Ross Video Community

Iterative Development is a method of developing software that simplifies development by breaking a project down into small sections.  This allows product managers and developers to apply lessons that they learned during early development cycles, ensuring that the final software application is more feature-rich, more reliable and more user-friendly.

There is a similar concept in the marketing world called “plusing”, which is defined as “the act of continuously improving something; adding detail and tweaks to something already satisfactory”.

Today Ross Video announces the launch of the BlackStorm line of Video Servers.  BlackStorm development was an amalgamation of both concepts. We took an already satisfactory amazing product, the SoftMetal 3000 series, and evolved it based on customer feedback (User Acceptance Testing), user experience (extended Beta Test period) and our own internal wish list.
The result was the BlackStorm 102P Playout Server.
This first model of our new product line features a smaller, more compact chassis built on world class Dell server hardware and contains the latest generation processing power, including the Intel i7 Chipset, a parallel processing architecture and a 6Gb/s internal bus.  It also features a new User Interface built within Ross’ DashBoard Control System, providing user customizable layouts, client/server architecture and multi-server control within a single UI.
From day one, the BlackStorm team realized that a simple, easy-to-use content workflow was the key to a fantastic server product. By using the industry standard .mov file wrapper, with support for the DV family and QuickTime animation codecs, BlackStorm provides a drag and drop media workflow, with direct support for Final Cut Pro, the Adobe family of products and the Avid line of NLE products.

The final result was a new, powerful, feature-rich product, or as we say “Concentrated Server Power”, that is Easy to Use, Affordable and Future Proof.

Just returned from the BES show in New Delhi. Carbonite was a huge hit! Saw a lot of folks from news and sports who were really excited by the tremendous power available from this inexpensive product. They were particularly interested in the new Studio system packages with XPression.

Introducing the modular Nielsen WaterMarks encoder, now released and shipping!

This new 3Gb/s, modular encoder offers up several new benefits including density; up to 5 modular encoders can operate in a 2RU frame with redundant power, bypass relays for video and discreet audio signals.

The NWE-3G is the ideal solution for inserting Nielsen Watermarks into the audio for television programming. The timestamp structured watermarks make use of the “SID” (Source Identifier), which is a serial number used by Nielsen and the television industry to uniquely identify program content, to ensure proper crediting of viewing.

Visit the NWE-3G product page for more information.

We are extremely excited to announce that we have released version 5.1 for carbonite.  In the Release we have added the Media Manager WebUI.  This allows full control of the Media Store channels with an Intuitive GUI through a Web browser.  The Manuals, Release Notes and Software are available right now from the website – http://rossvi.de/oDR88m .  Get your upgrade and manuals to get started with a wonderful new addition to the product line.

With that said we are currently hard at work trying to get the next release into QA.  This version will add all kinds of new features and functionality to the Carbonite Series of switchers.  As we get closer to release we will start posting some details to keep everyone up to date on what is coming!  Yet again this will be a FREE download with all kinds of new additions that won’t cost you  a cent.  Thanks again for helping to make Carbonite one of the most successful products we have brought to the industry.  These are flying off the shelves and popping up all over the world in rapid numbers!

Keep the feed back coming and we hope you continue to join in on the discussions here in the Ross Video Community!

Les

Welcome to the NK Routing System Community page.

This community forum enables us to closely interact with you, our customers and users to exchange ideas on setup and use the NK Series routers, control panels and interfaces. This is especially true of the control panels as they can be programmed in many different ways to control the routing system. It’s all about what works the best for you.

In the upcoming weeks, we will be posting app notes and configuration examples in this area to address frequently asked questions. In the meantime, use the forums to kick off discussions or ask a question that you may have.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

openGear is; One platform, one control system, your platform of choice.

Several years ago Ross Video made a Standard Definition gear frame and line of terminal equipment products. We called this frame our 8000 Series and it was (is, we still make it) compatible with other industry products from companies like Harris (Leitch), Cobalt Digital and AJA. Given that the 8000 series rear connector structure was fine for SD but not suitable for HD, we needed a new frame.

Rather than reinvent the wheel and design a new Ross frame, we thought that it would be best for us and our customers to find another company in the industry that was willing to let us develop cards that would be compatible with their existing frames.

Surprisingly, we were told by company after company that we could not make cards that were compatible with their frames. These companies made no bones about their business model which was designed around getting a couple of their frames into a customer and then lock them in to their solution.

Our approach had always been different.  Every one of our analog and digital lines of terminal equipment had compatibility with existing standards. Customers always loved this because they had choice.

So, we had to create our own frame and control system. Instead of doing yet again the same thing every other company in the industry was doing we decided that we should create an industry standard for terminal equipment.   Having a standard would be great for customers, they would only have one frame and control system to worry about with a wide range of product choices available. If it was great for customers, it would also be great for other players in the industry, especially smaller companies that just did not have the capability to produce a frame and control system. They could create cards for this new frame and sell them into the market place and be compatible with the growing openGear terminal equipment ecosystem. As the new standard took off, Ross would also do well as we got our share of the business. We called this new standard openGear.

