• All content moved to tapeless methods for delivery-to-playout
• Reduced costs and convenience make tapeless delivery ideal solution for channels
• First step in delivering efficient broadcast workflows

Arqiva today announced that Wedding TV has moved to tapeless production methods for all delivery-to-playout. Broadcasters have been using tapeless production for adverts for a number of years but it is still typical for the majority of long-form material to be managed using tapes and couriers.

Launched in December last year, Wedding TV has been using tapeless methods for all its playout and distribution since June this year. It currently produces 4-5 hours of original content per week but this is set to rise to 4-5 hours per day from September and using tapeless methods will significantly reduce courier costs and speed up the time from creation of programmes to being on air.

Helen Taylor, Head of Operations at Wedding TV said: "We're a new channel so we had the advantage of starting tapeless without a huge back catalogue of material. Being able to upload the main programming has really reduced costs and increased efficiency for us because there is no need for tapes and couriers to distribute the content."

"Wedding TV is also shown in Poland and Russia so one of the key benefits for us is that we get voices delivered electronically and can easily layback the additional audio to the original content. This should really help us to see true economies of scale as we look to expand into more territories in 2008."

John Bozza, Head of Broadcast Sales at Arqiva's Satellite Media Solutions division said: "Using tapeless methods for delivery and playout has significantly reduced the cost for our customers. But it's not just about cost, it also makes it easier to manage so the teams are able to spend more time on producing additional content or tailoring what they have for different audiences."

Wedding TV's tapeless environment is driven by Apple Macintosh X-servers, X-raids and supported by X-San and Final Cut Studio 2. It interfaces electronically with the Arqiva playout centre for onward transmission.

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