We mentioned CasparCG earlier this year, it’s a free broadcast play-out server that offers a mature and stable featureset rivaling commercial packages costing many thousands of dollars. Recently they also posted a short case study on how CasparCG was used to play live World Cup graphics, and they even made those templates freely available for testing on your own CasparCG server. Very cool, and a great way to test out the tech.

As we’re not always very “broadcast focused” here at FreshDV, we wanted to talk with one of the guys behind CasparCG and get a deeper understanding of this free playout solution and what features it offers. So we did a short Q&A with Jonas Hummelstrand, which you can read below.

Q1: What is a broadcast play out server?

There are mainly two types of standard broadcast graphics; the pre-rendered videos and the real-time dynamic graphics. Videos need to support embedded alpha channel and audio, and should be able to be called up and played instantly without pre-loading. You also want to be able to play several videos at the same time (”loop this clip in the background and put the spinning logo on top”) and have them output as one composite, and do transitions between them.

The harder part is the dynamic graphics as in “Fetch the latest stock prices and display them as an animated chart.” Thanks to Moore’s law we no longer need water-cooled SGI workstations to play real-time graphics — a pretty cheap PC can output HD resolutions. The same paradigm shift is now happening on the software side — you no longer need specialist software to create dynamic content!

Q2: CasparCG has been being freely available for some time now…but as I do not work in the live broadcast industry, I have no real perspective on this. What would a typical play out server solution cost?

No broadcast company has a price list, but you can expect to pay between $10,000 and $80,000 for a single HD system with hardware licenses, and then you might just get either video playback or only dynamic graphics without pre-rendered video capabilities.

Q3: What is the key advantage of CasparCG being Flash based? That seems like an odd tech to build on.

CasparCG currently uses Flash as the authoring tool for the real-time graphics, as it’s a proven platform with millions of skilled users that also freely share their knowledge and templates. Instead of staring at a blank document, you can use the wealth of the Internet as a stepping stone to get you started, and if you get stuck there’s always someone to ask.

Another cool feature is the power that comes from having logic in the renderer. Normally you have a controller that just tells the renderer what to do next, but with the ability to script the renderer you can create graphics that adapt itself to the other items. Let’s say you have a score board at the bottom of the screen, and you decide to show a name sign. Instead of manually removing the scoreboard before you show the name sign, you can easily create logic that tells the score board to automatically move out of the way or hide as long as the other sign is visible.

Q4: How does CasparCG’s approach compare to other proprietary playout server solutions currently on the market?

We play a large number of video codecs and resolutions to a large number of output video cards. The dynamic graphics is created in an ever-evolving platform where millions of users (rather than 200 clients in graphics departments in TV stations) fuel development and innovation. By using standard components for both software and hardware, we get to ride along the speeding train of development, rather than being left at the mercy of a single vendor’s schedule.

Q5: If CasparCG is so good, then why are you releasing it free and opening up the source? Do you intend to keep developing and bug-squashing on the source?

We are a license-funded broadcaster that developed CasparCG in-house to meet our needs. We broadcast over 70 hours of television per day, and each hour of programming is using CasparCG graphics in everything from the station logos and channel branding to lower-thirds and game show graphics. We will continue to develop the CasparCG system so it fits our productions, but we are excited to see what the community can bring in terms of new features that we haven’t even thought of!

Q6: Is CasparCG a turnkey type install, or will users need to dig into the code to make it work? Are there hardware limitations, or is it fairly hardware agnostic?

All you need to get started in 5 minutes are available on www.casparcg.com. It’s important to me as a designer that installers, templates and examples quickly give you a glimpse of what you can do. You shouldn’t have to read a wiki or (oh, the horror) have to compile something to see the potential of CasparCG! The source code is there if you have the skills to modify CasparCG, but if C++ isn’t your thing you can just use the installers and don’t bother with the low-level stuff.

We currently support output to computer monitor (either windowed or fullscreen with OpenGL scaling) and to all the SDI, HD-SDI and HDMI cards from Bluefish Technologies and BlackMagic Design (DeckLink,) starting at $199.

Q7: You state in your FAQ that CasparCG’s capabilities are largely dependent on hardware power. Are there rules of thumb when spec’ing out hardware for a CasparCG system, and do you provide recommendations for users based on a certain framerate or resolution baseline requirement?

We still use machines that we built for the first version of CasparCG back in 2005, and they play and transition between PAL SD videos just fine, so we try to encourage people to try it on older systems! However, our newer systems are all Dell R5400 with 8 processors, 8 GB of RAM and a really fast disk array, coupled with one or several Bluefish Epoch HD cards. The support for the DeckLink cards was just released, so we don’t have any systems like that yet (even though we’re looking forward to test if we can build a stand-alone HD broadcast graphics server in a laptop with their UltraStudio Pro card!)

In summary, the broadcast business is so used to only having expensive and proprietary systems to choose from, that it’s hard to get people to think there are any alternatives to the established players. It’s really a question of just adding 2 and 2 together; you can play fullscreen video and dynamic graphics on any computer nowadays, coupled with really cheap SDI and HDMI output cards. All that is needed is a way of controlling the play out and you’ve got yourself a broadcast graphics solution! CasparCG is that affordable solution.

Thanks to Jonas for making the time for this Q&A. You can learn more about CasparCG at www.casparcg.com

Adam Behr is the voice-over talent that did our NAB 2008 and NAB 2009 Australian-flavor vo, and he’s always been a pleasure to work with. He recently did an interview with Talk-Show.tv on the voiceover industry. There’s a lot of good info for amateurs and professionals alike. You can watch the 22min interview with Adam here. If you are looking for a vo guy who can nail a ton of interesting accents, I recommend Adam highly.

