Broadcast Pix has begun shipping a new live video production system, its Granite 2000, which features a wide new 1 M/E control panel and features that allow for faster access to Granite's file based workflow.
The company also announced that it was now offering an enhanced control panel for its 2 M/E Granite 5000 top of the line system. The new Granite 5000 control panel replaces the previous 2 M/E control panel at no additional cost.
The Granite 2000 system is designed to fill a market niche between the company's high end Granite 5000 system and its Granite 1000, notes Paul Lara, director of marketing at the company in an interview.
In the broadcast arena, the Granite 2000 system, which is priced at $34,995, is targeted to mid-sized stations, smaller stations and operations that might lack the space or the budget for the Granite 5000 but need a higher end system. Lara also expects interest from corporate video production departments and notes the company is beefing up its sales efforts to operations outside the broadcast arena.
The new control panels for the 2000 and 5000 systems provide faster access to all of Granite's video and file-based content, which is provided by the only production switcher with an integrated server. The new panels, combined with Granite's Fluent file-based workflow software, enable a single operator or small team to create high quality live video for broadcasts, webcasts, events, and other productions.
The Granite 2000 control panel also provides a much larger work area, expands the number of input buttons from nine to 16 or 32 with shift, doubles the number of keyer buttons from three to six, and increases auxiliary output buttons from two to 10. It also adds key priority controls, as well as mnemonics to display auxiliary output assignments.
Another key selling point, Lara notes, is the fact that it has a dedicated bank of controls for a file-based macro system. "The macros really make it possible to create very complex high end productions with only one or two people," Lara says.
