Customer: RFD-TV
Application: Chameleon and Custom Development
Platform: Broadcast
RFD-TV and Barchart Data Integration
Broadcast Graphics Expert Phil Carmichael to Host Bannister Lake Real-Time Data Webinar
Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today that industry expert Phil Carmichael will host a 30-minute product education webinar that will specifically look at various methods to integrate real-time data into graphics engines. The webinar will explore how Bannister Lake’s Chameleon plays an important role to streamline real-time data workflows and open new visualization possibilities for broadcast graphics professionals. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, July 22 at 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific.
Phil Carmichael is a recognized industry authority on the broadcast graphics production and workflow process. He is a former graphic designer and operator for the CBC who was actively involved in sports production. He is also a former pre-sales specialist for ChyronHego.
Broadcasters turn to Chameleon to provide a complete, stand alone, real-time data solution that covers all their requirements including news, sports, financial, elections, traffic and more. The same solution provides a comprehensive on-air branding solution which includes bugs, snipes, promos and coming up boards. As the industry struggles with identifying new revenue opportunities, Chameleon provides new distribution outlets for real-time data including OTT, digital signage, information channels, special events and online. With elections only a few months away, Chameleon provides an easy to use election system alternative to integrate results directly into graphics engines, HTML5 or NDI.
“Real-time data has always kept audiences engaged but aggregating and managing that data and integrating it into graphics engines has often been challenging. Chameleon streamlines that entire process and provides a new approach to data-driven graphics”, said Phil Carmichael.
The webinar will explore the various content types Chameleon works with and how they integrate into today’s most popular graphics engines. As a platform agnostic solution, Chameleon can be used by any broadcaster or by producers working online. Carmichael will demonstrate how Chameleon powers real-time tickers, and full frame graphics incorporating up-to-the-second news and information content.
Real-time data provides producers, engineers, and management working in broadcast, and streaming media with unprecedented ways to tell stories, leverage automation, and expand their reach. Please join Phil Carmichael and Bannister Lake to learn more about these exciting opportunities. To register for the webinar please visit https://bannisterlake.com/webinar-registration/
Bannister Lake Announces Partnership with Traffic Camera Data and Service Provider Vizzion
Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today it has entered into a partnership with Vancouver-based traffic camera data aggregator, Vizzion. Vizzion is an industry-leading traffic camera data service featuring over 64,000 traffic cameras in 43 countries. Working with over 200 national and regional camera partners in more than 600 markets, Vizzion provides visual verification of traffic flow, traffic incidents, and weather-related road conditions. Through an exclusive partnership with one of North America’s largest internet-connected dashcam companies, Vizzion also supplies imagery from on-vehicle cameras across North America.
Bannister Lake has developed and implemented a data parser for Vizzion data that incorporates traffic camera feeds and mapping into its industry-leading Chameleon data aggregation and management solution. Using Chameleon, clients will be able to strategically isolate specific Vizzion camera feeds and add them to their on-air displays. Clients can also leverage Chameleon’s BLADE RESTful API to strategically distribute traffic cameras to a variety of endpoints including online, mobile, OTT, and web widgets.
Vizzion’s traffic camera content compliments Bannister Lake’s already existing real-time transit data feeds, creating a valuable transportation information solution for viewers. Chameleon clients can create and distribute a wide range of regional, local, and hyper-local information services by combining transportation information with editorial content such as local news, school closings and events calendars.
“Real-time traffic is an important content source and having access to Vizzion’s vast database of camera sources promotes a valuable editorial and business opportunity for Chameleon clients. We look forward to working with Vizzion as they continue to develop their products and services”, said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake.
“Bannister Lake’s Chameleon solution provides an innovative way to extend Vizzion’s reach to different platforms. The addition of our traffic camera database to Bannister Lake’s data sources will provide Chameleon users working in both broadcast and digital signage with a great way to connect with audiences and advertisers”, said Sean Beaudoin, Account Manager, Vizzion.
Bannister Lake is committed to creating software solutions that fully leverage real-time data. By fully utilizing its expertise in development, databases, APIs and applications, Bannister Lake creates solutions that engage audiences, attract advertising revenue and leverage automation.
Bannister Lake to Present Webinar Focusing on Streaming and Real-Time Data Aggregation and Management
Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today that it will be host a 30-minute product education webinar that will specifically look at real-time data and streaming. The webinar will take place on Tuesday, June 30 at 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific. The webinar will examine Chameleon’s unique capabilities and how they apply to the ever-expanding world of streaming media.
