Each Cablecast VIO server made by Tightrope Media can run multiple instances of Cablecast CG, the broadcast-optimized bulletin board software based on the Carousel digital signage engine.

“While Cablecast has long offered seamless workflow integration between its automation and bulletin board capabilities, customers previously deployed our bulletin board software on separate hardware,” said Steve Israelsky, President, Cablecast Community Media. “With Cablecast VIO, stations can add Cablecast CG software for each channel’s bulletin board directly within their playout and automation server, reducing both equipment and operating costs. Bringing the bulletin board software onto the same system as channel playout and on-air graphics such as live branding and crawls will also enable new software capabilities and efficiencies in the future.”

The Cablecast VIO series further minimizes hardware requirements by delivering increased channel density. The flagship Cablecast VIO 4 Plus model provides six SDI interfaces that can be configured as four outputs with two recording channels, or as three inputs and three outputs. “This is perfect for PEG broadcasters with public, education and government access offerings, as they can run all three channels and their bulletin boards on one server, significantly reducing the overall system price,” added Israelsky.

Building on the RTP stream input feature first introduced on Cablecast Flex servers, Cablecast VIO can ingest live, H.264-encoded RTP, RTMP or HLS streams without needing an external decoder or consuming an SDI interface. Users can bring in live feeds of events such as council meetings and sports from remote sites over an IP network, or pull in sources such as YouTube or Facebook Live streams for integration into their channels.

Cablecast VIO video servers also expand on the Cablecast family’s multi-format playout capabilities, which enable media files encoded in a wide variety of formats to be directly played out without transcoding. New codec compatibility including VP8 and Theora combines with support for non-broadcast-standard frame rates to enable easy use of Internet-originated content. Cablecast VIO also adds space-efficient H.264 encoding for channel recording, reducing storage consumption to maximize available recording time while.

Additional Cablecast VIO models offer optimized configurations for customers with lower channel requirements than the Cablecast VIO 4 Plus. Cablecast VIO Lite includes 8TB of storage and two SDI interfaces, which can be configured as two outputs or one input and one output.