Bremen, 10. April 2015

MXF Legalizer rescues 30.000 Archive Files at RTP

MXF Legalizer recovers archive files in Portugal and will be used as a gateway to ensure the correctness of MXF files before they are moved into the long-term archive.


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During the playout of contents from their archive system, Portugal’s national broadcaster (RTP) found some problems. They found about 30.000 MXF files with compatibility issues with the playout system. The ITX Playout system (Miranda) rejected the MXF files because of compliance conflicts with MXF standards. Rádio e Televisão de Portugal is using OmniBus and Quantel systems to provide RTP's Porto and Lisbon news operations. To ingest content locally from tape or other interfaces, Quantel and Omneon servers are in use, as well as an OmniBus automation system. The archive system integrates a Front Porch Digital DIVArchive with Sony PetaSite for long-term storage. Within the pre-test, Cube-Tec detected MXF files that had been produced with illegal bit rates, and user data streams in the MXF container haven’t been aligned correctly within the files. After proving that MXF Legalizer can fix the damaged files in a fully automated process without any degradation and re-encoding of the essence, RTP decided to order this unique solution from Cube-Tec. The system will be installed in April 2015. As soon as this collection of damaged MXF files will be corrected, RTP plans to use MXF Legalizer as a gateway in RTPs archiving workflow to secure the correctness of files being ingested in Front Porch DIVArchive, the RTP broadcaster’s archive system.

We are lucky to get in contact with Cube-Tec. For us it was important to find a solution that fixes only the bits that are wrong and fix mismatches between the MXF container and MPEG bit stream. We were looking for an automated process without losing content quality through an additional encoding process.
- Tito Alfonso Oliveira, Rádio e Televisão de Portugal

The diversity of reasons for interoperability problems in MXF files is vast. Even small changes in an internal production workflow or a simple version update in the equipment may change the internal structure of produced MXF files significantly. These variants can drive a broadcaster into major difficulties when they have to guarantee flawless playout operation. Novel tools such as MXF Legalizer help to solve these problems effectively. They enable cost savings and ensure streamlined processes.
- Jörg Houpert, CTO, Cube-Tec International