NAB 2015: Aveco Products Preview

Aveco | Booth N3112 | Website: www.aveco.com 

At NAB 2105, Aveco, a worldwide studio production automation and master control specialist, will demonstrate ASTRA Studio 3, the company’s third-generation news production automation system. ASTRA Studio 3 includes many breaking news features that speed up time to air while also elevating production values.

ASTRA Studio 3 uniquely provides multi-studio production automation. With Aveco, studios can easily be combined for major events. When production runs long in one studio, projects can be instantly reassigned to other studios in a facility, with all production switcher settings, graphics, virtual sets, video roll-ins, on-set monitors, camera robotics, audio settings and lighting settings easily available in the alternate studio.

Astra Studio 3 includes new features, including floating shots that provide flexibility in handling a director’s breaking news requests outside a planned rundown, with the flexibility to handle events across multiple stories (set backgrounds, branding, graphics, etc.). Astra Studio 3 MAM integration allows video search results to get to air instantly outside of a rundown during breaking news, and includes the ability to integrate with multiple third-party MAMs (Avid, ENPS, EVS, Harmonic, Octopus, Orad, Quantel, Vizrt, and others) in a facility.

Key to ASTRA Studio 3’s flexibility is a new Template Editor used to develop and modify story templates. These templates specify how a story is presented. Other features include one-button release of CG control during times of breaking news and improved preview capabilities.

ASTRA Studio 3 supports all types of playout configurations, including from the cloud, from an integrated device where everything needed is in one box (Aveco’s Redwood Family), from a rack of dedicated devices, or any combination desired. ASTRA Studio 3 is included in Aveco’s ASTRA Suite of Tools, which includes media asset management, workflow automation, master control automation, news/live assist, ingest, hierarchical storage management, as well as interfaces to NRCS, traffic system, streaming devices, transcoders and other applications.

Aveco’s ASTRA automation uniquely combines master control and news production in one system running on the same hardware and interfacing to both NRCS and traffic systems. Automated cue exchange avoids the routine small switching errors when going between production control to master control to production control during newscasts.

The last frame of a video from a spot break, for example, is followed by the next frame of video from the production switcher implementing effects, camera robotic moves, audio mixer control, and lighting control to make smoother looking transitions. This feature simplifies the broadcast of a news program or live event by enabling one operator to control both the program and the commercial breaks without passing control back and forth between two control rooms. In addition to simplified operation, it saves CAPEX and OPEX in terms of both equipment and personnel.

While Aveco has the industry’s largest library of interfaces, including most every piece of broadcast equipment in master control rooms, production control rooms, and studios, it also offers Redwood Studio, a news studio-in-a-box, and Redwood Play which features advanced branding in integrated playout solutions.

Both Redwood Studio and Redwood Play include a production switcher, multiple DVEs, a four channel HD video player, graphics, audio mixer, two stereo audio players, four mic and four line external audio, 4 TB of internal storage, optional external storage, a multiviewer, integrated media asset management, and PTZ robotic camera control in one 4 RU frame.