Chameleon is a multi-module, web-based, real-time data management solution, popular in the broadcast, OTT, and signage sectors. As more and more broadcasters, content and event producers, venue managers and digital signage operators turn to streaming, the integration of real-time data has become a critical editorial component. Bannister Lake has developed a number of specific solutions that support HTML5, NDI and compliment Tricaster, OBS and Vmix workflows.
Webinar attendees will learn how Chameleon powers real-time tickers, full frame graphics, and branding elements for streaming applications incorporating up-to-the-second news and information content. To illustrate this, the webinar will examine a recent use case where Chameleon powers real-time graphic insertion into multiple OTT news channels simultaneously.
Chameleon creates exciting new opportunities for streaming including the production of election coverage. Chameleon’s powerful election results capabilities allows web-based media organizations to track and analyze incoming results, and produce spectacular graphics populated with real-time data. The product’s RESTful API allows data to be redistributed to
social media channels, mobile applications, webpages or to on-set displays. Chameleon can also power fully automated streamed information channels containing news headlines, weather, financial data, emergency alerts and more.
Real-time data provides producers, engineers, and management working in streaming media with unprecedented ways to tell stories, leverage automation, and expand their reach. Please join Bannister Lake to learn more about these exciting opportunities. To register for the webinar please visit https://bannisterlake.com/webinar-registration/
Bannister Lake to Be Represented by US-Based Sales Organization, Media Technology Group
Bannister Lake announced today that the company has entered into a nonexclusive representation agreement with Akron, Ohio-based broadcast sales organization Media Technology Group (MTG). MTG will showcase Bannister Lake’s Chameleon product to the broadcast industry and participate in co-marketing ventures.
Chameleon is an industry-leading software solution used to manage real-time data and populate graphic templates for news tickers, election results, financial data, wagering, and other applications. The same product also drives on-air branding by leveraging real-time data to power snipes, bugs, promos, and “coming up next” boards. Chameleon’s RESTful API allows data to be reformatted and strategically distributed to broadcast graphic engines, HTML5, online, and mobile applications.
“We are thrilled to be working with Bannister Lake,” said Rich Hajdu, president of Media Technology Group. “We recognize the broadcast and media industries’ demand for real-time content. Bannister Lake provides a solution that not only makes it easy for video users to leverage real-time data for news and information channels, but also provides broadcasters with a path to new revenues that is extremely attractive.”
MTG is a full-service sales and support organization targeting video and media users in multiple areas including broadcast, corporate, government, education, and houses of worship. MTG specializes in providing innovative products that elegantly solve specific workflow and production problems. The company selects products from the best global partners with a common theme: rock-solid software, intuitive operation, and powerful features that streamline repetitive tasks. MTG products are to bring high performance and reliability to top-tier facilities.
“Media Technology Group offers us an additional way to get our innovative products and services in front of decision-makers. Their industry knowledge and product experience are unparalleled, and we look forward to working together,” said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake.
As the news cycle continues to accelerate and audiences rely heavily on vital news and information content, real-time data has become an essential part of the editorial mix. Chameleon leverages real-time data to enhance storytelling, improve production workflows, and create exciting new business opportunities in broadcast, streaming, and digital signage.
For more information about the Media Technology Group, please visit https://mediatgrp.com .
More information about Bannister Lake’s solutions is available at www.bannisterlake.com.
Bannister Lake to Launch Webinar Series Focusing on Its Chameleon Real-Time Data Aggregation and Management Solution
Bannister Lake is pleased to announce today that it will be presenting a series of casual, 30-minute Chameleon product education webinars over a three-week period beginning on Tuesday, May 5, 2020. Each Tuesday at 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific, Bannister Lake will showcase Chameleon’s unique feature set directed at broadcast, web, and digital signage professionals.
Chameleon is a multi-module, web-based, real-time data management solution popular in the broadcast, OTT, and signage sectors. It is used to create custom news tickers, launch automated information channels, track and visualize election results, manage snipes and branding elements, and much more.
The product also includes Chameleon Designer, a powerful template design and data connection tool. Chameleon Designer serves as a unique, single solution to build projects that can be simultaneously used on NDI, SDI, or web platforms.
The first webinar, kicking off on May 5, will focus on tickers and introduce Chameleon’s data ingestion workflow, content management features, and integration of sponsorships. The session is designed for news producers, station management, as well as engineers looking to integrate more timely news content into their programming while generating new revenue opportunities.
The second webinar, on Tuesday May 12, will center on Chameleon’s enhanced election production capabilities. The webinar will discuss the product’s ability to ingest real-time election results and provide election producers with the ability to track and filter results, make race calls, and quickly create graphic playlists for air. There will also be a look at the product’s RESTful API, where users can distribute customized election data to various devices and endpoints, including mobile devices, websites, augmented reality systems, and social media.
