WINNER Broadcast Bionics VirtualRack
V
irtualRack is a hardware appliance and browser interface that helps engineers rapidly and confidently deploy containerised broadcast products without advanced IT knowledge. Broadcast equipment manufacturers are increasingly releasing containerised versions of products that have, until now, only been available as hardware. But as engineers begin to transition from physical hardware to software-based alternatives, they are faced with a number of complex challenges. VirtualRack from Broadcast Bionics is a vendor agnostic solution that allows broadcast engineers to easily deploy and manage containerised broadcast products from a range of manufacturers, rapidly, reliably and without requiring any specific IT knowledge. Whilst there are many benefits to deploying containerised products (improved redundancy, dynamic scalability, remote management, saving on physical rackspace), there is also a new set of challenges that often extend beyond an engineer’s expertise and remit. Due to broadcast specific requirements including low-latency audio and high uptime, advanced Linux knowledge is required to configure hardware that will reliably run containerised broadcast products. Attempting to run multiple products from different manufacturers further compounds the issues, as different products have different requirements, so additional specialist knowledge (and a lot of trial and error) is needed to achieve stability. VirtualRack solves these issues using preconfigured hardware with an embedded software interface. Once a VirtualRack appliance is installed on a broadcaster’s network, products can be selected from the built-in application library without using a line of code. Once activated with their own product licence codes, VirtualRack monitors for updates, provides visibility across entire multisite networks, and allows engineers to configure and manage backup and
redundancy options. VirtualRack’s growing application library currently includes a number of products from Telos Alliance, as well as SOUND4, 2wcom, XPERI and Wide Orbit Automation for Radio and is available in two sizes depending on the number of products and processing power required. Multiple units can be installed across multiple sites to provide a breadth of diverse backup and redundancy options. We’re confident that VirtualRack is unique in addressing the issues described above and is therefore a truly innovative solution empowering broadcasters to quickly and confidently build stable, future-proof infrastructures. VirtualRack has already generated international interest from leading broadcasters and is currently installed at one of Australia’s largest networks. VirtualRack is the result of countless hours of research and development to fine tune, troubleshoot and ultimately create an optimised platform for managing containerised products. Now, instead of painstaking trial and error, broadcasters can start building their future-proof infrastructure, safe in the knowledge that the hard work has already been done.