Casper CG - Open Source Graphics

[rkolsen 1675]

I'm curious are there any stations in the US or Canada that use Casper CG for their graphics and video playout? CasperCG is an open source piece of software developed by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation (SVT) that can be ran on most computers outputting multiple streams of 1080p video. From what I've read it doesn't do rendering like a VizRT type of box but it can playout multiple codecs simultaneously while having the ability to manipulate said files.

 

SVT has been using this for the graphics and video playout since 2006. I also discovered that during Asia Business Report (A BBC World News program that's not available in the North America) uses Casper CG rather than a VizRT engine for their 15 minute bottom of the hour updates broadcasts. These 15 minute broadcasts are produced in Singapore rather than London which uses the World News studio to tape a segment for their domestic control room. I assume if the show was produced in London they would be using VizRT graphics.

 

This kind of reminds me of the BBC Raven program. The BBC researched,coded and built the Raven. The Raven was designed as a digital tape deck where they can ingest video from other sources (such as tape or satellite) that can be used for editing but the machine is used for general playout during broadcasts and is used to provide the video loop backdrop on their studio sets.

[Weeters 1804]

Caspar uses Adobe Flash templates for things like lower thirds and the only thing it shares in common with VizRT is being completely not user friendly unless you know what you're doing.

 

The type of commercial station Caspar would appeal to would be, like, really really really small markets with not a lot of news. Since you can't integrate it with iNews/ENPS, you'd have to have someone sit down and enter every graphic into the system before the show. A station that has like, three hours of news a day and is light on graphics could do this, but a station that produces 9 hours of news a day with three running back-to-back would not, and they'd probably be able to afford a real CG anyways.

 

It's really popular among PEG stations and production companies, only because they have the time to set it up and, in some cases, program custom software to make it do things. I've seen some cool sports graphics on educational PEG stations powered by CasparCG, operated with a custom control panel that someone at the school district wrote because they knew some computer programming.

 

It works for SVT because they have a bunch of custom software running it. But they won't release that to the public, so it becomes less useful to everyone else.

[rkolsen 1675]

I completely forgot about this thread. Thank you Weeters for the information.

 

I haven't seen the BBC's use of Casper in use until today because it's mainly used during Asia Business Report* which is preempted here in North America. Tonight they aired a recorded info for the program and there was nothing to write home about. The lower third (which was all I saw during the clip) didn't match the current BBC style and the globe that usually appears during business was static.

 

*From what I've heard at tvforum.co.uk is that Asia Business Report is produced in Singapore with limited equipment and the packaged program is sent to London for insertion. Apparently after Newsday there's UK based programming meaning the control can't be used.