Ross Video to showcase Spidercam upgrades, end-to-end XR solutions and more at NAB 2023

Ross Video is set to showcase a raft of product announcements and upgrades at NAB, with enhancements and additions across the company’s various product lines.

This year’s NAB will be the first since Ross Video acquired Austria-based Spidercam, and Ross Video business development manager for sports and live events EMEA James Ransome expects the Spidercam range of broadcast cable camera solutions – including the new Spidercam X Dolly – to generate a lot of interest among NAB attendees.

“Essentially, the new X Dolly allows for a much higher payload capacity, it is more versatile, allows for more battery options and can operate at a higher speed compared to previous models, with a top speed of up to 6m/s.” said Ransome.

“So when you look at some of the major sporting events where Spidercam is used, all of that additional capacity is only going to help improve the images we see on screen because the higher capacity will allow for the use of better equipment. We also think the upgrades will be adaptable for studio use.”

Another offering which Ransome expects to be popular with the European sports market is Ross’ routing system Ultrix-MODX-IO, a flexible IO card that can host up to four sub-modules supporting a variety of I/O interfaces as well as Ultrix-IPX-IO which is a new I/O blade for Ultrix that offers high density ST2110 integration to the Hyperconverged platform.

“Because of its capacity, Ultrix is great for stadium environments and live sport customers. And we expect the new IPX I/O ST2110 IP blade to gain a lot of traction in Europe as people look to IP and the cloud as well as a traditional SDI setup. And that new card will allow us to operate in higher density configuration so expect people to be interested to see that blade.”

End-to-end XR
NAB will also provide Ross with the chance to showcase its D3 LED division, with LED displays and processing engines set to feature prominently on the Ross Video stand, Ransome said.

“We’ll see the LED offering together with the Voyager XR platform, which harnesses the power of the Unreal Engine gaming platform, and there will be demos on the stand of XR environments, with dynamic lighting tech in addition to a plug in that allows direct integration with our sports analysis tool Piero. It will be really interesting to see analysis and extended realty tools together, which isn’t something we have seen consistently before.”

A new D3 plugin allows integration with D3 LED displays enabling Ross to provide customers with an end-to-end XR solution as well as enabling unique color matching capabilities for LED / set extension / AR applications.

Other enhancements to Voyager 5.1 include Nanite, a virtualised geometry system that enables more realistic and efficient rendering at lower cost, as well as Lumen, a new dynamic illumination and reflection system. Meanwhile, support of AJA Io X3 allows deployment of Voyager on laptops which Ross Video said would provide more creative flexibility for customers on-the-go.

Piero upgrades
Version 18.0 and 18.1 of Piero includes the updated Voyager Unreal plug-in, allowing for cut-out players to be taken from video footage plus new visual effects including Caption Track, Line-up, Spotlight, Laser Eye and Marker updates enhancing the product’s ability to deliver high-impact technical analysis.

“New at NAB, we’ll also demo Ross Production Cloud, which is essentially our name for a full suite of production tools in the cloud, including GFX, switching, audio, media asset management, production automation and more – all deployable in public and private clouds,” said Ransome.