Broadcast Pix Says Great Video Does Not Have To Cost a Fortune
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With budgets constantly tightening across all levels of production, content owners want to create compelling video using very few people, and Broadcast Pix is helping them do so.
“Video is being used more and more, and people don’t want to have a huge team to make it look good,” explains President Ken Swanton. “People don’t buy our gear because they don’t have the budget; people buy it because they can make better-looking video than if they spent $50,000 in another way. The message is, great looking video doesn’t have to cost a fortune.”
Helping to sell that message is Broadcast Pix’s Granite System, which features a switcher and companion server.
“It’s a unique design, where we’ve optimized the switcher and server and put them together,” Swanton says. “That creates an integrated production system that is very economical, so one person can create a really nice-looking show. Usually, you have a switcher operator and someone else to deal with the clips and graphics, but because we have them brought together, one person can create a great-looking show.”
Granite is currently running in conventional HD but is a software upgrade away from 1080p. The system has already been installed in college stadiums throughout the country, including the University of Tennessee, University of Southern California, University of Connecticut, and University of Arizona.
Broadcast Pix has also turned the Apple iPad into a control panel live video-production system. The iPixPanel app allows an iPad to control the Slate video-production system. The application is available for download at Apple’s App Store for $195.
“It’s a control panel built into an iPad, so, if you want to have secondary operators or someone who can’t afford an entire panel, they can select the preview on the iPad and then take it to air,” Swanton says. “We first came out with an iPhone app for fun, and it’s been used a lot.”
When an operator is too busy switching the show to worry about the lower-third graphics, for example, an assistant can pull up those lower thirds on the iPhone — and now, the iPad. The iPixPanel can control every aspect of a video production, including switching cameras, adding graphics and clips, controlling robotic cameras, and creating special effects. It works on all of the Slate systems.
