OnTheAir Node is Softron's next generation playout and ingest engine for the Mac. It has been designed to be an inexpensive, reliable and customizable video server that has an open client-server architecture. OnTheAir Node can be controlled remotely over the network. One client computer in a control room can control multiple OnTheAir Node playout servers located in the machine room.
With its unequaled openness, OnTheAir Node brings a new era to the world of Mac based playout servers. OnTheAir Node allows third party applications such as Traffic and Media Asset Management solutions to easily take control of a reliable playout server with real-time media cataloging and validation.
OnTheAir Node will launch automatically at start up and will resume operation, even after a power loss. it will run on any Intel based Mac equipped with a video card (AJA ,Blackmagic Design or Matrox) installed in the MacPro, Xserve or MacBook Pro.
OnTheAir Node is coming with the same playout engine as Softron's flagship product OnTheAir Video, so with the same reliability OnTheAir Video has proven over the years. OnTheAir Node will not only output video to any of the available video output on the Mac, and allow it to be controlled remotely, but it will also catalog the available assets in one or more scan folder and it will inform any of the client application (OnTheAir Live or OnTheAir Manager) when a new asset arrives or is deleted. It will also check for validity and compatibility. Information on the clips is provided as XML, making it easy for any other third party application to retrieve the clip's characteristics. (Ex: video codec, audio sample rate, creation date, last modification date, finder label etc.)
OnTheAir Node's open architecture will allow any third party application as Traffic or Media Asset Management software to control the playout and see the list of available media. OnTheAir Node uses Telnet for its communications meaning that the protocol is a proven and open standard that doesn't need any special requirements.
