News: Telestream Introduces FlipFactory HD to Automate Conversion to Broadcasters On-air HD Standard

Exclusive MotionResolve™ technology provides superior HD picture quality

(Las Vegas, Nevada, NAB Show) Telestream, the leading provider of workflow automation solutions for the broadcast industry, unveiled FlipFactory HD, the newest product to emerge from its world-renowned FlipFactory family. FlipFactory HD simplifies conversion of multiformat source media to the new HD standard for broadcasters and other content owners.

Recognized for its industry-leading depth and breadth of broadcast format and system support, FlipFactory facilitates automated, file-based exchange between leading broadcast media servers and production systems. Now, FlipFactory HD solves the same challenge for HD workflows.

“We’re pleased to address the growing need to upconvert and move media ultimately destined for HDTV playout,” said David Heppe, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Telestream. “FlipFactory HD solves the challenge currently faced by broadcasters who regularly receive commercials in mixed SD and HD formats that need to be converted to HD on-air signals. For content owners with archived SD files, FlipFactory HD provides automated batch upconversion to HD, saving time and resources.”

FlipFactory HD fits into any file-based workflow, eliminating the separate steps required with a hardware upconverter. Tasks are completely automated with FlipFactory HD, enabling content to flow in and out of the workflow without baseband signal routing and without the need for operator intervention. FlipFactory HD automatically monitors and accepts SD and HD media from system folders, converts media to the desired 1080i or 720p HD format, and delivers output HD media and metadata files to destination systems.  In addition, FlipFactory HD can generate proxies for desktop viewing and streaming formats for Web publishing in the same automated process. With the introduction of FlipFactory HD, Telestream initially supports Grass Valley, Omneon, and Pinnacle HD media server formats, as well as MPEG VOD transport streams, Windows Media and QuickTime. Ongoing work now in progress will add support for additional HD servers and formats. 

Telestream’s exclusive MotionResolve™ technology in FlipFactory HD utilizes a unique two step process for upconverting compressed standard definition interlaced 480/576 line content to superior quality 1080i HD output. First, the input content is processed to intelligently expand the field information at the beginning of the upconversion process. Then, it detects and reduces any artifacts introduced during the final scaling and re-interlacing process. The end result is a high quality HD picture created from a compressed SD source.

FlipFactory HD is powerful, scalable software that runs on a Windows 2003 or XP Pro platform. Load-balanced processing across one or more servers provides scalability and redundancy to meet users’ exact media processing needs. For the many broadcasters already using FlipFactory, adding a new upconversion option is an easy addition to their regular workflow.

Telestream demonstrated FlipFactory HD along with its other media access, encoding and delivery products in Booth SU11404 at this week’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas, Nevada.

###