What’s New in Avid | Stream IO: Smarter, Faster, Better

Technology is one thing. Usability is something else. That is why the new version of Avid’s video ingest and playout solution marries the two together—updated features with a refreshed user experience for even better, more efficient performance.

Avid | Stream IO is a software-based solution which is helping customers navigate the transition from SDI-based ingest and playout to the IP-based future of broadcasting.

What’s New in Avid | Stream IO

The most visible change in the release is the refreshed and updated user interface, providing a streamlined experienced, backed by more robust performance.

It is more responsive, easier to navigate, more colorful, has new icon displays and easier to use menu options when it comes to setting up ingest or routing templates. Template-based workflows are a massive timesaver to quickly put channels into record. Recordings using the Avid | Stream IO remote console can be triggered manually, including crash recordings when time is short, using these pre-defined templates.

The new UI also separates out the Remote Console from some of the administrative functions of Avid | Stream IO, not usually required by ingest operators in their day-to-day activities, further streamlining the experience.

“We are constantly discussing the user experience with customers, and we believe that they will be impressed by the update,” Martin Appleton, Avid Senior Manager for Graphics and Video Servers. “Not only does it look good, but it also contains a lot of work behind the scenes which will set us up to deliver more great features in the future, addressing more customer challenges.”

Avid | Stream IO supports not only SDI, but also compressed and uncompressed IP formats such as SRT, RTMP, NDI and the SMPTE 2110 protocol, providing the ideal platform for customers who are on that journey.

The latest update sees full support for video over IP (VoIP) for ingest for SMPTE 2110, which had previously been released as a tech preview.

“IP is clearly gaining momentum, and we are delighted that our latest release fully supports IP-based ingest,” Appleton explains. “We also know that there is a lot of SDI infrastructure out there, and it is well understood, so it is critical the solution meets those needs, but combines those capabilities with a more forward-looking approach.”

Avid | Stream IO comes in a range of configurations to meet different budgets and workflow requirements, with two, four or eight fully configurable channels for ingest and playout. In addition to ingest control, channel-specific playlists can now be created. The playlist display options have been updated, offering greater flexibility for last-minute changes. Administrators can choose whether clips in the playlists can be overwritten right up to the last seconds before playback.

One final update is the ability to deploy Avid | Stream IO in a VMware environment for compressed stream ingest for both SRT and RTMP protocols.

Avid | Stream IO supports a wide range of formats and codecs and can be operated manually, a or controlled by a wide range of ingest and playout devices. These include the web-based MediaCentral | Acquire, part of MediaCentral | Cloud UX, for ingest, or MediaCentral | Command for playout. Thanks to its open architecture, studio automation and other playout controllers can o be used.

This flexibility has already made Avid | Stream IO a trusted solution in many broadcast operations worldwide, meeting the needs of different workflow scenarios from news and sports and general entertainment.