New release: ClassX Broadcast Applications 6.2
25-05-2017 16:29 - Product News
ClassX is happy to announce the immediate release of ClassX Broadcast Applications 6.2
What´s new and noteworthy in this release? Why should I upgrade anyway? There are a bunch of reasons (23, if we were to be punctilious) that could/should/will make you decide to upgrade your previous version to 6.2, just check them out:
1) Full NDI® implementation in/out.
To learn more about this feature and its potentials, watch our video tutorial here. NewTek´s NDI® technology takes a relevant place into all ClassX Broadcast Applications for both input and output support and Tricaster´s macro automation. NDI® sources can be wrapped to 3D objects, moved and squeezed in real-time with the power of ClassX template editors. Audio inlcuded. NDI® sources will be kept integral, at their best native quality. Auto-sensing, field-polarity-aware implementation will take any format change into account. Audio will be interpolated to the output device´s rate if necessary. NDI® output in LiveBoard is just like any other physical I/O device. Just select it from the list, specifiy the output resolution and you´re on air. No need to re-start. NDI® sources can be previewed in real-time while on air, at any time.
2) Brand new MediaRender implementation
Our fantastic MediaHandling layer has been deeply re-designed and optimized. The result is simple: improved features, perfect backwards compatibility, increased support for media formats and capture devices.
With the new MediaRender now you can also preview the media with our ClassX File chooser or through LiveBoard´s preview panel. Not only view it but also listen to its sound through the audio-preview lines.
3) Support for For-A Switchers
ClassX follows its cutting edge approach to technology and innovation. With the early adoption of the brand new For-A TB2 card, there´s a new world of possibilities open to our customers.
TB2 is a ThunderBolt-based card capable of doing up to 4 I/O HD video+audio channels on a single wire. Graphics can be created on a small-size Laptop and sent straight (no video cards needed) to any ForA switcher.
4) MOS HW acceleration tested on new platforms [AP/ENPS Octpus ETERE/Blaze NRCS]
Integration into an existing MOS workflow can´t be less easy. Our MOS implementation gains full hardware acceleration and pixel-perfect quality.
Furthermore, with the increased number of supported MOS implementations, ClassX sets a new standard in MOS graphics content creation and flexibility. Now Supporting ENPS8, Octopus, iNews, Etere, Blaze and more.
5) Text handing improvements
Both vector and bitmap text have gained additional flexibility with the support of floating point kerning and spacing. Users will be able to fine-tune their text layouts like never before. This feature is also supported for 3d texts in CoralCG. Other improvements are now in place with every text-based graphics object. Unicode level support is now extended to any really complex language (like Telugu). Complex multi-language text can be used/layouted in a single text object.
6) Improved TCP/IP protocols
LBControl / StealthCG protocols have been updated with new commands in order to get an unbeatable, fine-grained access to the functions of LiveBoard and StealthCG.
Dozens of improvements together with a deep stress test routine, took our legendary TCP/IP protocol interface to the highest levels of flexibility. Users and OEMs can now take advantage of a faster response in commands and protocol handling.
7) Docking extended to all main apps
We extended the modern idea of docking to all our Template Editors. The result is a more comfortable interface and a shared look and feel for the applications. Personalize your Editor-Workspace as you did with LiveBoard.
8) Group highlights and Drag&Drop on LB
Groups of contents can now be created/assigned by Drag&Drop. Group IDs can also be unlimited and will be assigned automatically. Users can immediately visualize the contents inside a group. Simple, immediate, secure.
9) Gui improvements everywhere
Applications will look fine and feel better, with tons of gui improvements. From the Template Preview player, to the FrameMarkers editor, to the Media player and NDI previewer, cursor shape change on Drag&Drop, multi-screen ui improvements, more consistent gui across applications.
10) New application: the ClipPlayer
A simple yet powerful piece of software capable to play any media file (including MXF, MOV, MP4) to a vast number of supported video devices. Easy to operate and feature rich.
HQ crop/scale, field-polarity-aware with support for mark-in/out, frame resynch, on-air scrub and more.
What´s new and noteworthy in this release? Why should I upgrade anyway? There are a bunch of reasons (23, if we were to be punctilious) that could/should/will make you decide to upgrade your previous version to 6.2, just check them out:
1) Full NDI® implementation in/out.