The third webinar, being held on Tuesday May 19, will feature Chameleon’s on-air branding capabilities. This session will explore how the product is used for managing and scheduling promotional snipes, bugs, and full-frame “coming up” billboards. The webinar will also include information about automation, asset management, and advertising campaigns.
“With the cancellation of NAB and the public, now more than ever, depending on news and information that is constantly being updated, we felt that reaching out directly through these focused webinars was important,” said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake. “This is a great opportunity to learn more about Chameleon and how it can best serve audiences.”
Real-time data provides producers, engineers, and management with unprecedented ways to tell stories, leverage automation, and expand reach into new platforms. Please join Bannister Lake to learn more about these exciting opportunities.
To register for any or all of these webinars please visit https://bannisterlake.com/webinar-registration.
Webinar Schedule:
Tuesday, May 5, at 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific: Chameleon Tickers
Tuesday, May 12, 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific: Chameleon Elections
Tuesday, May 19, 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific: Chameleon Branding
Bannister Lake’s Chameleon Powers Real-Time Data for Global News OTT Channels
Bannister Lake announced today that its Chameleon real-time data management product is being used to support the Global Television Network’s new OTT initiatives. Chameleon is used to control and customize a variety of news, weather, and financial data feeds as well as to manage advertising and promotional content. Global News has launched one national and four regional OTT streams providing viewers with live, 24/7 news and information.
Bannister Lake provided Global Television with a suite of software products, including its Chameleon Web Player, that renders national and localized ticker content for each channel. Also included is the Chameleon Branding Player that displays ads for each channel while generating as-run logs. The project represents revolutionary new approaches that are more efficient and cost-effective when rendering HTML5 graphics for overlay in streams. Instead of rendering graphics using traditional graphic engines, costing tens of thousands of dollars, rendering is performed by inexpensive Raspberry Pi 4 computers.
The Global Television Network is a long-time client of Bannister Lake and uses Chameleon in a wide variety of ways to extend its editorial and business reach. The product is used daily to control and populate data-driven graphics for local morning shows and as an aggregator and distributor of news content for the network’s digital signage initiatives. Bannister Lake also provides Global with an industry-leading election solution that allows producers to track real-time results, make race calls, build graphic playlists, and distribute custom election data to any endpoint.
“Having Bannister Lake contribute to our OTT project just made sense,” said Gerry Belec, national director, news technology and operations, Global News. “The Chameleon product has the flexibility and reliability we required to add real-time data to our streaming news channels.”
Bannister Lake’s Chameleon product is used extensively throughout the broadcast television market and is used by a handful of American OTT clients. The recent work with Global Television represents the company’s first move into the Canadian streaming sector.
“We’re always excited to work with Global and explore new ways our solutions can be used to reach Canadians,” said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake. “Moving into Canadian OTT represents an important new market opportunity as the media landscape continues to evolve.”
Global Television’s OTT news channels are available through the network’s Global TV app and are currently available on Amazon Prime.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (Toronto)
Customer: Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (Toronto)
Application: Chameleon
Platform: Digital Signage
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) is a world leader in delivering extraordinary moments to fans. As the owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs (NHL), the Toronto Raptors (NBA), and Scotiabank Arena, MLSE is constantly creating ways to enhance the in-venue experience for guests and exploring improvements to how they navigate and interact with the arena.
Real-time data plays an integral role in delivering content that adds a deeper and more entertaining experience. However, the capabilities of standard methods for delivering visual and data content within venues were limited, and simply couldn’t meet the demands of patrons and advertisers. MLSE understood that advertising and sponsor-related content would have a more significant impact on patrons if real-time, game-relevant, insightful data could be tied to the presentation.
To execute on this strategy, MLSE turned to Bannister Lake’s Chameleon data aggregation and management solution to ingest real-time statistical data from both the NHL and the NBA. Guests watching a game from the venue’s VIP suites would be able to glance over at the suite’s video displays to view carefully parsed, real-time game and league statistics combined with live game action. MLSE uses Chameleon to select, parse, and present the data as HTML5 webpages. Through their in-house digital signage system, MLSE can seamlessly present these webpages to their choice of hundreds of screens and present data content as overlays or regions on-screen and add complimentary sponsorship or advertising content. The process is completely streamlined, taking only seconds to set up and publish live game data to all the facility’s suites.
