DCA Broadcast Operations Center FAQs

  • The Protrack server at the station will remain as an important component of the station’s operation however it will be connected to and interfacing with the BOC server.  As run information will be sent back to the station server and affidavit workflows will remain as they are now at the stations.
  • The stations will be responsible for captioning live programming as well as any non-live programming that would be uploaded to the BOC
    • We are looking into the BOC having the capability of performing the transcription of non-live material and inserting the .scc file into the essence material (file based captioning of the program) This service would be charged on a per program basis. (The rate for which is TBD.)
  • Liability for not complying with captioning rules will remain at the station.
  • No, the stations would be informed as to the out of tolerance condition and the station would make the call as to whether to air the content or not.
  • There will be systems that “legalize” audio and video in the system at the BOC so most out of tolerance conditions will be corrected automatically.
  • There is a satellite diversity site located in Atlanta that will feed satellite signals over fiber with an automatic switching system in the event of rain fade or dish failure at the BOC
  • The weekly EAS tests can be handled one of two ways.
    1. The BOC could initiate a weekly test remotely, based on a traffic inserted event
      1. The new CAP enabled Sage EAS device also can have a weekly test prescheduled to ensure compliance on the weekly tests, that in addition to the random test covers the station no matter what
    2. The local station could perform the test locally.
  • There are 4 to 8 hour Service Level Agreements with Level(3) on the connections but…
  • In the event of loss of signal from the fiber a monitoring and control system will
    1. Notify the BOC to the connection break
      1. A call tree will be initiated
    2. Equipment at the station will automatically perform a switch to a seven day delay server or other station provided mpeg stream.
    3. When the connection returns the control and monitoring will switch the system back to normal operations.
      1. A call tree will be initiated
  • All content is mirrored on a spinning disk array and backed up on LTO 6 tape.
  • DCA is exploring a diversity site for our content store as well
  • In order to remain proactive and to ensure all content is ready with time to make corrections in the event of some missing piece of media
  • While that would be an exception to the rule if it is communicated clearly in advance and/or a regularly scheduled event (as discussed below) the BOC will be prepared to support it.
  • The stations will remain responsible for rights management
  • It will be assumed that when the station submits a grid to the BOC that the stations has rights to air that programming
  • Cologix includes generator fuel and maintenance as well as maintenance and battery replacements on the UP’s in the monthly electrical costs
  • The BOC will be setup with N+ redundancy on all critical systems
  • Depending on the device that fails there could be a short outage of signal to the station
    1. The local net receiver could be placed on air by the BOC during an outage
  • The DCA’s first responsibility is to provide reliable service to its DCA members and its clients. If there is a persistent situation where a member or client causes such exceptions that impacts the service to other the DCA members will bring the matter to the attention of the General Manager and advise them of an appropriate fee for such exceptions should the issue continue. (The intent of additional charges is to both encourage stations to plan accordingly and minimize the frequency of such events.)
  • We understand there will be instances where stations will need to turn newly produced content around quickly.  As long as they are regular events and the station advises the BOC of their frequency they will be accepted.  These are what we would define as “exceptions.”
  • File transfers times will need to be determined in the evaluation of these types of events.
  • If the secondary channel is a managed channel, it is unlimited
  • If the secondary channel is a pass through there is a scheduling mechanism that will allow members and clients to pledge on that channel for a pre-arranged period of time, the fee for which has not yet been set by the DCA members.
  • We will need 30 days advance notice to prepare and would require one month of the new rate in advance as a setup fee.
  • Because the pricing model was set with a specific number of primary and pass through channels a station will be able to downgrade any of their streams but the fee associated with that downgrade won’t be applied until a set of stations are added or another station desires to upgrade one of its pass through streams to a managed stream
  • There will be a standard file format that the BOC will accept
  • The station will save the content in a specified directory on the network and it will automatically be pulled to the BOC
  • No, pledge changes are unique and we understand the importance of making those changes.  We do ask for at least 24 hours advance notice to ensure we can maintain log integrity
  • No, breaking news is just that breaking news and could be inserted right away
  • No, underwriting contracts are a critical part of a stations revenue, and we understand the importance of making those changes.  We do ask for at least 24 hours advance notice to ensure we can maintain log integrity
  • It’s our belief that each station need only have one person assigned to interact with the BOC.  Their responsibility would be to provide all necessary log information, submit any updates as they occur, and deliver (electronically) all locally produced content (local programs, promos, underwriting announcements, pledge spots, etc.)  We also recommend that each department (programming, promotions, underwriting and development) of the station have a representative who has authorization to schedule items appropriate to their area.
  • There is an exception monitoring system in place that is monitoring everything from whether captioning is present to audio level compliance to equipment fans failures to network connection degradation.  The alarming for that monitoring system will be monitored by all operators at the BOC.  The facility will be appropriately manned 24/7.
  • Each operator will be maintaining 8 logs, 3 primary channel and 5 secondary and pass through channels
  • The plan has provisions for monitoring up to three feeds of the stations choosing.  Additional channels can be monitored for an additional fee.
  • The station can request content from a workstation located at the station.
  • The BOC will be manned 24/7/365 and staff will always be on hand to get in and out of live pledge events, with a join in progress of schedule shift in the event the event runs long
  • The live event will be scheduled with the BOC and the system will be programmed to switch to the live event and back from the live event at the specified time.   When a station is in a live event there will be a line of communication with the BOC that will allow events to run long or run short.  Prearranged contingencies will be in place, for example – if a live pledge program runs long we could already have agreed to have all programming after that event to be server events and have them set to follow.  That would allow all programming to run in its entirety and make up the time in the early AM hours.  The BOC will be able to accommodate almost any contingency as long as we can prearranged some of the conditions, so we know what to do for running long or short.
  • While we cannot anticipate every situation for a non-standard event we do not see any additional charges for live events.
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