Our openGear portfolio continues to grow, as we strive to create solutions that solve problems toady and offer future proofing.  From audio to video to metadata, baseband to ASI.

Welcome to the Ross community, we look forward to hearing from you soon.

We have a heck of a lot of fun here at Ross creating technology for an amazing group of clients who entertain, inform and inspire their audiences.   The combination of technology and creativity when done well often produces unique, unexpected and incredible results.  As we create new live production hardware, software and services, we know that you will push them to their limits.

As technology marches forward, it can be a challenge to keep up and stay on top of things.  That’s what our Ross community is all about, improving our ability to connect with you as a valued Ross client and user of our technology and hopefully making your experience with Ross just a little bit better.  It is highly rewarding for us here at Ross to see what great things our customers are able to do with our products.  We hope that you will make use of our community to do just that, get access to advice, tips and resources as well as connect with other users to make your productions just a little more inspiring, entertaining and informative.

Welcome to the Ross Community!  This online forum will give XPression users an opportunity to share information and ideas.  We will also be able to communicate better with our customers and partners, while providing important documentation and sample content.

XPression has truly had an amazing year!  When I did an online presentation for our resellers a few months ago, the only title I could come up with was “Shock & Awe.”  In the past year, XPression took on many high-profile graphics projects around the world, including major award shows, highly-rated network television shows, key sporting events, business channels, distributed branding projects, enterprise-level news installations, and much more.  It almost makes your head spin trying to keep up with the latest developments.

So, what’s so exciting about XPression?  It’s a modern system, built from the ground up in the past 5 years.  XPression is also the easiest-to-use real-time graphics platform on the market, bar none.  And, while the intuitive user interface makes things simple, there’s no sacrifice in horsepower, because XPression leverages the latest DirectX rendering technology used by hardcore gamers to deliver the most real-time 3D possible.  And, last but not least, XPression is affordable, no a la carte menu of options or plug-ins, we put all of the appropriate tools in each one of our XPression editions.

In closing, all of us at Ross, especially Team XPression, are looking forward to working more closely with our customers and partners via the Ross Online Community.  I hope that you will take advantage of this tool as much as possible to be more productive and to make your life a little bit easier.  Thanks for your support of XPression, and I’ll see you in the forums.

Production switchers are our passion! We are so pleased that we can now share our passion via our new community site.

We are very proud of our new switcher line up, from the compact CrossOver series, our new market-leading Carbonite Mid-Size switchers, all the way to our fully modular and configurable switcher flagship – Vision. Whatever your production switcher needs, we are confident that we have the right solution for you.

2011 has been a great year for us, we introduced the CrossOver Solo in January which has received a fantastic reception – you have told us that not only is it incredibly well priced but also offers a level of performance that simply was not available with any product near this price previously. NAB saw the introduction of the Carbonite mid-size switcher series and what an intro it was, over 65 orders taken on the NAB show floor – unprecedented in the company’s history. We also beat expectations by shipping Carbonite in July, which was over a month earlier than we had anticipated.

Vision has also grown from strength to strength, in 2011 it received a raft of new features and functionality – further establishing it as a market leader. We added MultiViewers, more Keyers and a host of incredibly useful device controls and user features. Vision production switchers have continued to take market share and are daily use in network news & sports production around the world. Combined with our market leading Overdrive production automation system, Vision has been adopted by more organizations than any other large switcher available today.

This new community will give you the opportunity to share your switcher needs and applications with the folks here at Ross. Building the best production switchers in the world is our goal and listening to your criticism’s, suggestions and  praise will help us meet that goal.

We look forward to hearing from you – Welcome to our community.

Welcome to the new Ross Community and OverDrive Forum!

I am really excited about our new on-line platform and look forward to communicating with you on a regular basis. The Ross Community will enable you to easily share and exchange ideas and knowledge about modern Automated Production Control (APC) and New Media Workflows as well as offer me a conduit to provide you with useful product and technology information.

Very early in my career with Ross Video (circa 1997), John Ross – Founder, and President at the time – shared something that has stuck with me to this day. During one of my first product roadmap discussions with John he paused, then pointed beyond the company walls and stated “the answers are out there!”. His comment turned out to be practical advice that would shape a new technology that leads the industry for Ross.

During the initial development of OverDrive in 2002 and 2003, and following through to today the OverDrive product management and development teams have embraced the ‘answers are out there’ philosophy and are constantly engaged with our customers to fully understand and meet or exceed their requirements. Many of the ‘cool’ and unique features found on OverDrive can be tracked directly back to this initiative. And as a result, OverDrive has become the leading APC system in the world, and the only system powerful enough to produce National Network programming.

Today, with close to 200 OverDrive systems on the air and hundreds of OverDrive users around the world, there is a wide range of expertise and experiences to draw from. So please share your knowledge with the community. Your active participation is critical to keeping the dialogue fresh and with as wide a perspective as possible.

And remember, The Answers Are Out There! We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind regards,

Brad Rochon
OverDrive Marketing Product Manager
Ross Video Ltd.