As an innovative approach to creating the on-air look of a channel, Grass Valley Channel Composer™ is available as a software option that manages the import (from traditional graphics design tools such as Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects) and animation of 2D and 3D graphics, creates animations, and links graphics templates to data sources for real time on-air presentation.

A powerful, fully integrated channel graphics composition and management tool, Channel Composer runs on Windows and Mac platforms and is integrated with the K2 TX/MAM server where templated graphics and a data stream (see Integrate Real-Time Data with RTic) can be defined and then referenced together as "live" integrated elements in the on-air playlist.

Channel Composer is also used to export the complete channel design as a single package (Channel Pack) to the central database and becomes active from a certain date for a specific channel. This package also incorporates all of the design elements imported from third-party design software, so the graphics workflow is completely addressed.

The optional RTic™ real-time information collector can receive data from a broad variety of sources, including XML, databases, or Excel files, which are formatted and sent directly to air using Channel Composer designs. RTic integration can even be put under Cobalt playlist management control. On-air graphics, animations, clips, and text can all be manipulated in real time.

With RTic, dedicated software development and interfacing is unnecessary. Implementations include a rich business ticker playing both stock quotes, pictures, and SMS services where incoming messages trigger not only text but also animations.

Each Smart Playout Center includes Grass Valley's K2 TX/MAM™ media asset management system with a central database. The K2 TX/MAM standard IT server uses a web-based GUI to control all media assets—including video clips, audio clips, captioning, metadata, and graphic elements on discrete playout nodes.

Standard functionality of the K2 TX/MAM media asset management system includes:

• File ingest
• Trim, soft part segments
• Low-res proxy quality control
• Secondary essence management
• Closed-caption/subtitles
• Customizable metadata
• User rights management
• Transmission dashboard
• FTP interface to optional storage solutions

Each Smart Playout Center includes Grass Valley's Cobalt™ playlist management software. The Cobalt playlist management system manages all on-air events, and for increased reliability, runs completely independent from the database.

• Schedules are imported manually or automatically
• Schedule importer links event with formats by rules
• Formats can be added, deleted, replaced manually
• All secondary events created in Channel Composer are visible
• References to database fields and import fields are populated
• Timing of all secondary events are visible
• References and timing can be manually changed
• Multiple channels can be operated at once
• Main and backup are automatically run in sync