PlayBox Neo And SNews Announce Integrated Newsroom Solutions

PlayBox Neo has announced a further expansion to the software connectivity of its television channel branding and studio playout servers with support now provided for the Arion newsroom system from SNews Broadcast Solutions.

SNews has long experience in developing software-based newsroom production systems for an international clientele.

"This is the latest in an ongoing series of partnership agreements with major broadcast product developers," says Pavlin Rahnev, PlayBox Neo founder and CEO. "SNews has achieved great success with Arion which is in operation across some of Latam's highest-profile broadcast networks. MOS interconnectivity allows Arion-equipped newsrooms to perform all the core tasks of content accessing and news run down playout directly from the PlayBox Neo Production user interface. Arion's News Graphics template generation and its playout are directly integrated with our TitleBox Neo-20 graphics processor. This allows newsroom staff to concentrate on their core activity without distraction, saving time and maximizing production efficiency."

"Integrating PlayBox Neo's ProductionAirBox Neo-20 with our Arion system gives newsroom staff the ability to perform playout in a seamless environment," adds Rodrigo Brasiel, CEO of SNews. "The combination conforms fully with our strategy of making technology fully transparent in a practical, agile and efficient solution that maximizes productivity at every point in the news production workflow."

SNews Arion is designed to give newsroom teams all the facilities they need to monitor, search and filter incoming and archived news. Newsroom teams can create their own rundown including an exact count of surpluses or overruns. View layouts and colors can be customized to match a channel-preferred design. Arion also allows easy configuration of subsections, expected length and video clip duration. Externally sourced news can be verified automatically through channels such as RSS, Twitter and Facebook. Shared across the entire newsroom, Arion gives authorized users access to the broadcaster's registered sources quickly and easily via a structured agenda augmented by the ability to make a direct query via their mobile phone.

ProductionAirBox Neo-20 is equipped with features designed specifically for live production. These include the ability to trim or reposition every clip in a playout while the scheduled session is on-air. Commands such as next, jump or shuttle allow playout order to be modified seamlessly without interrupting the current playout session. Up to four independent players can be configured on a single ProductionAirBox Neo-20 server. Each player can be controlled via its own playlist. Each of the four SDI/NDI interfaces can be assigned as program or preview outputs. Single-channel or multi-channel user interfaces are available to streamline the operation. Content manipulation and delivery can be performed with the near-zero latency demanded for the fast-paced work environment of broadcast news, sports and live production.

www.playboxneo.com