“Cablecast 4.9 is an exciting release, “ says Andrew Starks, the company’s Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer. “We’ve added some very exciting capabilities that really open the platform up to social media tools, such as Drupal, Open Media and CMDN. As PEG centers seek to branch out in new and collaborative ways, we know they’ll find that Cablecast is the best tool to help them do that.”

Cablecast 4.9 brings many enhancements to its already powerful software interface.  Key features include:

Fill gaps in programming. This new feature allows users to automatically fill gaps in their programming schedule with short segments, such as PSAs and promos.

Find and replace. Cablecast users can replace one show on the schedule with another, no matter how many times it appears. This is great for situations where a show is cancelled and another needs to air in its place.

Assign crawl text to shows. It is easier than ever to display a special message whenever a specific show is aired, such as when a call-in show is aired as a re-run and the station wants to ask the viewer to refrain from calling in.

New Open Web Service. Cablecast is now the most open automation platform for community television. The system’s new web service allows for more robust integration with social media platforms, including the ability to remotely create and update data.  This new capability is what made it possible for the Open Media Project (OMP) to completely integrate the SX servers into their workflow.

Tracm. An open-source tool, developed by Tightrope, that helps the broadcaster tap into the CMDN.TV content sharing network.  Upload and download programming to and from a Cablecast SX Video Server.  Tracm takes care of everything — it carries over the show’s Metadata — it will even transcode it to the video standard outlined by CMDN.TV, if it is not already.

EarthChannel. EarthChannel introduces a complete integration solution for Cablecast SX Video Servers.  Cablecast users can now extend their automation to publish their programs directly to their web site via EarthChannel’s streaming services.  This is great news for PEG Stations that don’t have the bandwidth to host their own VOD or stream their live programming.

The software upgrade is available to all customers that have a Silver or Gold Assurance contract.  Users are asked to log in or sign up to my.trms.com to request an update.