We are attending NAB 2012 this year as usual. Please reach out to us if you would like to meet up.
Our key announcement for this year is our new GPU-based low latency multimedia platform specifically designed for broadcast use. Design in-house from the ground up, the platform will feature:
This new platform is the result of over 7 years of our software experience, especially in real-time broadcast environments. It will be both 32 and 64-bit from day one. The key features will be:
GPU-based rendering and video processing. We use the power of the latest GPUs by ATI and NVIDIA to provide better video quality (up to 10-bit Full HD), less CPU usage and advanced rendering features. Using off-the-shelf hardware, the platform will provide you with professional broadcast graphics, real-time chroma keying and stereoscopic 3D imaging.
DirectGMA (ATI) and GPUDirect (NVIDIA) support. These new technologies allow for the GPUs to talk directly to an I/O board (such as Deltacast), which provides even less CPU usage and even less latency.
Fixed latency. The new architecture will have a fixed internal latency of 1 frame. Previously, latency has never been constant and could change in time depending on CPU load. And never before could we make it this small (used to be 3 or more). This means stability in a very broadcast sense.
Direct integration with professional broadcast hardware. Previously we used to deploy DirectShow filters (some developed by us – such as AJA’s, and some provided by the vendor). This time we are going to interface with the boards directly (through their SDKs). Our selected vendors: Blackmagic, Deltacast, AJA, Stream Labs. We can start working with other vendors upon request.
Designed in-house from the ground up. If something is not working the way it should, there’s nowhere to point the finger. The platform is not based on DirectShow nor does it make use of it in any of its critical parts.
This is our first GPU-accelerated product release. With this latest update customers of Vision Mixer SDK and Virtual Studio SDK will experience the following benefits:
- Dramatically improved performance and quality of 3D projections.
- Dramatically improved performance and quality of chroma keying (Virtual Studio SDK only).
- The ability to change view angles (i.e. move a virtual camera).
- Improved deinterlacing algorithm.
Please let us know how this new version is working with your specific hardware (ATI and Nvidia video boards).
We’ve just been officially named a third party tools provider for AJA Video Systems. This also means that now we officially support AJA in our Broadcast Automation Platform. The full press release is available here.
We are attending IBC and, as usual, we are happy to meet up with out customers. If you would like to arrange a meeting, simply let us know.
For the fourth year in a row, IBC News will be subtitled using equipment by our customer Starfish, and that equipment uses our Character Generator technology. Starfish exhibits at 2.C18.
Other customers who are displaying products with MediaLooks inside at IBC:
Earlier this year, we have replaced DeckLink SDK, Playout SDK and Multimedia SDK with a new product: the Broadcast Automation Platform.
In addition to the classic gapless multi-format playout to Blackmagic and other boards, the new product offers several new features and some licensing improvements. Such as:
1) The new Automation module: advanced playlists, clip metadata management and all kinds of scheduling.
2) The new Transitions module: instead of classic gapless switching, use video transitions to make file switching smoother. Here’s a quick look:
3) New Streaming module: receive and stream to RTSP, HTTP and RTP/UDP.
7) Dramatically improved performance and stability.
There are two factors to take into account when considering a sooner upgrade:
1) The upgrade price gets higher with time. Our upgrade formula discounts the price based on the number of months left in your current subscription. If your subscription had already expired, there are certain periods when we provide discounts as well. Please read more here.
2) The earlier you upgrade, the easier to migrate technically. Although we do our best to maintain backwards compatibility, delaying the upgrade decision may result into technical issues when integrating the new components into your application.
If you would like to demo the new SDK, simply contact your sales manager.
BTW, we’ll be available at IBC in Amsterdam in September. Contact us to schedule a meeting!
The MXF Splitter we offered earlier is officially out of date. Now we have a better solution: the MXF Reader.
Instead of being just a demultiplexer, the MXF Reader is also a file reader, which positions it as source filter in a DirectShow graph and allows it to support MXF playlists.
