Despite having sold its newsroom automation systems businesses to Avid Technology Inc, Digital Equipment Corp is still interested in broadcasters as a market, and has come out with the AlphaStudio Broadcast System, which it says is designed to shift production to full digital technology from standard analogue. It consists of automation control to handle the flow of video material; network backbone software architecture to manage the video data; broadcast record/edit/view system for playback, digital video disk recording and non-linear editing; and library server for video archiving of thousands of hours of material. Prices start at $150,000 and the AlphaStudio is shipping now in the US; it will follow later this year in Europe and Asia. A pilot installation is under way at WMUR-TV/Imes Communications, Capital Cities/ABC Inc affiliate in Manchester, New Hampshire.
