Viacom to Build New Technical Operations Center

Viacom and MTV Networks have selected Broadcast Integration Services (BIS) to assist in the design, installation, testing and commissioning of a new Technical Operations Center (TOC) within the company's existing Network Operations facility located in Hauppauge, N.Y.

The project includes infrastructure expansion for HDSDI routing, monitoring and control systems, playout capacity for up to 64 HD and SD channels and the creation of multiple virtual control room environments.

BIS was awarded the project after work on MTV's Time Square facility that was launched last New Year's Eve.

"As a result of our successful MTV HD Studio project, BIS was at the top of our list for the TOC build out," noted Mike Bivona, VP of engineering at MTV Networks, in a statement. "Their technical expertise, flexibility and proven ability to deliver on an extremely tight deadline gave us the confidence we needed to award BIS the project,"

Bivona added that "the new channels and subsystems will be scalable for future growth and expansion, as well as providing standard platforms for easy troubleshooting and maintenance. They will also support future migration of content infrastructure, such as archive, asset management and play-to-air systems. For flexibility, efficiency and redundancy we're building out a multipurpose control room and channel playout infrastructure that allows for operators to monitor and control either a single or a group of channels within the TOC environment."