SAN DIEGO-Qualcomm Inc. spared no expense on its MediaFLO USA Inc. subsidiary. From the outside, MediaFLO’s Operations Center looks like any other box-shaped lackluster office building, but a few steps inside and the love for TV is all around.
Hanging from the ceiling in the lobby are eight flat-panel TVs, one for each of the channels MediaFLO launched with back in March. But like most things, the real show awaits behind the gates.
The operations center, which has been staffed 24/7 for more than a year now, is comprised of multiple large rooms, each serving a specific need for the company. “There’s always somebody here,” said Michael Boyd, VP of licensing and research at MediaFLO. Beyond that, MediaFLO won’t disclose specific staffing numbers.
The main control room looks like the ultimate coupling of entertainment, gadgetry, technology and fun. “To a content provider we look very much like a cable company,” Boyd said.
In the main control room there are three rows of screens for each channel available on the service. Among those eight channels are a dozen other channels in testing, including E!, MTV2, TVLand, VH1 and a few variations of MLB, among others. The three screens for each channel represent what MediaFLO receives as an incoming signal, what MediaFLO does to the video feed before it’s transmitted to its Galaxy28FLO satellite, and what the feed looks like on a MediaFLO-capable device.
Fun with colors
Color-coded outlines help staffers determine what’s going on with each channel, specifically if the signal is suffering. MediaFLO has suffered outages on its channels before, but always has evergreen content on hand to help fill in during those situations.
“Just about everything has a primary and a backup,” Boyd said during the tour. “Everything is redundant.”
A pie chart shows staff a live image of overall bandwidth usage at any time. During the tour, East and West coast feeds were taking up less than half the bandwidth while the dozen test channels took up the bulk of spectrum available. The live and test services totaling 20 linear channels are both running on the network. A real-time monitor is also on screen for each of the channels’ bandwidth usage and service bit rate.
The control room also has a map of the markets where MediaFLO offers service or is preparing to launch. The staff is able to pull in to a specific market and look at real-time diagnostic information at each transmitter site within that market. The application enables MediaFLO staff to monitor power consumption at each site, weather conditions, presence of any employees in the field that might be servicing the site, and alarms for fires, break-ins and such. In the case of alarms, there is also a loudspeaker that will indicate when any issue of importance might arise at one of the towers. During the tour an automated voice alerted the staff to a “level 1 alert” in the Orlando, Fla., market.
There is a live events center where all live sporting events are handled, a technology room and an equipment room that houses 18 bays of equipment standing overhead in a massive temperature-controlled room. On one of the bays there was what the staff called the “Paul Jacobs channel” which is a matrix of all eight West Coast and all eight East Coast feeds on the same screen. The Qualcomm CEO is said to have the same screen always running in the background in his office.
Video signals come to MediaFLO’s Operations Center directly from the company’s programming partner networks. Primarily, the video feed passes through the MediaFLO system after being specially encoded for the service; however MediaFLO does have the capability to tweak things that aren’t coming through correctly.
Like an affiliate
The system will also automatically insert commercials with the aid of inaudible signals called a “Q tone” that lets MediaFLO know where it can insert commercials paid for by advertisers who have direct deals with the company. It works exactly the same way a TV affiliate operates in each market; the network will deliver the feed with multiple commercials inserted on their end, but with numerous gaps where the affiliate, or in this case MediaFLO, can insert commercials on its end. Staffers working in the Live Events Center are equipped to insert commercials manually in that programming due to the nature of live sports scheduling.
After the video feed reaches the MediaFLO Operations Center it goes directly to the technology room before the uplink is sent to the satellite, then eventually back down to the broadcast transmitters, which feed the signal directly to devices. The video customers experience on their mobile phone is on a 10-second delay from the live signal, including a standard two-thirds-of-a-second delay inherent in the satellite transmission.
Some programmers send taped content to be broadcast on the service from time to time, and many channels break with normally scheduled programming to broadcast live, breaking news.
It should be noted that because MediaFLO is a premium, paid-for service it is not subject to the same FCC regulations as TV stations; however MediaFLO has made a concerted decision to adhere to similar rules imposed on its traditional broadcast counterparts that operate on “public airwaves.”
Looking ahead
MediaFLO has launched service in more than 40 cities across the country and is preparing to launch services with AT&T Mobility before the end of the year.
“We’re continuing to evaluate what makes sense,” Boyd said.
MediaFLO is in active discussions with programmers on launching new channels. The company is also planning to roll out more short-lived channels to highlight unique content similar to what it’s already done with the X Games and Big Brother.
Personally, Boyd said he is most excited about the opportunities with sports. “You’re bringing people into the moment. You’re connecting fans that aren’t connected,” he said.
Yet, MediaFLO continues to aim for the largest group of consumers available, whatever that offering might include.
“We’re going to do the right thing for consumers,” Boyd said. “I think we’re doing a right mix of a right thing.”
