The IBC 2012 show is set to kick off tomorrow, and in the process will bring out a lot of the best and brightest in broadcasting. Harris Corporation (News - Alert) has today announced its plans to show off its new channel-in-a-box system for broadcasters, a system geared toward allowing broadcasters to launch television channels at the lower costs than ordinary, as well as several other broadcast products as well.

Dubbed the Harris Versio, it's a combination of baseband video, automated workflow and channel branding with graphics in one single-rack solution that's both easy to set up and easy to operate thanks to a design that's primarily software-based. Versio even includes frameworks for scheduling, billing, traffic functions, asset management and master control systems, providing answers to pretty much all of the common problems a television channel might face in the early days. It not only reduces the expenses involved in launching a channel by fully 40 percent, according to Harris' projections, it also reduces the time to launch down from months to weeks or even days. Harris' Versio can work with not only single-channel launches, but also multichannel setups, single-channel expansions to a larger network, or even serve as a disaster-recovery setup.

Harris will also be showing off several other products like the Invenio Motion media asset workflow module, a system that not only tracks workflow capabilities, but can also show how tasks relate to other tasks currently within the workflow. Also set for exhibition is the Selenio Networking Module, a complete DAB digital radio system for the audio market, the SFP6800+D model for core processing solutions and a common platform for the Harris NEXIO Farad online storage system.

Basically, Harris has a lot of material coming out for broadcasters, both visual and audio alike. It will be interesting to see, however, if the added supply of gear coming out from Harris, which looks to facilitate the launch of television channels, will actually result in more television channels coming out.

In a time when more and more video is going online, it seems somewhat odd that Harris would be so clearly, and so enthusiastically, backing up the launch of standard television channels, but there may well be room for local alternatives to wider-scale national channels, especially when many are looking to throw over subscription cable channels in favor of free and low-priced equivalents.

Harris' overarching strategy may not be clear from here, but it's clear that Harris is putting a lot into the concept of getting more channels out on the air, and that may further shake up an already changing entertainment structure.

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