Thomson Grass Valley Aurora Craft designed to meet busy sports, newsroom needs

By Ken Kerschbaumer

Busy sports desks and sports network newsrooms will have a new option for editing with the introduction of Aurora Craft at NAB. It’s the newest editing platform from Thomson Grass Valley and Ed Casaccia, Thomson Grass Valley director of product management and marketing, says the software gives a one-two punch for demanding sports applications.

“Aurora is a direct descendent of the Vibrint editing system that was written from its very first line of code to do news editing,” says Casaccia. “There is nothing more suited to the task of editing in a newsroom where the over-riding requirement is getting things done quickly.”

Aurora Craft is also built on the Edius engine, including real-time effects, support of broadcast-quality codecs, MOS integration and multi-format SD/HD support. Coupled with the new K2 media server, which is based on networked Scuzzy drives vs. fiber channel it provides a suitable HD platform. “Our philosophy is a user shouldn’t have to compromise when going to HD,” says Casaccia.

The system also has a simpler editing interface as editing becomes part of more newsroom professionals’ skill set. Recutting a voice-over, shortening a highlight package are just two possible uses for Aurora Craft.”

Shipping at NAB, expect Aurora Craft to cost around $1,200 for a laptop version and $6,000 for turnkey systems.