The MXF Reader runs perfectly both as a stand-alone DirectShow filter or together with our new Broadcast Automation Platform.
We now officially support selected boards from broadcast hardware company Stream Labs. The currently supported model is the Stream MS2/4-ASI, which is designed for multichannel video logging. We plan to support more boards later.
We are happy to have Stream Labs in our list of supported vendors – together with Blackmagic and AJA.
More information available in our official press release.
Our team is attending NAB Show, which opens on April 11th in Las Vegas.
Learn more about our new Broadcast Automation Platform through face to face meetings with our engineers and management. If you would like to book a meeting, please contact us.
Here’s what you’ll get with the new release of our powerful Character Generator product:
- Tables to display real-time statistics like sports data and stocks.
- RSS feeds as sources of ticker content.
- Linked items for tickers: show a related item together with a crawl.
- XML support to describe complex items’ design and content.
- Auto-trackable XML files for data storage. Files can be updated in real-time.
- Scheduling for item property changes (size, position, content, show/hide).
- Pausing of crawls and rolls at start or end of each logical block.
- Support for several files with auto-tracking in a single ticker.
- URLs as sources for images with auto-cashing if used more than once.
Don’t forget that CG is available as both a DirectShow filter and an ActiveX toolkit. The two options are available within a single installer, which you can download here.
Our CG engine is now available as an easy-to-use rapid development toolkit that requires no DirectShow skills and almost no programming for some of the popular use cases. This product is the easiest way to turn a PC into a broadcast-quality character generator with the help of just one Blackmagic board with keying support.
Or, you can add quality CG to your live streaming application with the help of WME or FMLE.
Finally, you can use C#, Visual Basic or Delphi to program your own application using the CG COM object.
We have released a new product: our own, standard-compliant H.264/AVC Video Decoder DirectShow Filter. The decoder supports Baseline, Main, Extended and High profiles of the H.264/AVC specification and makes use of multi-core architectures and Hyper-Threading.
The decoder can be licensed in two versions: as a separate DirectShow filter or as an add-on to our broadcast automation of vision mixing SDKs.
To read more about the product and download an evaluation version please click here.
We have just released our latest product, the Character Generator DirectShow Filter – our new solution for multi-layered titling and overlays, which is to replace the previously available Text & Graphics Overlay and Flash Overlay DirectShow filters.
The new filter is a single component that supports all overlay item types – text, graphics, images and Flash – and implements a generic set of methods to control them. In addition to that it is equipped with a set of advanced features such as support for news tickers and compositions.
New features:
- Generic interface for text, graphics, image and Flash overlay items.
- Built-in support for news tickers (including crawls and rolls) with automatic file tracking.
- Support for item groups & compositions.
- Smooth change of item size, position, transparency, background or view area.
- Item movement, acceleration, fade in/fade out and entrance/exit effects, animation sequences.
- New text and image effects: Shadow, Glow, Motion Blur, Rotation, etc.
- New graphic figures: rectangle, ellipse, triangle, star, etc.
- XML-based configuration.
- .SRT subtitles support.
For more information about the features and editions comparison chart please see the product page.
If you are interested in pricing information or migration details, please contact our sales team.
MediaLooks DICOM Reader DirectShow Filter was developed for the needs of medical application developers and is required for DICOM MPEG-2 media files playback. DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine) is a file format standard commonly used in medical imaging. MPEG-2 DICOM format is approved for use in Endoscopy, Microscopy and Surgery.
To enable MPEG-2 DICOM files playback DICOM Reader should be used together with MediaLooks MPEG-2 Video Decoder.
Our M-JPEG Decoder and M-JPEG Encoder are available for evaluation download from our web site. A key feature of the two products is ARGB32 (alpha channel) support – something our customers have been requesting from us. The codecs can be licensed either separately or in a bundle.
Motion JPEG is a popular capture format, often used during editing because of its encoding/decoding speed and low compression rate.
We are attending