Pixel Power Deployed For Craft Channel Project

Pixel Power has teamed up with partner Broadcast Graphics and Control to deliver a project for The Craft Channel. The companies developed a direct interface via an app to produce the graphics for an entire show on the television channel in around 10 seconds.

The interface operates via an app directly connected to the Craft Channel website database.

Stephen Mills, Broadcast Graphics and Control, explained: "To prepare all the graphics manually would take longer than the show itself. Each of the Craft Channel shows is an hour long and contains anything upwards of 15 products, each of which needs a display of the product code, description, price, product and brand image, payment terms and more."

Once on air, complexity increased due to the large number of pages, fields and trigger keys which would be needed for manual operation live on air. Broadcast Graphics and Control provided a complete operator application with context-sensitive control of the entire show within a familiar Windows environment. To provide resilience, the operator app does not require a connection to the database, as the graphics are prepared in advance then operated from the loaded job.

"There is no way we could have built this job without Pixel Power's remote control XML interface, and without the in-page scripting capability," continued Mills. "The feedback from the client has been incredibly positive, and I think they would probably agree that we have delivered more than they were expecting."

James Gilbert, CEO, Pixel Power, said: "Our scripting and automation facilities are extensive, because that is what broadcasters need today. Whether it is a niche service like The Craft Channel or a national broadcaster, they want to set up templates and business rules and let the graphics appear automatically, leaving skilled designers to work on the creativity not on the repetitive tasks. Thanks to Stephen and Broadcast Graphics and Control, this is a showcase project for the practicalities of automated processes and workflows."

www.pixelpower.com

(JP/MH)