To learn more about this feature and its potentials, watch our video tutorial here. NewTek´s NDI® technology takes a relevant place into all ClassX Broadcast Applications for both input and output support and Tricaster´s macro automation. NDI® sources can be wrapped to 3D objects, moved and squeezed in real-time with the power of ClassX template editors. Audio inlcuded. NDI® sources will be kept integral, at their best native quality. Auto-sensing, field-polarity-aware implementation will take any format change into account. Audio will be interpolated to the output device´s rate if necessary. NDI® output in LiveBoard is just like any other physical I/O device. Just select it from the list, specifiy the output resolution and you´re on air. No need to re-start. NDI® sources can be previewed in real-time while on air, at any time.
2) Brand new MediaRender implementation
Our fantastic MediaHandling layer has been deeply re-designed and optimized. The result is simple: improved features, perfect backwards compatibility, increased support for media formats and capture devices.
With the new MediaRender now you can also preview the media with our ClassX File chooser or through LiveBoard´s preview panel. Not only view it but also listen to its sound through the audio-preview lines.
3) Support for For-A Switchers
ClassX follows its cutting edge approach to technology and innovation. With the early adoption of the brand new For-A TB2 card, there´s a new world of possibilities open to our customers.
TB2 is a ThunderBolt-based card capable of doing up to 4 I/O HD video+audio channels on a single wire. Graphics can be created on a small-size Laptop and sent straight (no video cards needed) to any ForA switcher.
4) MOS HW acceleration tested on new platforms [AP/ENPS Octpus ETERE/Blaze NRCS]
Integration into an existing MOS workflow can´t be less easy. Our MOS implementation gains full hardware acceleration and pixel-perfect quality.
Furthermore, with the increased number of supported MOS implementations, ClassX sets a new standard in MOS graphics content creation and flexibility. Now Supporting ENPS8, Octopus, iNews, Etere, Blaze and more.
5) Text handing improvements
Both vector and bitmap text have gained additional flexibility with the support of floating point kerning and spacing. Users will be able to fine-tune their text layouts like never before. This feature is also supported for 3d texts in CoralCG. Other improvements are now in place with every text-based graphics object. Unicode level support is now extended to any really complex language (like Telugu). Complex multi-language text can be used/layouted in a single text object.
6) Improved TCP/IP protocols
LBControl / StealthCG protocols have been updated with new commands in order to get an unbeatable, fine-grained access to the functions of LiveBoard and StealthCG.
Dozens of improvements together with a deep stress test routine, took our legendary TCP/IP protocol interface to the highest levels of flexibility. Users and OEMs can now take advantage of a faster response in commands and protocol handling.
7) Docking extended to all main apps
We extended the modern idea of docking to all our Template Editors. The result is a more comfortable interface and a shared look and feel for the applications. Personalize your Editor-Workspace as you did with LiveBoard.
8) Group highlights and Drag&Drop on LB
Groups of contents can now be created/assigned by Drag&Drop. Group IDs can also be unlimited and will be assigned automatically. Users can immediately visualize the contents inside a group. Simple, immediate, secure.
9) Gui improvements everywhere
Applications will look fine and feel better, with tons of gui improvements. From the Template Preview player, to the FrameMarkers editor, to the Media player and NDI previewer, cursor shape change on Drag&Drop, multi-screen ui improvements, more consistent gui across applications.
10) New application: the ClipPlayer
A simple yet powerful piece of software capable to play any media file (including MXF, MOV, MP4) to a vast number of supported video devices. Easy to operate and feature rich.
HQ crop/scale, field-polarity-aware with support for mark-in/out, frame resynch, on-air scrub and more.
11) CoralCG news
A very nice function finds a home in CoralCG: recursive import of textures from any folder. Just drag´n´drop them into the texture library window!
Improvements in the CoralGC engine affect stability and performance. Output quality can be fine-tuned, with support 32x pixel multisampling.
12) LiveBoard´s slideshow plugin gains a visual playlist
This cool feature of LB will display pictures in the order you want, with automatic 2S/3D effects on the fly. Drag´n´drop and multiselection are of course supported.
13) The Services Monitor
Users of LiveBoard, StealthCG can monitor and control the relevant services running in background. Both LB and StealthCG have a multicast TCP/IP protocol. Now you can visually track the clients and their connection traffic. The Services Monitor can also display the status of GPIO and blinks status leds according to current activity. A visual feedback on what´s going on with your software. And a bit more...
14) New user interface for StealthCG
StealthCG has an improved GUI. This will make it easier for OEMs and integrators.
15) New GPIO interface
With the advent of ClassX Broadcast Applications 6.2, we introduced an optional GPIO feature which goes down to the hardware and gives control to the single bits of serial ports. The GPIO can be easily customized through the Preferences.
