Ross Video Showcases Low End to High at NAB Show

Ross Video is known for its cost-effective switcher line, but, at the NAB Show, the company is demonstrating that its offerings extend beyond that, both in breadth within the cost-effective range and in depth, moving into higher pricing.

Ross has introduced version 3.0 of its XPression 3D HD character generator. The CG, which starts at $4,000 and goes up to $60,000, now features stereoscopic template creation and rending for 3D, as well as automatic center-cut SD outputs for HD templates. The CG has 3D capability but is easily operated in a conventional 2D workspace and is suited to the college market.

“We have a product that allows you to take XPression, load it onto a PC with an NVIDEO card, and, for under $20,000, have a switcher with a multiviewer and CG solution,” says Key Accounts Program Manager Steve Romain. “If that isn’t good for the college market, nothing is.”

In the switcher line, Ross Video is showing its well-known Crossover series and Vision line, both of which are “in the sweet spot for college sports,” he adds, but the company is also showing the world’s first 8 M/E and 5 M/E switchers, in the Vision series.

“Colleges would use one of our smaller systems, but we are the leader in sports-venue production,” Romain says. “We have over 100 stadiums in North America that use our production product. We recognize a game-day production is different from a mobile production or newscast, and sports facilities are being pressured to publish to multiple sources, like scoreboards and the Web. That ties up resources quickly with your standard 2 or 3M/E switcher, so we started to sell our 5M/E switchers.”

Stadium productions require plenty of branding power, so Ross can put separate keys on every aux bus and have up to 12 of them.

“That means that you can identify different areas of your stadium and brand them all differently,” Romain says. “That’s unique to us. Everybody else’s solution is to add another external keyer to the downstream of the switcher, but then that requires another operator.”

Ross is also exhibiting its SoftMetal server, which can be used for slow-motion replay. “We’re not an EVS, but we’re not EVS-priced,” Romain he points out. “We use DNF and other third-party controllers, and, for college sports, that’s a better answer.”

More than 100 manufacturers’ products as part of Ross Video’s third-party control system, and, with 27 partners building to its OpenGear standard, customers are able to purchase best of breed.

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