PlayBox at IBC2007

Stand 8.529 Amsterdam RAI, September 7-11

PlayBox Technology, now supporting over 3,000 SD and HD TV channels worldwide, is expanding the capabilities of its products and playout solutions at IBC2007. The new features include adding more flexibility for playout, especially in live operation, more efficient workflows and interface enhancements as well as technical developments for new compression systems.

New features at IBC include:

H.264 support

PlayBox equipment can now work with AVC H.264 compression. This is in line with the increasing use of the standard that offers up to twice the efficiency MPEG2, both for standard and high definition broadcasts.   

Multi-format playout

The new mixed playout engine in PlayBox’s AirBox playout server supports realtime transitions between clips of different compression formats. This simplifies operation by removing the need to transcode clips to run with other formats in a playlist. The result is the seamless replay of multiple compression formats from a list comprising clips coded in, for example, MPEG2, DV and H.264, with perfect continuity between clips.

Dedicated graphics preview

The PlayBox TitleBox is now able to simultaneously support both graphics creation and replay. This is enabled with the addition of a WYSIWYG editing preview which can continue while the same TitleBox’s playout is active. The result is a more efficient graphics workflow that allows the flexibility to prepare last-minute graphics.

Versatile compliance recording 

PlayBox’s CaptureBox Compliance Recorder moves on to V2.0 bringing new features that extend use. Now the limits are off; there are no practical restrictions of format or bit-rate so any broadcast can be recorded, including AVC H.264. Multi-channel broadcasters can benefit from the economy of recording all their outputs into just one box fitted with multiple DeckLink boards. A further extension of supported intput/output broads now includes Matrox, Deltacast and Firewire. The inclusion of ASI/IP means that an ASI input can be played out as an IP stream – allowing remote compliance viewing.