Both Pebble Beach and Snell were showing demonstrations of enhanced graphics capabilities in their channel-in-a box playout systems at NAB, using a toolkit from RT Software. Pebble Beach was showing its Dolphin system performing a 3D squeezeback with live video and graphics on both images. Snell was also showing integration between its ICE playout system and RT Software. The partnerships allow automation specialists to add graphics functionality to their products without extensive development, and without adding external devices. Systems from both vendors ship with basic graphics functionality which can be extended to the full sophisticated 3D system with a software plug-in. Peter Hajittofi, managing director of Pebble Beach Systems, commented: “We are very pleased to be working with RT Software and excited about the opportunities this co-operation brings. By using RT Software graphics we will be able to take the functionality of our Dolphin product up to the level of best of breed graphics solutions, but at a fraction of the price, and with a much smaller footprint and lower power consumption. The RT Software graphics option augments our own simpler 2D graphics module which is ideal for lower revenue channels.”
Karl Mehring, senior product manager at Snell, agreed, adding: “RT Software is unique in having a library built from the ground up for integration, and their rendering is very efficient – crucial with the sharing of resources required with a channel-in-a-box solution.” www.pebble.tv
