The intersection of Wall and Broad Streets in Lower Manhattan has seen its share of memorable events over the years at the New York Stock Exchange.

Whether it was the first time more than 1 million shares were traded in a single day 131 years ago, the Great Crash of 1929, the installation of the bronze Charging Bull sculpture two blocks south of the exchange in 1989, or simply the trading floor where traders and market makers each weekday transact, the exchange occupies a special place in the psyche of the nation.

Less public but equally noteworthy to NYSE insiders is the exchange’s recent completion of three new video production control rooms to support financial journalists and news organizations reporting on the exchange as well as to meet its own video requirements, ranging from coverage of opening and closing bell ceremonies, corporate announcements and interviews with business leaders to producing its own one-hour “NYSE Live” show streamed weekdays from the exchange via its website, the NYSE app and other streaming platforms.

Ian Wolff, director of Broadcast & AV Operations at the exchange, long dreamed of expanding the NYSE’s video production technology. So, when the exchange approved a major upgrade in 2023, Wolff was more than ready.

“It was time to do a full infrastructure upgrade,” said Wolff. “There were times we were doing three events at once in a control room designed to do one event. I wanted three control rooms that had the same exact gear and management said, ‘OK, go for it.’”

“We replaced every piece of equipment that dealt with the New York Stock Exchange control room. We went from pretty much one and a half control rooms to three control rooms.”

Before the project began, the NYSE production team was using the Ross Video XPression broadcast graphics solution and saw it could more fully leverage the system if it moved away from its existing production switcher to the Ross Video Carbonite.

“We realized that once the XPression and the Carbonite got together with RossTalk, it was a lot easier for the two of them to communicate to each other,” explained Wolff. “If we wanted to have a whoosh or something from the XPression, we could trigger it on the Ross Carbonite with ease.”

When management authorized Wolff to upgrade its video infrastructure and production control rooms, that level of seamless integration made it easy for Wolff to select Ross Video, he said.

CTI, a Ross Video Diamond systems integrator, assisted Wolff and the NYSE with the design of the rooms as well as installation and integration of the production control room technology. “CTI made me feel like I was part of the team and always treated me with respect,” said Wolff.

A large part of creating that rapport was CTI’s willingness to sit with Wolff and the production team, observe what they used to do, how they did it and ultimately bring in the new technology that met today’s production requirements, he said.

The centerpiece of each new control room is a Ross Video TouchDrive control panel controlling its own Ross Video Carbonite switcher. The main control room uses a Ross Carbonite Ultra 60 3 ME advanced production switcher, while the other two control rooms are each outfitted with their own Carbonite Ultra 24 3 ME switchers. The installation also relies upon a variety of Ross Video openGear modular cards to support various signal processing tasks, as well as Ross Video Tally Control.

The NYSE also deployed Ross Video XPression with support for real-time data to power broadcast graphics generation in each control room. Having the ability to import real-time data into XPression is critical to much of what the NYSE produces as the constantly changing stream of price ticker data drives the on-screen presentation of ticker crawls that many viewers tune in to see.

Production Workflow

Production control room workflows at the NYSE are essentially identical to those that drive most TV newscasts and other live shows. Typically, about 10 production personnel are required in the control room. From directors and floor producers to camera operators and teleprompter, also included are playback and show producer.

The NYSE house production format is 1080p 60. However, Wolff’s production team hands off 1080i HD to journalists, broadcasters and outside production houses that frequently rely upon the exchange for video. The exchange uses Ross Video openGear processing modules to convert from the house production format to 1080i.

In October 2025, the NYSE began using the last of its three new production control rooms to come online. Having three rooms available has proven to be a blessing due to the increasing volume of live production done daily at the exchange. Rather than having to double or triple up simultaneous productions in a single control room, NYSE is well-equipped to handle multiple live productions at the same time.

