Extremely Large Scale Broadcast Facilities

The advent of Direct Broadcast Satellites requires the associated development of origination facilities supporting hundreds of viewer channels. Such facilities use highly automated, fault tolerant control systems to facilitate cost-effective staffing levels and the flexibility to support services that are only now evolving. We summarize the capabilities and architecture of two such facilities that are among the largest in the world: the more than 175 channel DIRECTV® Castle Rock Broadcast Center (CRBC) servicing the continental United States from Colorado, and the 72 channel DIRECTV International Inc. California Broadcast Center in Long Beach servicing Latin America and the Caribbean. For program transmission, these services use the latest, high-powered Hughes Kuband communication satellites. For program playback, each plant uses relatively conventional digital tape-based technology. Two factors make the program playout operations unique. First, their extreme size and scope. Second, all the resources in the plant are sharable and schedulable among different viewer channels to assure the plant can adapt to the services demanded by their evolving market. Some “lessons learned” are then discussed as suggestions to aid future product and facility developments.