Abekas Offers 3D Instant Replay on 8-Channel Mira

Abekas’s four-channel Mira digital video-production server was a popular product, but the company is doubling down at the NAB Show with an eight-channel version, and this one can handle 3D.

The eight-channel server has the same form factor as the four-channel one and retains the video quality and features of the smaller version while incorporating a multiviewer, an engineering setup that makes the system reconfigurable on the fly, and the ability to do 3D instant replay.

“We’ve integrated a multiviewer into the machine, which is useful for the operator station,” says Chief Product Manager Douglas Johnson. “The operator of an EVS has their picture monitors with the overlay that obscures the picture. We did it so that the pictures are not obscured and it’s all available right in front of the operator. Plus, EVS comes in two, four, or six channels, and this comes in eight, so there’s nothing like it in that regard.”

Through an engineering setup menu, the eight-channel system is reconfigurable on the fly, so the channels can be repurposed in numerous ways.

“We can do a six-in, two-out instant-replay application, but let’s say you want to do stereo and you have a four-channel stereo machine,” Johnson says. “Then you have four complete channels working in stereo, so you can do two in, two out in stereo. That’s the application that we’re hitting now.”

The eight-channel version of the server also allows for better use of super-slo-mo cameras, which have either two video output links or three, depending on the camera.

“With an eight-channel machine, we can record two 3x cameras, and then you still have two channels for playback, which EVS can’t do,” Johnson says.

In addition, the server has a built-in clip-library-management system, eight transports of control, and an import/export utility. The four-channel edition had an importer, to import Quicktime movie files, but Abekas now supports MXF-wrapped files as well.

“We’ve also added an exporter, so, when someone has used the DNF controller and marked off all their clips, they can create a playlist and play out the clips, just like on an EVS. There’s also a melt function: when we press that soft key, it transfers that information to the Mira exporter, and then Mira can export a Quicktime movie file or MXF file that contains the melt.”

The eight-channel version of the Mira server is on display in the nearby Sony booth, powering a 3D LCD screen. It is scheduled to begin shipping in June.