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CPAC 2015 Canadian Federal Election

Customer: CPAC (Canadian Public Affairs Channel)
Application: Bannister Lake Software – BL Elector
Platform: RossVideo XPression Studio

Printable Version

Bannister Lake delivered a complete Election package for CPAC’s coverage of the 2015 Canadian Federal Election.

  • Project involved initial consultation with CPAC producers, editorial staff and graphics.
  • Producers developed a rundown and playlist structure for pre-production planning and rehearsals. This helped determine the type of graphics required for the telecast.
  • 2D and 3D Graphics were created for Candidates, Ridings, Popular and Historical Vote. New or modified layouts were pushed to the Elector database for Playlist creation.
  • BL Elector Headshot importer streamlined the ingest of Candidate headshots into Elector database.
  • Bannister Lake’s Election simulator application enabled producers and staff to create and save a wide variety of real time Election rehearsal scenarios prior to Election Day.
  • On Election night, the CP Election Reader populated Elector with real time results from Elections Canada.
  • The Producer and Elector Player operator had immediate access to pre-defined Playlists and graphic elements running on 2 separate channels.

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Rogers Cable – Super Sports Pak

Customer: Rogers Cable (York Mills)
Application: Super Sports Pak (SSP) Application
Platform: RossVideo XPression Studio

Printable Version

Bannister Lake provided an automated broadcast display solution to generate league and game schedules for Rogers Cable Super Sports Pak subscription channel lineup on Rogers, Cogeco, Eastlink and Videotron.

  • Main SSP schedule file is updated daily with game schedules for each subscription sports channel.
  • SSP application reads current date on schedule file, then generates a sequence of league games with output channel assignment, service provider and channel number.
  • To ensure proper timing, each page duration is calculated on the default event duration multiplied by the number of records.
  • Preferences to enable and set the display order for each service provider and league.
  • App automatically substitutes Background images for blank (scratches) in the schedule.
  • Drop down dialog to select ‘end of sequence’ Promos images.
  • SSP logs all application activity, sequence generation and output.
  • Schedule switches over to next day at 2 am ET and removes old sequence.

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YAHOO! Sports Fantasy Football

YAHOO! Sports broadcasts a weekly Fantasy Football show reviewing all aspects of the NFL current season.

Printable Version

The show is an interactive show which lets viewers call in, web conference or tweet their comments and opinions on their favorite players and teams. As an interactive show YAHOO needed a solution that could deliver player and team statistics quickly and easily with the most up to date statistics in a reliable fashion.

A customized solution was developed to meet the requirements of Yahoo. The solution incorporated the reading of 3 different data feeds to compile the most up to date statistics possible. Data feeds automatically provide the current injury reports, player and team statistics. Using a client-server workflow the custom graphic application can be run from a laptop on the network to drive the Xpression graphic system. This workflow allows a second operator to use Xpression at the same time for any additional needs such as lower thirds.

Problem: With so much data available the operator is overwhelmed trying to retrieve it fast enough to keep up with a live program.

Solution: By building a custom software application Bannister was able to present all the NFL data in an organized fashion in a single screen. From here the operator can quickly select a player or team and display any or all of the statistics available within seconds.

Problem: Viewers that call into the show are pre-screened so it is known what topics they wish to discuss just before they are on air. During this very short period of time the operator needs to prepare as many statistics as possible which could come out of the callers dialog.

Solution: The application allows the operator to start typing, “man” for example, and it automatically filters the names. Using a ‘;’ separator the operator can quickly type multiple names resulting in a much more condense list of NFL players for that call.

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Rogers Media – The Shopping Channel

Customer: The Shopping Channel
Application: Bannister Lake Macro Application and Still Store
Platform: RossVideo XPression Studio

Printable Version

The Shopping Channel, Canada’s premiere broadcast retail Channel based in Mississauga Ontario worked with Bannister Lake to develop an automated broadcast graphics solution for their broadcast workflow.

