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Channel Studio

Run a high-quality channel without the busywork, from library and schedule through playout.

Channel Studio helps your team bring content into the channel, build the day, and take it on air in the formats you need. Along the way, validation and automation around files, metadata, and schedules catch issues early, so the channel stays efficient to operate and clean on air.

What It Is

One place to run the channel: library, schedule, and playout.

Channel Studio is how your team brings content into the channel, builds the day, and takes it on air. From a customer point of view, that includes playout itself: the schedule does not stop at a file handoff. It plays out into the formats you need for cable operators, FAST platforms, or direct streaming.

The point of the product is speed and quality. Validation and automation around files, metadata, and schedules catch problems early, so your team spends less time fixing day-of issues and more time running a clean channel. Channel Studio is part of the complete United Teleports service, including delivery, not a separate product you have to buy and stitch together on your own.

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Key Highlights

Built to make channel teams faster and channels cleaner

Channel Studio puts validation and automation around files, metadata, and schedules so your team can move content through library, scheduling, and playout with fewer surprises.

Automated metadata validation

Catch missing or bad metadata before the channel is live, so issues show up in your workflow instead of as an end-customer complaint.

Templates and Wildcards

Reuse day patterns and fill open slots with wildcard pools so your scheduling team builds more channels with less repetitive work.

One library across channels

Keep programs and content in a shared library your team can schedule across multiple channels without rebuilding the catalog each time.

Schedule by day or by series

Work the way your team thinks: build a full day on the grid, or schedule by series. Enter series metadata and artwork once instead of repeating it on every asset.

Direct EPG delivery

Send guide data in XMLTV, JSON, and other customized formats so each endpoint gets the EPG shape it needs.

Bulk upload and Cloud ingest

Bulk upload moves many files at once through a Windows desktop app. Cloud ingest pulls media from AWS, Azure, or other cloud storage instead of uploading from a local machine.

Smart ingest and file QC

Apply format policy, visual QC, and caption handling as files come in, so media problems are found early instead of at air time.

Publish checks before air

Hard blocks and soft warnings, including day-coverage checks, help the team fix gaps and asset issues before the channel goes out.

Reuse schedules across channels

Copy and paste schedule patterns across channels so multi-channel teams are not rebuilding the same day by hand.

How It Works

Upload metadata

Start with a structured library of series, programs, ads, and promos. Enter titles, descriptions, artwork, and other guide fields even before every video file arrives.

Series work is done once. Set the series name, artwork, and shared metadata, then attach episodes and assets under that record instead of retyping the same details on every file. For larger libraries, bulk import loads catalog rows without building everything one record at a time.

Automated validation flags missing or bad fields while your team is still in the catalog, not after an end customer complains about the guide. The same library can feed multiple channels, and that metadata is ready for scheduling and for the guide data that travels with the channel.

How It Works

Upload video

Bring media in through the portal, the Windows desktop bulk uploader, or cloud sources such as AWS and Azure. Large overnight batches and single-file uploads land in the same place.

Video Inbox lets you stage files before metadata is finished. Upload first, then link each file to a program when the catalog record is ready. Desktop and cloud batches follow that same path into the shared library.

After upload, Smart Ingest runs format policy and visual QC so file problems show up in ingest, not at air time. Captions can be detected in the media or attached as sidecars while the asset is prepared for the channel.

How It Works

Prepare video for the schedule

Segmentation can come in with the media. Channel Studio can detect break points embedded in the video file, read them from catalog metadata, or ingest a sidecar, so your team is not recreating every mid-roll by hand.

Before you schedule the asset, review segment timing in the built-in editor and make fine adjustments. Confirm where breaks fall, tidy edge cases, and lock the structure you want on air.

When a runtime sits just off a clean schedule length, optional auto-time adjust can apply a small speed-up or slowdown so the piece fits a 15- or 30-second increment. That keeps day-building simpler and cuts leftover time in the grid.

How It Works

Schedule the channel

Start with structure. Scheduling blocks let you shape the channel day the way traditional programmers do: define the parts of the day first, then fill programs into that framework instead of living in a flat content playlist.

