closed the deal for us."
RapidAccess is a Windows NT-based open-architecture video server that combines off-the-shelf hardware with proprietary software for the recording, storage, and playback of video and audio material using MPEG-2 compression. The system provides a more flexible and cost-effective alternative for videotape-based playback. With shared central storage, the RapidAccess system enables media playback on any channel immediately after recording, with no transfer delays, caching, or unnecessary file duplication.
"Any cable operator of Insight's caliber is going to insist on high-quality transmission standards to meet the expectations of its subscriber base," said Vela President, Bill Robertson. "The fact that Insight Communications has selected RapidAccess a second and third time says a great deal about the quality of these systems and the strength of the technology behind them."
About Insight Communications
Insight Communications (NASDAQ: ICCI) is the ninth-largest cable operator in the United States, serving approximately 1.4 million subscribers. The company is highly concentrated in the four contiguous states of Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. Insight specializes in offering bundled, state-of-the-art services in midsized communities, delivering analog and digital video, high-speed data and the recent deployment of voice telephony in selected markets to its customers.
About Vela
Vela is an Emmy award-winning leader in video compression products for the broadcast and cable industries. Vela's OEM Products Division offers a complete range of broadcast quality MPEG-2 video encoders and decoders. The company's Broadcast Products Division applies the core technologies developed by Vela to design and manufacture end user products, including advanced video servers and distribution solutions for digital television applications. The company is based in Clearwater, Fla., and Salt Lake City, Utah, and has offices in Hong Kong and Berlin. Visit Vela on the Web at http://www.vela.com.