For the foreseeable future, the NYSE production control room buildout will continue to support a mix of HD-SDI 1080p baseband signals as well as a limited number of NDI IP video sources. While 4K isn’t on the table at the moment, Wolff and CTI worked together when designing the control rooms to be prepared for 4K/UHD. “We’re ready for 4K if somebody says the world is going 12G and everybody needs it,” said Wolff.

“I think we’ve futureproofed this house as much as we can. If management says, “We want you to start going 4K, we have the gear and the capability to do it.”

Looking back on the project, Wolff expressed a great deal of satisfaction with and an appreciation for the willingness of both Ross Video and CTI to address any issue that came up during the buildout.

“I’ve dealt with a lot of different manufacturers, and I’m not saying they don’t have good support, but Ross is at the top right now—just from what they gave us anytime we needed help. Even after the buildout, when we have questions for them, they are very responsive. They treat us like family,” said Wolff.

Some of the biggest news stories of all time — the Chilean Miner Rescue, the O.J. Simpson Trial, and the Miracle on the Hudson — started with high-quality reporting from local news.

Today, local news broadcasters face unprecedented challenges. According to Pew Research, Americans increasingly turn to social media platforms or other online sources. Younger US adults are now reported to trust social media information as much as information from national news outlets.

While local channels have seen a large audience decline, they still attract the biggest audience compared to cable and network stations — and that presents a huge opportunity for local broadcasters. In fact, despite that viewership decline, local TV stations have seen an increase in revenue from both advertising and retransmission fees in recent years, particularly during election years.

Using Technology to Make More with Less

Even simple weather forecasting graphics involve ingesting and processing multiple data sources. If local news created graphics from scratch every broadcast and updated them manually, they could never keep up with national organizations.

Automated data ingestion and templated graphics expedite and simplify this process, allowing local news producers to use the highest-quality graphics without overburdening their creative teams, saving a lot of time and resources from repetitive manual creative work.

Local news network Graham Media Group uses ‘super-templates’ to create and distribute high-fidelity, on-brand graphics for their network of stations from a single creative hub.

Watch this video to see how Graham Media use XPression to do more in less time.

Ensuring Brand Consistency & Integrity Across Platforms

Brand consistency conveys professionalism and credibility. Automated templates like lower-third graphics, over-the-shoulder graphics, transitions, etc., give local news the ability to quickly incorporate consistent graphics, even when covering novel topics.

Automation also makes it easier for newsrooms to distribute content to multiple platforms. 86% of Americans “sometimes” or “often” get news from a smartphone, computer, or tablet, so news stations must leverage creative technology to configure their news broadcast graphics to fit different aspect ratios, screens, orientations, and contexts.

Leveling the Playing Field with Smart Content Creation

There is a huge opportunity for local TV news stations in this election cycle. High-quality stories told with a true local voice, real on-the-ground reporting, and clever use of high-fidelity graphics can give local news stations an edge over larger broadcasters in an age when people are ever more discerning in the sources they choose.

Ross Video’s technology like XPression and Streamline Pro help local broadcasters around the world take full advantage of modern graphics and compete with national broadcasters. To learn more about how Ross Video solutions can make your newsroom more efficient and effective, reach out to one of our team here.

Keeping Pace in the Election Race

2024 is a big year for newsrooms with a record number of elections taking place around the globe. For advanced insights on how newsrooms can get ahead in addressing their elections needs with cutting-edge graphics, download our guide.

Traditional news media is under increasing scrutiny, critique, and often attack from administrations on both sides of the aisle and an ever-more distrusting and distracted populace.  

Even small mistakes are highly visible, but news directors don’t have the luxury of slowing down. Not unlike riding a motorbike across a tightrope, broadcast news production requires speed, efficiency, and accuracy — and now more creativity than ever. 

Ross Video works with some of the top news producers around the world to produce engaging, immersive, highly efficient news productions.  

