CasparCG TV Studio Workflow

About a year ago Mediazone decided to move the CG SD workflow (Playbox Airbox+Titlebox) to HD. Unfortunately the cost of an HD CG solutions is extremely expensive and the ones that are affordable provide poor functionality. This is why we decided we switch to CasparCG (an open-source CG) which nowadays is an industry standard CG solution used by many broadcasters.

CasparCG consist of 2 entities:

  • CasparCG Server – Play-Out professional graphics.
  • CasparCG Client – Control graphics and video playout from the CasparCG Server. Note that anyone can develop his own client.
CasparCG_Server

CasparCG Server Overview

For the needs of our TV studio we needed 2 machines (which must meet CasparCG minimum requirements). One for the Play-Out of content and the other one for Graphics (Fill+Key). CasparCG Server and Client can be installed on different machines for maximum reliability, but I chose to install them on the same one. First, our TV studio does not broadcast (it’s an educational TV studio) and second it will save us some space because we will only use one machine.

As for reference, our studio workflow is 1080i50 and we use the DataVideo SE-3000 vision mixer.

Continue reading →

May 25, 2016 /  

Open Teleprompter v2.0

I am glad to introduce you Open Teleprompter v2.0 (http://mz.unic.ac.cy/files/open-teleprompter/) which I have developed from the scratch. It’s a web based, browser independent teleprompter. It was developed using jQuery JavaScript Library. This web software can work in any web browser making it a portable prompter.

Open Teleprompter was developed in order to give our students a simple UI to work, eliminating any unnecessary functions which exist in our older teleprompter software.

Some of the functionalities:

  1. Rich text editor
  2. Font size adjustment
  3. Speed adjustment
  4. Progress bar
  5. Reset function
  6. Play/Pause using the SPACEBAR
  7. Inline indicator
  8. Full screen mode
  9. and many more which you can find on the project page

Future development? Create a key controller using the X-keys (http://xkeys.com/xkeys.php) input device.

 

Mediazone Broadcast Engineer

April 12, 2016 /  

Updating Datavideo SE-3000 Vision Mixer – Procedure

 

Datavideo SE-30000 Vision Mixer

Datavideo SE-30000 Vision Mixer

Although Datavideo provides a detailed tutorial on how to update the firmware of SE-3000, there are problems you could face during the updating procedure. After a discussion I had with Datavideo Service dept. & Tech. Product support, they mentioned to me a few points that are not recorded in their tutorial.

In case you try to update from an earlier version like V0.9 to V1.0.1 or V1.02 it is better to disconnect the main frame and controller (CAT5 cable) during the update. This is very important because if you try to update using Datavideo tutorial you may receive a critical error in the Control Panel which says: “Application Se3000 Panel.exe encountered a serious error and must shut down”. Continue reading →

October 10, 2013 /  

Web Prompter v0.1 Release

Web Prompter

Front Page of Web Prompter


Web Prompter v0.1 (click here to try) is a web based, browser independent prompter. It was developed using jQuery JavaScript Library. This web software can work in any web browser making it a portable prompter. It can also work from any mobile device or tablet. Continue reading →

January 23, 2013 /