Stream Labs has updated several of its main products recently, including the release of VPlay5, which adds new functionality to its multichannel broadcast playout server for UHD channels.

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Stream Labs: The VPlay multichannel broadcast playout server in action

VPlay5 now supports operating with files and external sources in HDR formats, has added audio channel mapping for MXF files, allows adaptive compression of animated graphic elements of a design, and offers new functionality for operating with live sources.

These include: input signal reservation and automatic replacement of external sources; the ability to receive and form SRT streams with encryption; improved handling of unstable IP streams; the ability to receive and decode subtitles in OP-42/47 format; and new functionality for operating with subtitles, such as a built-in character display speed check for the subtitle editor.   

VPlay5 also has new Nvidia drivers supporting up to three-stream encoding on GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GPUs and higher, instead of the previous two. 

Also new is version 3.7 of Stream MultiRec, its compliance monitoring system, which now implements Teletext and subtitles support alongside increased system performance and better fault tolerance.

It offers new hardware encoding that greatly expands the capabilities of users’ current hardware through the use of GPU encoding, while the implementation of a common database on a central server should make backing up recording servers simpler.

Also simplified is introducing a delay for synchronising differing recording sources in the archive, using the new Time Delay functionality, which allows users to reproduce all signals from the archive on a mosaic with frame-by-frame accuracy.

New functions include: recording to the archive with a fixed delay; recording and viewing DVB teletext (separately or overlay); recording and viewing closed captions; record multiple audio tracks; listening to individual audio channels; and hardware encoding.

Stream Labs has also released version 5.8 of its MultiScreen visual and instrumental monitoring system. Updated features include: NDI support for mosaic screen streaming; Telegram messenger support for smartphone notifications; Blackmagic/DeckLink cards support; and Mellanox Rivermax cards support.

For use in studio and broadcaster environments, the system also supports: Quad-link 3G-SDI, 12G-SDI UHD signals; SMPTE ST 2022-6 signal monitoring for IP interfaces; ANC decoding in SDI signals for monitoring SCTE-104 tags, OP-42/47 subtitles; and display of OP-42/47 subtitles using a customisable template, which allows users to place information in any part of the visualisation window.

New features for telecom operators and broadcast signal monitoring include: support for monitoring DVB-T2 T2-MI modulator interface streams using ASI and IP interfaces; built-in software module without using external software; integration with Nevion’s TNS4200 analyser, including the ability to display technical parameters received by it in the monitoring window and generate corresponding alarms or notifications.