At NPR, ContentDepot Plans Progress

NPR has awarded a $1.9 million contract to Canadian firm International Datacasting as part of its ContentDepot project, which Radio World has previously reported on.
NPR, the manager of the Public Radio Satellite System, is setting up the distribution system this year, hoping to streamline how PRSS-user stations and producers select, send and automate programming. The contract to International Datacasting is to provide station receivers for the infrastructure.
The contract is in multiple phases, with an initial value in American dollars of $1.9 million. It includes IDC’s SuperFlex broadband multimedia satellite system and Datacast XD content distribution technology, which distribute digital files and live streams. The SuperFlex receiver stores approximately 600 hours of programming on an internal 80 GB hard drive and makes it available across a LAN at the station level.
The ContentDepot project will move the PRSS from real-time to a subscription-based system. It will still incorporate satellite distribution but add alternative distribution methods to help stations receive and store programs and other information.
“Today, all programming is distributed over the satellite in real-time,” NPR states in background information about the project. “Stations must manage the programming using a variety of station-provided storage systems. With the ContentDepot, new transmission technologies and station hardware and software will enable stations to streamline program management.”