~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back in 1997 the FCC established the framework for TV Parental Guidelines and V-Chip technology to give parents some control over what their children watch on television when the parents can't directly supervise them or when the parents need additional information about a program prior to viewing. V-Chips have been installed in all televisions manufactured since 2000 and with the switch to flat screens and digital television many more households are buying V-Chip capable sets.
A Ratings System was established to help parents determine the type of content contained in a TV show so they could decide if the program was acceptable for viewing depending on the age and maturity of their children. Ratings are supposed to be provided by the producers and networks but local stations can also modify a rating to fit local requirements. If your station broadcasts locally produced content and the producer does not provide the information you can establish a rating prior to air.
Informa, BugCrawler and FireBird ship with TV Ratings capability. In addition, you can add TV Rating information into the Video Catalog within VLM. We include both the U. S. and Canadian system. In addition, VLM can communicate with the two most popular V-Chip Decoders to implement a full-featured TV Rating display along with V-Chip control if needed. The TV Rating icon must be broadcast for 15 seconds at the beginning of the show and provide the viewer with information on the content. The V-Chip enables the parent to block the program if they feel the content is objectionable.
For more information please call your Region Manager (Tom Carey-East or Bill Dirkes-West) at 800-601-6991. |
| FireBird as Back-Up Server
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Redundancy used to be a perk that only the large networks and stations could afford and it was not unusual to see dual redundant operations in mirror image in many of these stations. However, the reality of doubling your equipment and software budget plus the extra complexity of the software to run it is not within the grasp of most facilities.
Well, just because you don't have twice the budget does not mean you can't have redundancy and peace of mind. Synergy Broadcast's FireBird is a full-featured, single channel video server that also includes Informa graphics capability. When you add FireBird to your equipment list and use it as your graphics system for logo insertion, crawls, scrolls and full page CG applications you also have a digital playback server that can be used as a backup to play your existing MPEG2, DV and Windows Media files in the event your primary playback server should have a problem.
So, for the price of a mid-range CG you also get server capability that also provides back-up to your playback system. FireBird represents playback insurance and redundancy without sticker shock.
For more details on FireBird call Bill (ext 319) or Tom (ext 320) at 800-601-6991. |
