OSS overview Broadcast-quality gear has always maintained a distinction from consumer technology through a number of traditional features. Typically, premium broadcast quality equipment is delivered with service manuals, essentially complete documents that allow for maintenance, repair, modification and system rework if, in a particular situation, the gear requires it. This distinguishing feature allows for heavy use in exceptional conditions with long life cycle and good reliability. As we now occupy the networked digital age, program production, storage and transmission are more and more based on digital systems. To this end, production and transmission facilities that are maintained as state of the art are, with few exceptions, totally digital and under computer control.
Specific software is required to access and manipulate the program bandwidth data.
The creation of this software has been an evolutionary process with proprietary technology bases which will blossom eventually into publicly accessible standards. Until now, we have been sensitive to this evolution because of the need to retool periodically with yet another new proprietary system in order to remain technically innovative. We may even share the feeling that getting what we want from technology is elusive, with goals always appearing to be a model release or upgrade away. OSS changes all of this in a profound fashion. It changes the conditions under which we obtain the computer software needed to work.