Live from IBC: EVS highlights new C-Cast workflows via Xplore; Xfile gets upgrade

The EVS stand at IBC is giving show attendees a chance to see how the C-Cast platform continues to evolve as it moves beyond the original concept of being a great way to quickly create a multi-cam interactive experience for viewers to a production tool as well.

“We now have three C-Cast workflows,” says Sebastien Verlaine, EVS, marketing manager, EMEA. “The first is creating multimedia for the end user, the second is a contribution workflow where access to content can be shared among different production facilities, and the third is where it can be used to access and gather content to create media packages that can published to a catalog for distribution.”

At the core of the new workflows is EVS’ new browsing interface, C-Cast Xplore, gives broadcasters, producers and editors access to the live multi-camera recording feeds and clips on an XT server from remote sport centres. This allows them to review, create clips, and select content that was previously inaccessible. C-Cast Xplore is a web-based interface and is fully integrated with EVS’ C-Cast infrastructure to provide remote access to content recorded from the live venue on the XT servers. It offers significant cost savings by reducing the number of people necessary on the shoot without compromising on quality.

C-Cast connectivity allows C-Cast Xplore users to review live server content as it is recorded and selects clips shot from any camera angle. This material can then be transferred in HD by the production team back at the studio for archive, post-production or to enhance the live production.

The goal, says Sebastian, is to continue to speed up the process of creating compelling content for halftime or post-game shows as the production team back at the home broadcast facility can spend more time choosing finding high-quality content. They can also have more work completed from a centralized location.

“A producer can be sitting in a studio and as long as they have some sort of Internet connection they can leverage the low-res proxies and choose the time code and camera angles they want,” explains Phil Stein, EVS, sales manager, The Americas. “They can then have the high-resolution clips sent back to the facility [from the servers in the OB units]. By the time the event is over they have the clips.”

Also releasing soon will be “Director’s Cut,” a system that ships the EDL along with camera iso and programme feeds. Instead of having to lay down the programme signal and match frames in edit the EDL is imported, showing everything the technical director did, from cuts to graphics insertion and dissolves.

“They can spend more time fixing creative rather than spending an hour setting things up,” says Stein.

Another big improvement at the show is a new version of Xfile that makes it easier than ever for content to be transferred from XT1 servers to XT2 and XT3 servers. In the past clips from XT1 servers would have to be reclipped and then transcoded. But Xfile allows the user to simply hit restore and the file codec will be auto discovered and converted. It can also be converted to multiple versions and codecs depending on the need.

And lastly, look for Multireview to be released early next year, allowing the low-res proxy to be leveraged in new ways.

“Someone sitting in front of the interface can look at every available angle in the truck of a play and then jog and review clips without interrupting the production workflows,” says Stein. “And they can then make a request for the high-res content, leveraging the horsepower of the XT3 server.”

And helping leverage the XT3 even more is 10Gbps connectivity. By the end of the year it will be available via an external frame but sometime next year it will be internal to six-channel XT3 servers.