These are the top three strategies we use to help top-tier media studios like NBC and Fox balance creativity, speed, accuracy, and efficiency in their newsrooms. 

Strategy 1: Empower Reporters to Wear Many Hats 

As the media landscape evolves, the role of reporters is evolving as well. 

The desire for more regional, on the ground content from audiences and the growing number of distribution platforms is putting increasing strain on reporters and newsroom teams. Reporters must wear a variety of new hats, which often requires them to spend hours fighting unintuitive and inefficient workflow and creative software. That’s time they could be finding great stories or simply recovering from fieldwork.  

Many reporters now shoot their own interviews and add graphics to their stories from the field. This creates a new challenge for newsrooms: finding video production, media asset management and broadcast graphics software that’s easy to use, so reporters can spend their time reporting, not learning how to use new tools and wrangling with graphics software. 

The right production tools can make high-quality, dynamic visuals and storytelling accessible to even the smallest local newsrooms.  

Strategy 2: Enable Consistency and Creativity 

Consistent branding conveys credibility and professionalism, which can help increase retention and boost ratings. Templates and automated workflows go a long way to ensuring consistency.  

For example: are the titles of over-the-shoulder graphics always in the same font? Are lower-third graphics consistent with your brand’s visual identity? Templates help live video producers avoid idiosyncrasies that can distract viewers. 

Workflow automation tools and graphics templates boost creativity by freeing up creative professionals’ time. By using deeply integrated tools (like XPression, Streamline Pro, and Inception), news broadcasters can develop polished, reuseable graphics that allow reporters to make last-second updates with the confidence that they are ready-for-air and error-free. 

Local news network Graham Media Group uses ‘super-templates’ to create and distribute high-fidelity, on-brand graphics for their network of stations from a single creative hub. 

This video shows how Graham Media uses XPression to enable more creativity and better storytelling with fewer resources.

Strategy 3: Virtually Expand Studios 

In a traditional newsroom studio, most on-camera elements are also present in real life, on a physical set. Virtual studios use chroma keying to blend real-life elements (such as reporters and news desks) with interactive and digital multimedia visuals, and augmented reality elements. 

This strategy is already popular in sports broadcasting and weather reporting, where meteorologists frequently present the weather in front of a greenscreen, with visual elements like graphical representations of weather, maps, and real-time data being added digitally. However, this technology isn’t limited to the weather — it can enhance election coverage, sports stories, and other segments with sophisticated graphics that would be impossible to replicate on a real-life set. 

News stations like Servus TV/Red Bull Media have achieved incredible results using virtual studios powered by Ross Video’s technology, including XPression, Voyager and Lucid.  

Learn more about how virtual studios can be a strategic advantage for modern newsrooms in this article.

Balancing an Adaptive, Creative, Competitive Newsroom 

One thing is constant in news production: change. 

There is no playbook for succeeding in news because success is not static; the bar for quality is always rising. To rise above the competition, your station must be able to adapt to and embrace change. Consumer behavior and audience patterns are short-lived, so appealing to viewers has less to do with a one-time change and more to do with having the agility to change constantly. 

Ross Video’s newsroom solutions are designed to work together seamlessly (together or as part of a multi-vendor stack) to help stations create the accurate, compelling news broadcasts audiences expect, without crushing their teams. 

You do more than just deliver news. The ‘fourth estate’ is responsible for educating and engaging a population that is swamped with misinformation and propaganda, from often very questionable resources with far less integrity or concern for accuracy.   

The only way to keep up with that media tidal wave, newsrooms must invest in technology that allows them to be flexible, efficient, and creative, without crushing their teams.  

To learn more about how Ross Video solutions help news broadcasters big and small find the right technology to bring their stories to life, reach out to one of our production experts here.

Keeping Pace in the Election Race

2024 is a big year for newsrooms with a record number of elections taking place around the globe. For advanced insights on how newsrooms can get ahead in addressing their elections needs with cutting-edge graphics, download our guide.  

