Abekas has added a QuickTime MOV file-based media import feature for its ClipStoreMXc HD/SD digital disk recorder. This feature provides a new video clip “ingest” method for the ClipStoreMXc, improving image quality and reducing production workloads, Abekas said.
“The QuickTime MOV file import improved our workflow and reduced our workload,” said Rose Mirakian-Wheeler, director for Boston Bruins Hockey for the New England Sports Network (NESN). “We used this new feature during preparation for this season’s Boston Bruins telecasts. Our creative services department created the MOV files and transferred them onto a USB 2.0 hard drive, and upon arrival at our venue, we loaded the elements into the ClipstoreMXc.”
The ingest process eliminated several steps in NESN’s initial preparation of clips, including the rendering of elements to tape and to the EVS, and the clipping, syncing and naming of the fill and matte for each element. Since the MOV files retain their original naming upon transfer, the QuickTime MOV file import feature streamlines workflow.
“This method of ingest also improved NESN’s on-air look, since the MOV files are relatively unprocessed and therefore have no visible loss of HD video quality,” Mirakian-Wheeler said.
The ClipStoreMXc is deployed in dozens of professional HD mobile television trucks around the world, with the primary purpose of replaying animated graphics transitions, show openings and sponsor promotions during live television broadcasts.
With this new QuickTime MOV import feature, broadcasters may now render their animated show openings, graphics transitions and promotions with full HD quality into QuickTime MOV files while in the studio. The MOV files may contain HD digital video, up to eight tracks of digital audio for surround sound, and a key track (alpha)—and they can be created with any available QuickTime codec to encode the MOV files.
Then, to transport the rendered media to the remote broadcast truck, the QuickTime MOV files are simply copied to any commercially available high-speed USB 2.0 portable disk drive, according to Abekas. Eliminated is the painstaking process of editing and compiling the media elements onto linear videotape in the studio; with a complementary operation in the mobile truck to ingest and decompile the elements from that videotape and into the DDR.
