About a year ago Mediazone decided to move the CG SD workflow (Playbox Airbox+Titlebox) to HD. Unfortunately the cost of an HD CG solutions is extremely expensive and the ones that are affordable provide poor functionality. This is why we decided we switch to CasparCG (an open-source CG) which nowadays is an industry standard CG solution used by many broadcasters.
CasparCG consist of 2 entities:
- CasparCG Server – P
- CasparCG Client – C
For the needs of our TV studio we needed 2 machines (which must meet CasparCG minimum requirements). One for the Play-Out of content and the other one for Graphics (Fill+Key). CasparCG Server and Client can be installed on different machines for maximum reliability, but I chose to install them on the same one. First, our TV studio does not broadcast (it’s an educational TV studio) and second it will save us some space because we will only use one machine.
As for reference, our studio workflow is 1080i50 and we use the DataVideo SE-3000 vision mixer.
Play-Out Machine
This machine is used to Play-Out content using the official CasparCG Client. The client accept all popular formats. Make sure the videos meet your resolution and video format.
On this PC a Blackmagic Design Deckling Duo is installed. Only one SDI Out (Out A) is needed for this purpose. Bellow you can find the config file for the CasparCG Server.
- Client software primarily used with the CasparCG Server software for audio and video playout, to control graphics and recording, but it can also be used for other tasks within television broadcast. Mar 21, 2014 Caspar's Playout Client is a playout client program for the CasparCG Server 1 with focus on playout over CG.
- Download CasparCG: Video and Graphics Play-Out - Use QuickTime and Flash for all your TV broadcast, event and digital signage needs! CasparCG is a free and open-source multi-layer Flash and video playout server for broadcast television and display graphics in both SD.
All you need from playout. Smart, easy and affordable playout automation system for CasparCG. Plays any media formats, including static images or HTML5 web pages. Layered graphic templates for unlimited creative possibilities. Animated logos, lower thirds in HTML5.
Official CasparCG Client
Graphics Machine (Fill+Key)
This second machine is used to overly graphics on the Program Mix. Thus we need a card that can produce 2 in-sync outputs. Blackmagic Design Deckling 4K Extreme 6G is the right one for this purpose. Other cards can work as well, as long they can have 2 in-sync outputs.
Bellow you can find the config file for the CasparCG Server.
CasparCG client offer somes readymade templates which can be used or you can develop your own easily. CasparCG is offering the capability to overlay HTML templates. This makes the creation of graphics really easy since HTML 5 supports animation. Also, you can incorporate Javascript or PHP (or any web language) to change text and graphics. Of course you will need to develop your own client to interact with the graphics dynamically.
Casparcg Playout Client
Below you can see an example of an HTML template I have developed.
Screenshots
Lower Third
Features
Mediazone Broadcast Engineer