OTTAWA, Canada—Ross Video has announced that NBC Sports Regional Networks will be using its XPression real-time motion graphics system and PIERO sports graphics analysis platform. 

The five RSN’s, which are part of NBCUniversal Local, plan to use the Ross solutions to deliver compelling, visually rich productions while improving workflows. 

The NBC Sports Regional Networks, which are NBC Sports Bay Area, NBC Sports Boston, NBC Sports California, NBC Sports Chicago and NBC Sports Philadelphia, provide live coverage of 12 NBA, NHL and MLB teams, totalling more than 1,500 games annually.

Ross’ XPression, which is widely used by NBCUniversal Local’s NBC and Telemundo-owned stations, will provide the RSNs with one tool to manage all on-screen and studio-wall graphics. Ross Video’s Rocket Surgery Creative Services will convert the RSNs existing graphics packages and rebuild eye-catching graphics within XPression, the companies said. 

“We’re thrilled that NBC Sports Regional Networks is working with our team to boost their workflow operations and to help engage with their audiences through our powerful and flexible graphics and sports-analysis tools,” explained Kevin Cottam, vice president of sports and live events at Ross Video. “Modern sports broadcasters expect these tools to work together seamlessly, and the modern sports fan expects more from their coverage. With the combination of XPression and PIERO, the RSNs now have a best-in-class solution that will present real-time data and cutting-edge graphic analysis to break down the biggest moments of a game.”

In addition, several of the NBC Sports Regional Networks will also be adopting the PIERO sports graphics analysis platform for analysis and telestration. 

PIERO can add industry-leading graphics and effects to more than 20 of the world’s most popular major sports, Ross said. The system combines video-based effects with 3D replays and advanced virtual graphics. PIERO breaks down key moments with graphical analysis, real-time data-driven graphics, and unique shots and perspectives. Additionally, PIERO’s wide range of effects helps producers, presenters, and commentators analyze critical moments of any game more effectively. With PIERO, talent can use large touchscreen displays on studio sets to add telestration to the telecast live on-air, Ross said. 

OTTAWA, Canada—Ross Video has announced that Media Networks has recently overhauled its capabilities with the purchase of several Ross solutions to improve workflow efficiency.

With its headquarters in the Peruvian capital of Lima, Media Networks South America is a producer and distributor of audiovisual content that has been a Ross customer since it purchased a Synergy production switcher in 2000, 

“We have always enjoyed working with Ross and Ross solutions have been playing an increasingly important role in our workflows,” notes Miguel Orihuela, technical chief at Media Networks Latin America S.A.C. “We decided to refresh and update our graphics platform and we purchased six XPression engines from Ross to increase our overall graphics horsepower and to improve on ease of use.” 

Media Networks Latin America has also invested in Inception Social – the social media management solution from Ross – and the latest Hyperconverged Ultrix Acuity platform.

“We were one of the first Ultrix Acuity customers in Latin America, but it wasn’t a complicated decision because the business case for the solution made so much sense,” Orihuela said. “The integration and the versatility we get from Ross are both extremely powerful, simplifying our workflows and saving us time, effort and money. Many brands talk about interoperability, but as we increase our Ross footprint we are really beginning to see how much easier life can be when you’re dealing with one single ecosystem and topology. There is a great benefit to this, and although other companies claim to offer it, it’s not always guaranteed and the price point is often much higher.”

Orihuela also reflected on the changes he has seen in the world of broadcast technology in the last twenty years. “Back in the early 2000s, products were not nearly so modular, and so if something stopped working you had to replace the whole product as opposed to just replacing a blade or a board,” he said. “We’ve come a long way since then and there’s no doubt that products are more robust and easier to live with than before. One constant, however, has been the quality and responsiveness of the Ross sales team in the region – we’ve relied on their experience and expertise on many different occasions, and I think it’s important to say that they’ve always delivered.”   