GPIO has been designed to grow and adapt to ANY device you have in mind. This is the ClassX way of implementing ideas, and you already love it.
16) Scripting engine: a new world of possibilities
Skilled programmer ? Amateur coder ? What about writing your very own code to control any aspect of your graphics, implement new functions and interactions securely and productively by means of ClassX Scripting Engine ? This is pure value added to your creativity. The new scripting environment gives you new Console output, debug and a fully featured code editor with syntax higlight, code completion and more. A new set of built-in commands give you the ability to send TCP/IP messages, alter contents in LiveBoard (even onair), create alerts, handle events and much more.
17) SocialServer: improvements at a glance
New Facebook and Instagram API. Social media is so dynamic! We want our customers to always be up to date. So, enjoy the innovation of fresh FaceBook APIs and full Instagram support in the new SocialServer. Further SocialServer improvements are the automatic white spaces filter that will cleanup messages from unwanted double spaces, extra chars, tabs, etc. Test messages are now possible with any account. Helpful if you want to deep test the social templates before going on air. SMS messages can now associate an avatar image. Breath some more appeal into the good old SMS texts. The SocialWall gets a richer set of features and makes it possible to stack messages in a templates queue and control the flow of the messages through a comfortable GPIO input, i.e. a pushbutton.
18) LB direct import / conversion of image sequences
LiveBoard can now help you in migrating old-fashioned image sequences into animated LB contents. Apha is supported. And it´s a joy too see how easy it is to operate. Drag&Drop your imported sequences just like any other media content.
19) PageRecall
A brand new application to no extra cost comes with ClassX Broadcast Applications v6.2: the PageRecall. This software has been designed for those operators who are used to "numeric sequence" - graphics and to recall them with a num pad. The ClassX implementation is of course full of useful features:
- Big display for the page number
- Page number existence check
- Page icon [you can check the type of the page you recalled]
- Page run status check [stopped/paused/running]
- One key start/stop/resume
- Last page memory
- Remote connection: pages can be controlled through the network
Operators of sports graphics will find the PageRecall the perfect companion for their every-day´s work!
A very nice function finds a home in CoralCG: recursive import of textures from any folder. Just drag´n´drop them into the texture library window!
Improvements in the CoralGC engine affect stability and performance. Output quality can be fine-tuned, with support 32x pixel multisampling.
12) LiveBoard´s slideshow plugin gains a visual playlist
This cool feature of LB will display pictures in the order you want, with automatic 2S/3D effects on the fly. Drag´n´drop and multiselection are of course supported.
13) The Services Monitor
Users of LiveBoard, StealthCG can monitor and control the relevant services running in background. Both LB and StealthCG have a multicast TCP/IP protocol. Now you can visually track the clients and their connection traffic. The Services Monitor can also display the status of GPIO and blinks status leds according to current activity. A visual feedback on what´s going on with your software. And a bit more...
14) New user interface for StealthCG
StealthCG has an improved GUI. This will make it easier for OEMs and integrators.
15) New GPIO interface
With the advent of ClassX Broadcast Applications 6.2, we introduced an optional GPIO feature which goes down to the hardware and gives control to the single bits of serial ports. The GPIO can be easily customized through the Preferences.
GPIO has been designed to grow and adapt to ANY device you have in mind. This is the ClassX way of implementing ideas, and you already love it.
16) Scripting engine: a new world of possibilities
Skilled programmer ? Amateur coder ? What about writing your very own code to control any aspect of your graphics, implement new functions and interactions securely and productively by means of ClassX Scripting Engine ? This is pure value added to your creativity. The new scripting environment gives you new Console output, debug and a fully featured code editor with syntax higlight, code completion and more. A new set of built-in commands give you the ability to send TCP/IP messages, alter contents in LiveBoard (even onair), create alerts, handle events and much more.
17) SocialServer: improvements at a glance
New Facebook and Instagram API. Social media is so dynamic! We want our customers to always be up to date. So, enjoy the innovation of fresh FaceBook APIs and full Instagram support in the new SocialServer. Further SocialServer improvements are the automatic white spaces filter that will cleanup messages from unwanted double spaces, extra chars, tabs, etc. Test messages are now possible with any account. Helpful if you want to deep test the social templates before going on air. SMS messages can now associate an avatar image. Breath some more appeal into the good old SMS texts. The SocialWall gets a richer set of features and makes it possible to stack messages in a templates queue and control the flow of the messages through a comfortable GPIO input, i.e. a pushbutton.