A significant challenge was building a lightweight L-Bar that was visually attractive and could accommodate all the significant game and league statistics fans expected. Using Chameleon’s Designer tool, MLSE staff created an HTML5 webpage to accommodate the data presentation but also used the tool’s sophisticated x/y/z grid capabilities to guarantee correct on-screen placement.
Using Bannister Lake solutions, MLSE has extended the use of real-time data to various locations within their facility. With Chameleon, MLSE staff can compare statistics between players and put those graphics on-screen extremely quickly. MLSE has also introduced an innovative data application displaying live prize pool numbers (read and managed by Chameleon) for their 50/50 draw. The solution allows patrons to scan a bar code to purchase a ticket directly from their phone.
The response from guests attending events at Scotiabank Arena has been unanimously positive. Fans can quickly glance at game statistics, compare performances, track players, and gain a more comprehensive understanding of the game. This serves as a value-add to their overall game experience and enhances guests’ time at the venue.
MLSE continues to explore ways to expand the reach and creative storytelling possibilities of data, while advancing new Chameleon-based business opportunities.
Bannister Lake To Provide Covid-19 Data Through Its Community Aggregation Service
Bannister Lake announced today that as a public service offering, it is making authoritative COVID-19 data available to its customers via its built-in Community data aggregation service. Community collects data from credible public sources such as the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins and ingests it directly into Bannister Lake’s Chameleon data aggregation and management solution. In addition, the company has developed a world map-based web widget populated with the same COVID-19 data illustrating the extent of the outbreak. Recognizing that as the virus spreads, reliable data is essential for audiences to understand the rapidly changing situation and to respond accordingly, Bannister Lake is making the data and widget available as a public service.
“At a time like this, real-time data from trustworthy sources is the only way audiences can keep up with news about the global pandemic,” said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake. “We understand the vital role media organizations play at this time. We want to do our part by supporting their communications efforts with immediate availability of our data and widgets free of charge.”
Within Chameleon, users can manage and integrate local, national and international news, closings, alerts, financial data and other topical content to create a complete view of the COVID-19 situation. This content can then be outputted as tickers, L-Bars, data-populated graphics or fully automated information channels. Chameleon’s RESTful API can be used to strategically distribute data to different broadcast graphic engines, digital signage systems, or as HTML5 for online and mobile distribution.
Media organizations can further query and edit COVID-19 related data to create a variety of custom visualizations including geographically focused datasets, charts, tables, and indicators. Users can schedule the playback of specific data to target particular markets or platforms with data content that may be especially important to that audience. Bannister Lake will continue to develop data parsers incorporating data from reliable sources to ensure that media organizations and their audiences have access to the most up-to-date and accurate content. Customers interested in integrating the data or requiring technical support can email info@bannisterlake.com.
Bannister Lake Introduces Major Enhancements to Its Chameleon Election Module for the 2020 Election Cycle
Bannister Lake announced today that its industry-leading data aggregation and management product, Chameleon, will now include additional election-specific capabilities. The new enhancements will allow broadcasters, station groups, streaming news services, and online media companies to launch election coverage with full editorial, data, and graphics support. Sophisticated election systems have historically been custom built by network news departments and are out of reach for many media companies. Bannister Lake’s Chameleon election solution provides any media outlet with the ability to professionally cover elections and ingest automated AP Elections or Decision Desk HQ data or enter results manually.
The new election module features customizable race tracking and filtering functionality, allowing producers to focus on specific races of interest. Editorial teams can use Chameleon to follow races based on star candidates, close results, geography, or other criteria. Producers can also create pre-built collections of races to have them readily available for air. As a web-based system, Chameleon can support an unlimited number of users, allowing producers and reporting teams to have access to results and functionality from anywhere.
Within the election module, producers can quickly create graphic playlists populated with real-time results based on the races they are following and display them immediately. Chameleon also allows production teams to add candidate headshots, customize the UI to zero-in on specific races or groups of races, and switch to manual results should the data feeds be interrupted.
“Elections are all about getting results on air quickly and accurately,” said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake. “The new Chameleon election module will ensure that any broadcaster or media company can win over audiences, on any platform, with great data-driven graphics and analysis.”
In addition to managing graphics for broadcast, election producers can leverage Chameleon’s API to distribute results data to a wide variety of graphic engines including NDI, SDI, and HTML 5. Subsets of data can be strategically distributed to on-set touchscreens, augmented reality systems, web widgets, or mobile applications. This important feature allows clients to extend election coverage to social media, websites, and interactive applications.
Be sure to visit Bannister Lake at the 2020 NAB Show, Booth SL4711.