Schneider Optics was at Cine Gear 2010, showing off the new Schneider-Kreuznach Cine-Xenar lens set. It’s a beautiful lens set at a very affordable price point. One quick note that isn’t immediately obvious in our video interview, some of these lenses have a bit of physical casing forward travel as you rack through the focus range, so you’d need to use a mattebox or rig that can accommodate some lens travel.

Schneider-Kreuznach Cine Xenar Lenses at Cine Gear 2010

The upcoming Criterion release of Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” has an interesting featurette on the disc that talks about the Red One camera, and how it was used in production of this film.

You can watch the featurette “Che and the Digital Cinema Revolution” in the video playlist below. I’ve also posted a few thoughts on some of the interview quotes over at PVC.

Che and the Digital Cinema Revolution

Hand Held Hollywood caught up with Cinemek’s Jonathan Houser at DV Expo, and he had some interesting updates on what’s coming in future versions of Hitchcock. Jonathan also spoke to some of the interesting ways new customers are using the iPhone app. Check out the video embedded below.

DV EXPO ‘09 - Interview with Jonathan Houser, Creator of Hitchcock from Hand Held Hollywood on Vimeo.

 Lentequip Production Power Solutions [7:16m]: Download

Lentequip was exhibiting at Cine Gear 2009, and I was very excited to see their power and battery solutions for the Red camera. I’ve complained previously about the frustration of changing batteries on Red shoots, every battery rotation requires a time-wasting reboot, and inevitably needs to happen when everyone else is ready for the camera dept. Lentequip’s unique battery switching solution allows you to attach and switch to fresh batteries on the fly, with no reboot required. It’s a must have product for Red rental packages, in my opinion.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Cmotion Lens and Camera Controls [12:53m]: Download

At Cine Gear 2009, Cmotion gave us a very detailed demonstration of their full-featured camera and lens control systems. Far more than just a remote wireless focus solution, they offer a host of high-end options in a really well-integrated system. There’s even an autofocus solution for manual PL lenses.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Redrock DSLR, LEDZ Lighting, MK-V Stabilizers [6:53m]: Download

At Cine Gear 2009, Redrock’s Brian Valente showed off one of their new DSLR rig updates for cameras like the Canon 5D MK2, a slightly more affordable option called the Eye Spy rig. We also dropped by the LEDZ booth to check out their new Brute 30 LED lighting fixture, a dimmable 400-watt HMI equivalent unit that draws a fraction of the power. MK-V was also at Cine Gear, and we got a demo of their stabilizers, including the unique Revolution unit, whose absolute coolness cannot be explained in words. Just watch.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Matthews Studio Equipment [7:28m]: Download

Matthews Studio Equipment (MSE) was of course exhibiting at Cine Gear 2009, and we dropped by to talk with Ed Phillips about the Red Dolly, the Intel-a-Jib, and their new monitor mount. Watch below. They also have a few self-produced videos on their website that show the Red Dolly and monitor mounts in action, watch them here.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 ScriptE Systems Software for Script Supervisors [4:52m]: Download

ScriptE Systems had a cool product demo’ing at Cine Gear 2009, it’s a screenplay and production integration software package. ScriptE simplifies the process of pre-production by integrating with Final Draft, and eases the Script Supervisor’s job during shooting. It’s a unique software package, and we shot a demo of it on video. Check it out below.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Glue Tools 5D MKII, DPX, and Phantom plugins [7:21m]: Download

At the Glue Tools Cine Gear 2009 booth, Bob Monahan showed us a preview of the forthcoming Log and Transfer plugin for Final Cut Pro that allows simple ingest and seamless transcoding of Canon 5D MKII footage. He also showed off their Phantom camera plugin that enables realtime playback of RAW files from the Phantom high-speed camera in any Quicktime aware application. Finally, he demonstrated their DPX import tool that simplifies importing and using DPX files in FCP. Very cool stuff.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Garrett Brown on Steadicam, Transvideo 3D Monitors, and UniqOptics [7:42m]: Download

At the Steadicam booth at Cine Gear 2009, filmmaking legend Garrett Brown gave us a candid walkthrough of their stabilizer line, from the Clipper to the lightweight Pilot (flying none other than a 5D MKii DSLR). We also dropped by the Transvideo booth to get a demonstration of their unique LCD monitoring solution for 3D filmmaking. And finally, Kenji at UniqOptics gave us an update on their PL lens line.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Griplock Systems Fasteners and 8Ball Camera Slider [3:54m]: Download

Griplock Systems was exhibiting at Cine Gear 2009, we got a look at their unique quick-fasteners for aircraft cable. I can think of all sorts of unique filmmaking and rigging applications these sweet fasteners would be useful for. We also stopped by and took a look at the 8Ball Slider, a heavy-duty camera slider system for large rigs.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Cinemek Hitchcock iPhone Storyboarding App [4:37m]: Download

At Cine Gear 2009, Cinemek was showing off a beta of their new storyboarding software for the iPhone. We got an exclusive video demo of this exciting new app in action, check it out! And keep an eye out for the official release of Hitchcock in the iTunes App Store.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Kessler Crane gear [6:53m]: Download

At Kessler Crane’s booth at Cine Gear 2009, we got a peek at the new Pocket Jib and Pocket Dolly system, an integrated, lightweight package for HD camera systems in the sub-30lb range. Eric Kessler also showed us their coil-able rubber flextrack for their gear as well as for third-party dolly systems. Very cool stuff, allows you to lay down up to a seamless 50′ track relatively painlessly.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.