Tightrope’s Zeplay aims at mid-range replay market

Over on the EMEA gateway stand (7.E06), Tightrope Media Systems’s impressive Zeplay instant replay platform has a new firmware upgrade to v2.0 and new customers with an impressive global spread, from Romania to Papua New Guinea.

“It’s rock-steady and very fast,” says Guy Elliot of the four-in, four-out system, adding that it’s certainly not been designed as an EVS-killer but is after a mid-range corporate/teams/leagues market that also includes lower cost OB. “I was talking to one company yesterday that’s being paid €6000 a time to cover a match, and you can’t go out and buy a quarter-million Euro truck on that budget.”

The $70k unit (there’s also an SD version for $50k) records four 100Mbps HD-SDI streams while simultaneously playing any of them out. V2.0 adds additional features such as a built-in highlights editor with dynamic control and push/skip capabilities, an external file import with FCP and Avid round-trip support, cross-faded switching on both sequence and replays, and built-in clip editing with match frame and multi-angle editing tools.

Bogdan Alexe, Executive Manager of Studio Video Art — the first independent HD production company in Romania – and the aforementioned customer, comments: “We have been using Zeplay to provide action replay solutions for broadcasters in a live sports environment since July when we purchased two 2.0 systems after seeing a demonstration at NAB. We were very impressed and have been satisfied with the choice we made for our business as Zeplay is now fully integrated into our HD outside broadcast trucks and already working perfectly in the field.

“As an independent company we work with freelance directors and replay operators who want an easy to use system that is very intuitive. The ZEPLAY does this while providing a powerful engine that allows operators to cue and go, without rendering or sequence building to ensure quick and easy turnaround of sports production on the fly.”