OTTAWA, Canada—Ross has rolled out major improvements to XPression, with the 10.5 release adding a host of new features that range from improved collaborative workflows and simplified software updates to a backwards-compatible codec enabling users to work with HDR content and in Wide Color Gamut.  

“I’m extremely pleased to announce one of our most significant XPression updates for some time,” commented Patrick Twomey, director of graphics product management at Ross. “We consistently work with our worldwide customer base to improve the features of the platform and keep it at the front edge. With many of our team having worked in broadcast themselves, customers can rest assured that we understand your challenges and we’re committed to meeting them with you.”

Key improvements include: 

• A Single Scene import and export function enables users to export a single scene which can then be shared to another user on another XPression system. This creates a file-based workflow similar to legacy graphics systems that operators and designers used to work on. Version 10.5 also adds additional font management tools, including the ability to lock fonts from changes or deletion, enabling fonts to be cloned (for a specific scene, rather than changed globally in the project), and adds notes on fonts to help other users identify how or where the font is used.
• With version 10.5, XPression designers can now color-code template data fields to guide operators and MOS newsroom users on which fields need to be used for specific situations. XPression version 10.5 also introduces several new Visual Logic Blocks including one which enables artists to show or hide template fields based on conditional use of other fields. This means that unused fields do not have to be shown, improving accuracy and saving decision making time by hiding unnecessary fields from the user.
• To help with the deployment of XPression updates, version 10.5 introduces the new XPression Status Client. The Status Client dramatically simplifies the life of the tech or IT team responsible for software updates. With Status Client, a single user can see the status of all the XPression systems on a network from one machine and can push new XPression software and install it on each XPression system in a matter of seconds.
• Version 10.5 introduces the new XPression Video Codec 2, a backwards-compatible codec enabling users to work with HDR content and in Wide Color Gamut. Ross recognizes that not everyone can retool their stations to UHD hardware, but we know customers may want the benefit of the improved High Dynamic Range and Wide Color Gamut, and so this new codec addresses that requirement directly. Most importantly, this new codec is compatible with legacy content and does not require customers to re-encode it or throw it away – it remains fully functional.

OTTAWA—Ross Video has opted to use integrated Matrox SMPTE ST 2110 network interface controller (NIC) cards for multichannel IP video I/O workflows with its XPression real-time motion graphics engine.

The XPression product family has developed systems to support SMPTE standards in HD-SDI workflows using the Matrox DSX LE4 IP cards to help meet the needs for IP production. In addition, Matrox DSX LE5 D25 and DSX LE5 Q25 NIC cards support UHD inputs and outputs over 25 GbE for XPression.

Ross Video has used Matrox as XPression’s primary video I/O card for more than 10 years, according to Patrick Twomey, Ross Video’s director of Xpression product marketing.

“Matrox has always provided top-notch products and a robust SDK for the XPression Development team to work with, and the new Matrox DSX LE5 cards provide XPression the bandwidth to support multichannel inputs and outputs using the latest SMPTE standards for IP production our customers demand,” Twomey said.

For more information, visit www.matrox.com.  

OTTAWA—The Academy of Country Music Awards were held live in Nashville, Tenn., on Sept. 16, but thousands of miles away in Oakland, Calif., elements of the production were taking place with the help of Ross Video technology.

To assist with the graphics portion of the production, Ross Video’s XPression real-time graphics platform was utilized at the mDots/Fontastics, Production Networking and Hugh Grew led Oakland facility. Two Xpression units, one primary and one backup, were onsite, with everything copied from the primary engine to the second machine.

According to Ian Kennedy of mDots, the XPression platform has been a part of the new-look remote graphics production setup since the beginning of the pandemic.

“[T]he visuals are getting better every time and the latency has been really good given that we’re controlling the XPression engines remotely using HP Remote Boost,” said Kennedy. 

For more information, visit www.rossvideo.com.

