This afternoon, I met with Shawn Maynard, Florical vice president and general manager. Before joining Florical, Maynard was the director of operations for NBC Universal’s Television Stations Division. This experience, according to Maynard, is what makes the company unique. “I run this company from a broadcaster point of view, not a vendor point of view,” he said. “This is how Florical is different from other automation companies.”
This year at the show, Florical has introduced four optional modules for its S.M.A.R.T. Central product, which is a smart client-based gateway into the company’s television broadcast automation system. It is designed to reduce redundant tasks, make systems accessible over a closed network to improve workflow while maintaining a secure system and automatically e-mail critical reports to key personnel to improve communication and response times. more
My last stop at NAB was at the VCI booth (SU727). There I met up with Jamie Meyer, the division manager for automation systems at VCI. I’d met with him briefly last year, but this was my first time to sit down with him and talk. What he’s excited about is that KEYE-TV, which uses VCI’s autoXe MC automation system, was just announced as the winner in the Station Automation category in the Broadcast Engineering Excellence Awards.
Jamie says that what makes the system so strong is that the database is at the foundation. With digital content, the metadata surrounding content is becoming more important, he says, with the database as the foundation on which the applications reside. more
This morning I met up with OCTOPUS CEO Peter Stokuc to talk about his company’s updated OCTOPUS6 newsroom computer system. Peter says that for the new OCTOPUS system the core functions have been revamped to make operation quicker and more intuitive. Even with all these changes, OCTOPUS6 is still backwards compatible. The key traits of OCTOPUS, according to Peter, are that its platform independent and its solid MOS protocol implementation.
Echolab was highlighting the new MultiPlayMD multidefinition, multichannel instant-replay system. The MultiPlayMD offers unique functionality at an affordable price point with continuous recording of up to 32 channels of SD or HD content.
Operators can switch instantly between live, play, and record functions, with instant synchronous playback available on all channels. The system is fully integrated with Echolab’s Overture1 and Overture2 switchers and can take “still” and “slow” modes of operation from these panels or from Echolab’s Conductor control integration system.
Also introduced was the MegaKeyMD which is a powerful clip player, mixer, and keyer that can serve as a networked storage device for animated graphics and video clips. MegaKeyMD accepts both HD and SD inputs and features a two-channel internal mixer and internal linear keyer to support playout of dynamic video clips. The system is fully integrated with Echolab’s Overture switcher series to support complex animated transitions through the switchers’ Stinger feature. MegaKeyMD also may be used with Overture systems as an additional downstream keyer or mixer on any output.
My last stop on the floor yesterday was at the Xytech booth (SL4326). There, I was given a little plastic man with a squishy, sticky head that you can throw like a dart, and a fascinating walk-though of Xytech’s new Enterprise.net, or XE .NET. It’s a smart web client version of the company’s flagship business management and workflow system. It allows users to access the schedules from their desktop or remotely from laptops or handhelds.
Not every company at this year’s NAB Show has the newest, hottest technology. And as Mark Richards, international broadcast manager for the UK’s Fischer Connectors, told me, it’s often not worth it to release a new product at a show just for the sake of releasing a new product.
Fischer, though, is a special case, considering that it works in connectors and, because of this, a particular challenge for the company breaking into the U.S. market is based on the different standards here in the States. To its credit, the company did showcase some new products at IBC this year. But Richards doesn’t want to rush anything this year, preferring to wait to release a proven, reliable product than to just whip something up for the show that won’t be available until who knows when (he says the company should have some new technology to highlight by next year’s NAB). more
Omneon introduced ProCast CDN, a high-performance content distribution platform. It’s kind of hard to describe, but basically it optimizes file transfers over any IP network providing dramatically increased efficiency over great distances.
Incorporating advanced WAN acceleration technology, network management, and bandwidth prioritization, ProCast CDN enables broadcasters and content distributors to easily initiate, monitor, and manage transfers of large files between multiple geographic locations. more
Monday, April 7, I spoke with Simon Derry, Chief Executive of Snell and Wilcox spin-off, AmberFin. Launched this week, just in time for NAB, the new company signals a split in S&W between traditional hardware products like Alchemist and Kahuna, and software products like iCR. AmberFin‘s offering is based around the iCR software platform for mastering, QC and distribution of file-based content. more
The editors and writers of Broadcast Engineering post live from the NAB Show in Las Vegas as the news happens. Check back throughout the day for the latest in industry news, reports from press conferences and product introductions.
Omneon introduced ProCast CDN, a high-performance content distribution platform. It’s kind of hard to describe, but basically it optimizes file transfers over any IP network providing dramatically increased efficiency over great distances. 
