News

Harris Demonstrates Expanded NewsForce Broadcast Product Family (29/9/2008)

Interoperable News Production Solutions Provide Unmatched Speed to Air

Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, announces the latest advancements in its NewsForce(tm) high-definition/standard-definition (HD/SD) newsroom solution at the 2008 International Broadcasting Convention (IBC). NewsForce(tm) delivers the industry's quickest time to air - helping broadcasters get breaking news to viewers before the competition. At IBC2008, Harris highlights a complete range of Velocity(tm) editors optimized for the quick edits and 24/7 demands of live news production, a new family of interoperable browse products and enhanced Apple(r) Final Cut Pro(r) integration capabilities.

Visitors to the Harris stand will see an end-to-end news workflow, showcasing transparent HD/SD operations from ingest through editing to playout. The demonstration features the NewsForce family of MOS-enabled editors - the Velocity ESX(tm) on-SAN high-resolution editor, the Velocity XNG(tm) field editor and the Velocity PRX(tm) low-resolution proxy editor - all offering seamless integration with leading newsroom computer systems to streamline the newsroom workflow.

Velocity PRX(tm) makes its international debut at IBC2008. Boasting an array of features including wipes, dissolves, audio editing, local voice-over and graphic file support, the Velocity PRX proxy editor is a key component of the new NEXIO(tm) browse system - a family of products designed for broadcasters looking to implement a complete low-resolution workflow. Velocity PRX projects can be conformed to high resolution for quick play to air, or can be opened directly on Final Cut Pro(r) or Velocity ESX(tm) for high-resolution finishing.

The NEXIO browse suite includes the new NEXIO InstantOnline III(tm) specialty server - an offline rendering engine for conforming low- and high-resolution EDLs into high-resolution clips, and media files (AVI, MOV, MPEG, WMV, etc.) into NEXIO clips. The 3RU InstantOnline III(tm) performs direct timeline conforming of EDLs from Velocity(tm), Final Cut Pro(r) and third-party editors, and supports HD, SD or an HD/SD combination. High-resolution clips are available for playback as soon as conforming begins. Finished clips from InstantOnline III(tm) are quickly and easily added to the NRCS rundown using the NEXIO MediaBase plug-in and played to air with the NEXIO MOS Playlist Manager software application.

Other key NEXIO browse system features include a new transcoder for generating low-resolution proxies that can be used to view NEXIO storage area network (SAN) content, which can then be edited using the Velocity PRX editor; and support for new MPEG-4 H.264 video and MPEG-1 Layer 2 compressed audio files.

"The NEXIO browse suite helps eliminate the need for a complex baseband architecture, making it easier than ever for broadcasters to employ a file-based news workflow," said Tim Thorsteinson, president of Harris Broadcast Communications. "Low-res proxy editing empowers journalists to build compelling stories on their desktop, and then either finish them on one of our high-resolution, on-SAN editors, or immediately send them to air using InstantOnline III(tm). This ability to move, browse and edit low-res files delivers a critical speed advantage in the competitive news industry."

At IBC2008, Harris also will demonstrate full integration of Final Cut Pro(r) onto the NEXIO SAN, dramatically improving the speed at which users of the popular editing system can send their stories to air. New capabilities for NEXIO-FCP interoperability include:

* True on-SAN editing, with the ability to begin editing content while it is being ingested
* Project sharing between Velocity(tm) and FCP editors, with no relinking, transcoding or file copying required
* Support for the Panasonic(r) P2(r), Sony(r) XDCAM(r) HD422 50 Mb and IMX 30/40/50 file formats
* Support for eight clients per FCP Integration Gateway, the specialized server that connects FCP workstations to the SAN
* Support for Mac OS(r) X v10.5 (Leopard(r))
* Plug-in applications that enhance NEXIO metadata availability on FCP workstations

Another feature of NewsForce(tm) is its integration with the Harris(r) Inscriber(r) G-Series(tm) graphics systems - a line of powerful graphics solutions featuring a suite of design tools that includes a character generator, a sequencer, a keyframe animation editor and a media store database. NewsForce(tm) allows direct import of all graphics production elements directly to the news rundown. NewsForce(tm)/G-Series(tm) technology includes native import of still or animated graphics from Mac OS creative tools such as Final Cut Pro(r), Adobe(r) Photoshop(r) and Adobe After Effects(r).

Visitors to the Harris booth also will see a demonstration of the Harris/Dixon Sports HD HiLite system, designed to meet the "speed-to-air" workflow demands of real-world, rigorous sports broadcasting. Utilizing the Dixon Sports Computing sports logging system, Harris(r) NEXIO AMP advanced media platform and Velocity ESX editor, the HiLite system makes it easy to capture and edit SD and HD game highlights, and almost instantly send them to air.

www.harris.com  

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