18) LB direct import / conversion of image sequences
LiveBoard can now help you in migrating old-fashioned image sequences into animated LB contents. Apha is supported. And it´s a joy too see how easy it is to operate. Drag&Drop your imported sequences just like any other media content.
19) PageRecall
A brand new application to no extra cost comes with ClassX Broadcast Applications v6.2: the PageRecall. This software has been designed for those operators who are used to "numeric sequence" - graphics and to recall them with a num pad. The ClassX implementation is of course full of useful features:
- Big display for the page number
- Page number existence check
- Page icon [you can check the type of the page you recalled]
- Page run status check [stopped/paused/running]
- One key start/stop/resume
- Last page memory
- Remote connection: pages can be controlled through the network
Operators of sports graphics will find the PageRecall the perfect companion for their every-day´s work!
20) AnimTools
With the advent of the 6.2 release we introduced a new, deeper level of access to the graphics templates.
AnimTools is both a Scripting API (java-based) and/or a LBControl (tcp/ip) set of commands for creating, handling and manipulating template timelines and keyframes.
AnimTools is absolutely straightforward and complete at the same time and can be used from anyone with a minimal programming knowledge.
AnimTools offers the same API for every kind of template. This means that you can use the same functionalities with MoreCG, CastaliaCG or CoralCG. No matter if you´re working with 2D or 3D-keyframes.
With AnimTools you can use a graphic template as a flexible base where you can build in-game logic, complex event-driven animation, conditional movements and much more. Interactive TV games, graphics instrumentation, conditional presentations will soon become a kid´s game, with AnimTools! Have a look at an example here...
With the advent of the 6.2 release we introduced a new, deeper level of access to the graphics templates.
AnimTools is both a Scripting API (java-based) and/or a LBControl (tcp/ip) set of commands for creating, handling and manipulating template timelines and keyframes.
AnimTools is absolutely straightforward and complete at the same time and can be used from anyone with a minimal programming knowledge.
AnimTools offers the same API for every kind of template. This means that you can use the same functionalities with MoreCG, CastaliaCG or CoralCG. No matter if you´re working with 2D or 3D-keyframes.
With AnimTools you can use a graphic template as a flexible base where you can build in-game logic, complex event-driven animation, conditional movements and much more. Interactive TV games, graphics instrumentation, conditional presentations will soon become a kid´s game, with AnimTools! Have a look at an example here...
See the VIDEO here:
21) New Graphic Attributes
New built-in Hardware-accelerated graphics attributes elaboration.
The new built-in graphics attributes introduced in the 6.2 version will give you the artist´s touch at no extra cost. Just imagine you´ll now be able to apply real-time filters like masking, bloom, glow and sepia tone. Real-time shadows, outlines and other incredible filters can be applied to static, animated graphics and video objects! Splendid!
22) New features in the Template Datasource Manager
XQuery and JSONpath queries are now supported for XML and JSON data sources.
XQuery in our Datasource Manager makes it possibleto retreive real-time weather information from OpenWeatherMap (http://openweathermap.org/) of any location all around the world.
23) Ticker auto stop
Ticker and Styled Ticker may now automatically stop at the end of the playlist; just check "Stop on end" and it´s done. LiveBoard will notify the stopped ticker over TCP/IP.
Yep. Under the hood there´s much more. Finer testing, better debug tools and deeper stress tests helped us in finding the relevant hot spots to optimize, fix and improve. Needless to say, the new 6.2 is now better than ever, under any aspect. And it´s ROCK STEADY. You deserve the best!
How do I put my hands on v6.2.0.? The keywords are...ClassX Maintenance Agreement (CMA)!
For those who have v6 and active CMA...
What will customers with active CMA do? They´ll simply access the ClassX Dashboard with their credentials, find the "ClassX Broadcast Install 6.2.0." Download in the v6 section, install and run the new ClassX software right away. Any questions? With active CMA, ClassX support is available for you at support@classxcg.com and on skype at classx_support.
For those who have v6 but CMA has expired less than a year ago...
Purchase another year of CMA at a convenient price! Ask your classx dealer for a quote and continue enjoying another year of updates, upgrades and support for ClassX products.
For those who have v6 but CMA has expired more than a year ago...
Purchase a year of CMA at full price. Enjoy the improvements and the new features that have been added since your last update.
For those who have v5 ...
Purchase the upgrade to v6, ask your ClassX dealer for a quote.
For those who have v4 or CG Playout ...
Purchase LiveBoardv6: ask your ClassX dealer for a quote and enjoy a special discount that will transform your old licenses into brand-new ones.