IBC 2016: Ross Video extends range of Vision mixer solutions, launches Streamline for video playout

The Carbonite Black Solo was introduced at NAB 2016 and is now shipping in quantity. Solo is packed full of the features that Carbonite users love and use everyday. It is a compact vision mixer with 9 inputs and 6 outputs, specifically designed to meet the needs of smaller productions. On the input side Solo has 6 SD/HD-SDI connections and 3 HDMI inputs, and there are 6 floating frame synchronizers with format converters that can be assigned to any input, so connecting those unreferenced sources is simple. For outputs there are 5 SDI and one HDMI, all completely assignable.

Carbonite Black Solo features a powerful single ME with 4 full featured keyers, a transition keyer for DVE and Media wipes and an Ultrachrome chroma keyer. In addition, there are 2 MiniME’s that are perfect for use in small event production and for secondary produced outputs. Each MiniME has two keyers of its own, providing Solo with 8 key layers in total – extremely powerful for a small vision mixer.

The Solo includes a fully configurable multi viewer as well as four channels of media store for animated graphics or stills. There is also a digital audio output for the playback of audio with animations.

Carbonite Black Solo has all of the desirable production features found in the larger Carbonite vision mixers, including full DashBoard control integration, ViewControl touch screen visual control, and RossTalk protocol, as well as Camera Robotics, Video Server, and Audio Mixer control interfaces.

At IBC there are three versions of Carbonite Black Solo on show, the beautifully styled All-In-One system in which the electronics are contained within an elegant control panel. The second version has the electronics housed in a 1 RU frame, which can be fully controlled from the included software control panel, and the new stand alone panel- the CB9. The new CB9 panel is identical to the all-in-one version but offers a separate control surface for use with the 1RU rack frame or indeed any other Carbonite as an inexpensive satellite control panel.

Carbonite Black Solo is the perfect fit for smaller productions where quality and operational performance is still essential, but in a package that is remarkably affordable.

All Carbonite models now ship as standard with XPression LiveCG, a software only version of the award winning XPression graphics system. XPression LiveCG can be loaded on any windows machine with an NVidia graphics card and connected directly into Carbonite media stores via Ethernet.

Carbonite Version 12.1 is being shown for the first time bringing several desirable additional features. With 12.1, Carbonite processes 1080P25 signals natively in addition to the host of other signal formats already available. MiniME’s get PST monitor function, and now MiniME and 4K next backgrounds can be previewed in Carbonite MultiViewers. A small but very nice new feature is the ability to select alternate thumbnails for media store animations for viewing in preview mode.

The Carbonite Black Plus shown first at NAB is a signal processing marvel, in this version all 36 inputs have Frame Synchronizers, Format converters, Color Correction and Proc amps included. In addition 12 of the 25 outputs have Proc amps, Color Correction and Format Conversion available as standard. This makes it perfect for matching those on set displays and output multiple formats.

The Black Plus also adds more monitoring capability. With this processing engine there are a total of 5 MultiViewers with up to 16 configurable windows each. So there are 80 windows in total, ensuring every aspect of a production can be monitored. They system offers monitoring of all 36 inputs, 22 outputs, the media stores, three MEs, four MiniMEs, and aux buses – that is simply huge! The processing engine includes three new outputs dedicated to MultiViewers, so there is no need to give up main outputs for monitoring.

These new Carbonite Black Plus features are in addition to the 3 full ME’s and 4 MiniME’s, simple 4K production, 1080P 3G, and much more.

There is also a preview of several major additions to the Acuity vision mixer. Being shown is version 5.0, which brings a number of highly desirable new operational features including Split ME, DVE Warps, Lighting Engine, and supports the new MultiProcessing Inputs card option. Also being shown is the new DoubleDown version of the beautifully styled Acuity Panel.

Acuity is already a truly advanced production powerhouse, the addition of these new features make it the number one choice for production of high end events, news and sport – in SD, HD, or UHD formats.

Version 5.0 further expands the capabilities of the acclaimed MultiFeed functionality with added Split ME controls. Now it is possible to set up an Acuity ME as two MEs with up to eight keyer assignments. The extensive configurability enabled by these features permits Acuity to fit into an even greater number of production environments and workflows. A fully loaded 8 ME machine can now be configured as a massive 16 ME system – or of course a full 4 ME UHD (4K) switcher. Add to that new warp effects and lighting engines to build even more sophisticated look and whatever the production goals are – Acuity will provide the tools to meet them.

Version 5.0 adds a new signal processing format, so that Acuity now accepts 1080P25 inputs and manages them natively.

In a collaborative effort with Evertz, Acuity can be equipped with IP (10G) I/O signal management. The Acuity IPBlades work with ASPEN and SMPTE 2022-6 Protocols and also provide standard SDI connections. These IP I/O cards can coexist with standard Acuity I/O cards permitting hybrid IP/SDI system configurations.

Acuity DoubleDown Panels are a powerful new option for those large I/O systems in sport and other fast paced productions where shift functions to access mapped sources are undesirable. DoubleDown bus models are a premium option that doubles the number of key/aux bus assignment buttons for every ME row; thereby greatly reducing or eliminating the need for shifts entirely.

Acuity is rapidly evolving and Ross is continuing its significant investments in vision mixer R&D to ensure that it is not only the best available choice today, but will remain so for many years to come.

Ross Video also announced a new product in the Streamline product family aimed at simplifying video playout. Streamline Play works alongside the existing Streamline Media Asset Management system to create a seamless process to organize and playout assets.

“Customers have been asking for a simple, integrated solution for video playout. The timing is perfect for us to introduce Streamline Play to complete the news production workflow. Ross can give you the entire suite of products needed for organization and playout,” says Jenn Jarvis, Marketing Product Manager for Streamline at Ross Video.

Coinciding with the acquisition of Abekas, Inc., this allows Ross to offer a powerful end-to-end solution for organizing assets, creating playlists and triggering playout. Streamline Play will bring a MAM and MOS workflow to the Mira Production Server for news production applications.