GRASS VALLEY AURORA PLAYOUT 7 Datasheet

Aurora Playout 7

PL AY B A C K C O N T ROL F O R L I V E
S T U D I O P RO D U C T I O N R U N N I N G
WINDOWS 7/XP

Aurora Playout lets you control up to
six fully mirrored K2/K2 Summit playout
channels using manual or automatic
channel assignment.

PRODUCT DATA SHEET

The Grass Valley™ Aurora™ production
solution integrates with the entire news­production process, from acquisition,
ingest, and media browsing, to quick­turn editing, craft editing, and automated
playout.

The Aurora Playout system offers highly
coordinated live studio playback from the
K2 media server/media client and the K2
Summit™ production client. Designed for
workflow efficiency and flexibility, it can
automatically create and adjust playlists
from a MOS-compatible newsroom
computer system (NRCS).

Highly Coordinated News
Playback

The Aurora Playout system features
integrated playback capabilities to
deliver the workflow efficiencies
that live television studio production
environments demand.

With its intuitive user interface, the
Aurora Playout system lets you control
up to six fully mirrored K2 playout

KEY FEATURES

channels using manual or automatic
channel assignment. Users can
then manage the system’s playlists
manually or via a Media Object Server
(MOS) protocol-compatible newsroom
computing system.

For example, the Aurora Playout
platform includes a MOS-compatible
plug-in module so that producers and
assignment editors can easily enter
a story’s name, desired duration, and
other descriptive information to form a
MOS object. To streamline story creation
and increase story accuracy, Aurora
Playout also makes its playlist available
to editors using the Aurora Edit system.
A list of stories to be edited is available
as a simple pop-up list on an Aurora
Edit station. All an editor needs to do is
select a story, view its associated script,
edit the story, and then send it to a
Grass Valley playout server system. The
stor y’s slug, ID, and duration information
remains unchanged, improving accuracy
and speeding story creation.

Graphics Triggering

Aurora Playout has a new interface
to the Orad graphics playout engine,
Maestro. With this new addition, editors
can place MOS-driven graphic elements
on an Aurora Edit timeline and then
transfer graphic timing information
directly to Aurora Playout. As the story
is then played to air, Aurora Playout
can frame-accurately trigger the Orad
graphics server for direct play-to-air.

Clip Trimming

During the broadcast, should you be
running late, Aurora Playout allows
you to trim a story even though it’s
already on the server. Aurora Playout
can dynamically adjust in and/or out
points directly from the rundown control
interface. This can be done using a hi-res
channel from the server, or a lo-res proxy
with the addition of the K2 BaseCamp
Express content management system.

Up to six-channel system playlist •
management for K2 or K2 Summit
systems

Ability to trigger the Orad Maestro •
graphics server directly from the
control room

Manual or automatic channel •
assignment

Mirrored playback of backup channels•

GPI triggers for and from external •
devices

Xkeys template support for channel •
and application control

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Jog/shuttle and slow/fast control•

MOS NRCS connectivity for instant •
rundown management

Insert, move, or delete an item in a •
playlist without interrupting playback

Quickly cue/recue next/previous •
stories

Automatically skip items that are not •
ready

Out cue preview – see seconds to end •
of story with auto re-cue

Trim clip – can trim top/tail of clip to •
adjust rundown story length

Head frames displayed in playlist•

Viewable duration countdown for •
each story playing

Editorial duration field for accurate •
timing in iNEWS, AP ENPS systems

Housekeeper management tool for •
manual playlist and clip selection

Integrates with Grass Valley Aurora •
Edit nonlinear editors

Archive play with RS-422 VTR control•

K2 BaseCamp Express support for •
lo-res playback of stories in Playout
and at NRCS

PRODUCT DATA SHEET

K2 BASECAMP EXPRESS – INTEGRATING AURORA SYSTEM APPLICATIONS

When the K2 BaseCamp Express
content management module is added to
the Aurora system, Ingest, Edit, and
Playout will all have access to the
same media search and metadata
management tools previously only
available within Aurora Browse.

K2 BaseCamp Express lets you
add general and custom metadata
and has expanded sortable results,
collections, dynamic keyword marking,
and integrated on-the-fly logging
functionality.

The expanded results window, with
dynamically positioned columns, enables
you to choose what metadata is shown
in sortable results. Each user can
customize their view using the column
picker to show technical, general, or
custom metadata when viewing search
results.

NRCS Integration

The Aurora Playout platform is
compatible with newsroom computer
systems using the MOS v2.8 protocol,
such as iNEWS, ENPS, and Octopus.
This includes running an embedded
plug-in within the NRCS applications,
creating MOS objects for tracking stories
throughout the workflow, viewing scripts
generated from the newsroom systems,
and reporting status of stories as they
are sent from the editor and played out
to air.

Enhanced Search –• use filters for
flexible and efficient searches

Explore View –• explore devices or
on-line folders directly without using
search tools. If you know where the
media is, just go there. You can see
both shared storage and inventory
from standalone ingest and playout
servers

Transfer Tool –• now integrated into
the K2 BaseCamp Express Explore
View tools, allows you to drag and
drop files and monitor transfer
progress between devices

Collections –• a virtual folder
workspace allows you to create
public or private folders so that you
and others can contribute references
to the media. Some of the uses for
Collections include selecting clips for
projects, selecting clips to be archived

K2 BaseCamp Express Support

When K2 BaseCamp Express is
present, you can search for media using
customized metadata, restore or send
media to or from archive, or just preview
stories using lo-res video, eliminating the
need to tie up a hi-res playout channel.
In addition, journalists can preview lo­res feeds and finished stories directly
from the Grass Valley plug-in that is
embedded within the NRCS application.

or restored, and requests for the
media manager, all without actually
moving or duplicating media.

Keywords – • mark keyframe locators
and keywords with in/out points and a
description to identify selected media
for use directly in editing

Scene Detection –• the K2 BaseCamp
Express scene detection engine scans
for visual changes in the picture to
make review of media faster

Pinnable Windows –• the K2
BaseCamp Express panels are now
pinnable and relocatable so you can
customize and resize K2 BaseCamp
Express tools within the application

Custom Metadata –• create and
search metadata fields including
variable- and unlimited-sized text
fields, date, pick list, and numbers

Standards-Based PC Configuration

The Aurora Playout system runs on a
standard PC. This reliance on standards­based technologies allows broadcasters
to leverage the cost efficiencies of
rapidly evolving technologies. This
approach makes upgrades easier too,
typically involving a simple software
upgrade or board swap.

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