OTTAWA—Ross Video has announced that it is enhancing the integration between its XPression real-time graphics platform with Stats Perform, a provider of data and research for sports.

An updated Stats Perform SGL interface features a new dedicated connection option for XPression, which provides access to Stats Perform data that can be directly downloaded into the XPression engine, enabling the creation of graphics in seconds, per Ross. This is meant to enable graphics teams to focus more on creative tasks as data-driven graphics are now readily available.

“Having a dedicated XPression interface to Stats Perform’s SGL tools is like adding a virtual graphics producer to the production team,” said Patrick Twomey, Ross Video’s director of product management for XPression.

For more information, visit www.rossvideo.com.  

OTTAWA—Ross Video has unveiled the next version of its XPression graphics platform, XPression v10, during its Ross Live | 2020 program.

A real-time graphics platform, XPression v10 includes a fully rewritten, multithreaded video codec that supports UHD, HDR and wide color gamut. The software codec adds support for 10-bit video files and is backwards compatible with older XPression assets. XPression v10 also features an updated XPression Remote Sequencer that enables customers to create new rundowns, create new Take items, modify existing MOS objects, manage rundowns and build rundowns while offline. XPression v10 is expected to be available in July.

Separate from v10, Ross showcased the XPression Sequencer Gateway, a special edition of the Xpression Gateway for non-MOS users. The XPression Sequencer Gateway removes the MOS NRCS and MOS/NLE Client connectivity, which helps customers build rundowns and stories in the Remote Sequencer. The new Gateway is available as a hardware/software bundle that includes the XPression Sequencer Gateway software, XPression Offline Render Engine software and the XPression Gateway hardware.

Another new product that Ross is launching is the XPression Elect-It, an election system that can drive tickers, full screens and lower-third results. It has a web-based interface for collaboration on elections graphics and for building rundowns, as well as integrating wire licenses from groups like Decision Desk HQ and Associated Press. There are pre-configured graphics packages created by Rocket Surgery that are available as a bundle with XPression Elect-It.

Ross wrapped up its presentation by announcing a new XPression MOS HTML5 plugin that will integrate with XPression Clips, UX and XPression Maps, enabling the XPression MOS workflow as a fully cross-platform.

For more information, visit www.rossvideo.com/live.  

OTTAWA—In an effort to improve its video production for content distributed to local cable television and online, the City Council of Irvine, Calif., tapped Ross Video to upgrade its production facilities.

Ross worked with Triton Technology Solutions and AVI-SPL on the project. The upgrade included the installation of an integrated Ross platform that features the Carbonite Black production switcher, XPression graphics and Ross openGear infrastructure.

The new equipment is being used to not only cover council meetings, but to help produce things like interviews and training videos.

“From router and switcher operation to automation and remote control of CG and other functions via the DashBoard control system, producing content has become easier and less time consuming, allowing for more dynamic production,” said Tom Macduff, public information officer with the City of Irvine. “We now have a system that is reliable, easy to use, scalable and will serve us for many years to come.”

IROQUOIS, ONTARIO – SportsNet New York has called to the bullpen to Ross Video and Video Design Software to help the network with its redesigned game day tickers. With the complexity of the graphic designs, SNY required a new graphics system with an improved rendering system.

XPression

To do this they chose to pair Ross Video XPression with the GameTrak ticker system from VDS. The GameTrak ticker installed at SNY implements on-air graphics in XPression Studio, while all on-air graphics are generated by XPression BlueBox.

“The XPression suite provides content creation tools needed to implement advanced projects such as the ticker design envisioned by SNY,” said Larry Mincer from VDS. “XPression’s BlueBox rendering engines provide ample horsepower for supporting complex animations and transitions. XPression is also a modern graphics system that provides greater flexibility for future creative changes as SNY identifies new requirements.”

Ross Video is a manufacturer of video production technologies headquartered in Iroquois, Ontario.