Build on a visual schedule grid. Work by day or by series, and pull titles from the shared library so the same programs can land on more than one channel without rebuilding the catalog.

Placeholders inside blocks keep the day moving when every asset is not final yet. Lock the shape of the channel first, then drop in specific titles as media and metadata are ready.

How It Works

Speed up day-building

Once the channel structure is clear, reuse it. Day templates capture the pattern of a working schedule so your team is not rebuilding the same shape every morning.

Wildcards keep open ad and promo capacity flexible. Point a slot at a pool instead of locking every break to a single spot, then use Fill Remaining to pack leftover mid-roll time so the day stays full without hand-editing every gap.

When you run more than one channel, copy and paste schedule patterns across channels. Multi-channel teams move faster when a good day can be reused instead of rebuilt line by line.

How It Works

Run live events in the same channel

Not every channel day is files only. Schedule an SRT live event directly in the playlist and Channel Studio connects to the source, switches when the window hits, and returns the channel to the scheduled day around it.

Some events cannot be automated. A producer may call cues or change break timing in real time. For those high-value windows, United Teleports can put operators on the event: take the feed from satellite, fiber, or internet, stay on the line, and switch breaks by hand. Few FAST platforms offer that on-call live support when the playlist alone is not enough.

When you need more than a clean switch, advanced live services can capture the event, support replays, and handle segmentation so the content stays useful after it airs.

How It Works

Brand the channel with graphics

Bug overlays are managed in Channel Studio. Set a default at the channel level, then override it for an individual series or program when that title needs its own look. Define the in and out points once so the graphic timing follows the content instead of being reworked every time you schedule.

What's playing and what's next graphics help keep viewers oriented inside the channel. Use them to surface the current title and the next one without breaking the linear experience.

Beyond bugs and now/next, the United Teleports playout platform supports custom graphics work: squeezebacks, dual-video, wraparounds, and other treatments. We can build the capability with your team, then let you call it from within the schedule when the day needs it.

How It Works

Support ads the way your team works

Traditional programmers often need a real traffic loop, not only wildcard fillers. Egress the playlist in standard formats that list ad avails, let your ad platform fill those spots, then re-ingest the updated playlist and use as-run lists for reconciliation after air.

For FAST destinations that replace ads in the stream, your team can place SCTE marks in Channel Studio so the markers travel with the feed you send. The platform uses those cues to splice or replace content at the right moments — without a separate marker workflow outside the schedule.

If you do not want to run traffic software yourself, United Teleports can provision and operate an ad platform for your channels. We configure and optimize it around your inventory, workflow, and destinations so it fits the way you actually sell and schedule ads.

You can also hand trafficking to our ops team. We can receive orders, ingest creatives, and run day-to-day ad ops alongside your programmers, or step in as the ad ops function when you need that coverage.

How It Works

Publish with validation first

Before a day goes to air, publish preflight checks the schedule for problems. The goal is the same quality bar as the rest of Channel Studio: catch issues while your team can still fix them.

Hard blockers stop publish when something critical is wrong, such as missing assets or other conditions that should not reach playout unresolved. Soft warnings, including day-coverage checks, can be acknowledged when the team understands the risk and chooses to continue.

That mix keeps the channel protected without freezing every imperfect day. Operators get a clear quality gate, not a surprise after the feed is already out.

How It Works

Take the channel on air and out to destinations

Once the day is published, playout is part of the same Channel Studio path. United Teleports runs the on-air layer with redundancy so the channel stays protected when a path or system needs failover.

From there, feeds can leave as HLS, SRT, satellite, and related formats so you can reach cable operators, FAST platforms, direct streaming destinations, and other partners that need the signal.

Channel Studio gets the channel built and on air. When you need the wider distribution story, partner paths, and delivery options in more depth, see Channel Distribution.

Summary

One path from library to a high-quality channel on air

Channel Studio is how your team brings content in, prepares it, builds a structured schedule, supports live and ads when the day needs them, validates before publish, and takes the channel on air with United Teleports playout and delivery.

The through-line is efficiency and quality: validation and automation around files, metadata, and schedules so problems show up in the workflow, not after an end customer complains. It is part of the complete United Teleports service, including delivery.

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