Some of the larger playout centres in Europe, Southeast Asia and the United States handle well in excess of 50 radio and television "feeds".
This provides deterministic control, enabling frame accurate playback, Instant replay or video switching.
This ensures that a broadcast automation system bought "off the shelf" will at least be able to ingest and playout content, although may not be able to take advantage of more efficient methods of control.
Audio servers – An audio playout system would provide scheduled voiceovers Aspect Ratio Converters – These alter the picture shape or send an embedded signal to allow the material format to be displayed correctly on a particular feed (e.g. Widescreen on a standard non-widescreen Analogue terrestrial feed) Some of these more advanced devices require information from the playlist, and so do not tend to use an RS422/232 driver, but a complex XML based system which allows for more complex metadata to be passed, e.g. a "Now" or "Next" Graphic can be created from a template using text information from the playlist.
Aim of playout centers is mostly to serve customers a simple file based television facility.
The playout system execute a scheduled and time-accurate playlist of content to generate a linear radio or television signal (or "feed").
On playing out the material, the audio and video signals are usually transported from the playout area to the network via a studio/transmitter link (STL), which may be fibre backlink, microwave or satellite uplink.