  • Bannister Lake Macro Application reads the product inventory database to generate graphics for each one-hour segment.
  • Name Keys, Colors, Sizes, Star Rating and product availability is also generated with each segment.
  • Operators can manually intervene to edit or modify segments and Text content while on air.
  • Recap stills of each segment are captured by the Still Store, then saved to IPV for archive and proof of play.
  • A log file is generated for each take item with Time Stamp, Item number and Product Description
  • The log is encoded into the clean feed for Digital and Web applications.
  • This configuration is mirrored in the Main and Backup Control Rooms for redundancy.

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Cheddar TV

Cheddar TV required a comprehensive Financial Dashboard application to manage and generate all on air graphics for their daily broadcast from the New York Stock Exchange.

Printable Version

  • Dashboard application automatically connects to Xignite Financial data feed.
  • UI provides stock ticker preview and modules to create Bugs, Stock Charts, Bumpers, Name Keys, Lower Thirds and Banners.
  • Quick filters to setup stock chart comparisons, desktop preview of charts then quick add to playlist;
  • Click drag and drop to change items in playlists.
  • Drop Down range menu to select time including, Intraday padded, Intraday, 2 day padded, 5 day, 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, Year to Date padded, 1 > 5 year and user (Custom) ranges.
  • Application supports overnight (after market) generation of content.

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Bell Media – CTV News Channel

Customer: Bell Media – CTV News
Application: Chameleon
Platform: Chameleon and RossVideo XPression

Printable Version

CTV News Channel, CTV’s National 24/7 News Channel, required a refresh on their HD look to display News, Finance, Scores, Weather and Breaking News.

  • Chameleon ingests News, Finance, Scores and Weather data sources into its centralized database.
  • Operators edit content, rundowns and schedules for each zone. 
  • Breaking News Items are triggered automatically without operator intervention.
  • Imagine ADC automation triggers Chameleon Player layout (state) for Commercial Breaks and special segments.
  • To ensure output and on air reliability, Chameleon Player uses a combination of Timecode, GPI, Serial (Sercom) and IP triggers.
  • Automatic replication of Main and Backup Chameleon Servers are connected to mirrored XPression BlueBox systems for fail over and redundancy.
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Global News – 2011 and 2014 Ontario Provincial Election

Global News required a comprehensive, dynamic ‘real-time’ election package to manage their Election results and on air output for the 2011 and 2014 Ontario Provincial Elections. Bannister Lake Elector on RossVideo’s XPression BlueBox provided Global News with a superior level of editorial and graphic control for their entire election telecast.

Printable Version

  • Easy and reliable support for Election Consortium Feed with full support for automated and manually entered results.
  • Flow, BL Elector’s web based content management dashboard, provided a centralized hub for dozens of talent, producers and political analysts to the “real time” election data. Data included, Charts, candidate and riding context, ‘what-if’ scenarios and alerts that assisted in highlighting close and interesting races.
  • Playlist building from within Flow allowed workload to be offloaded from the on-air operator with the result being a dynamic and exciting telecast.
  • Elector’s standardized graphics specification allowed unlimited graphic design freedom without programming modifications.
  • Flow’s candidate management module allowed easy addition of candidate head shots for on air broadcast.
  • Elector Player output to multiple HD channels using RossVideo XPression BlueBox.

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GlobalNews / ShawMedia – BL Super Ticker

Global News required a comprehensive, dynamic News ticker package to manage display of news, weather, sports and traffic information for their 4 production centers in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. Bannister Lake provided Super Ticker, a enterprise broadcast branding solution that integrated seamlessly with their existing XPression MOS workflow.

Printable Version

  • Easy and reliable support for Weather, Sports, Traffic, Business and News data with full support for automated data feeds and manually entered data.
  • Flow for Super Ticker is a web based content management dashboard that provides a centralized hub for dozens of producers to access content for their programs.
  • Building of show rundown within Flow allows this task to be offloaded from the on-air operator.
  • Supports streamlined work flow from graphic design through to content scheduling and facilitates any required last minute boards or tickers.
  • Supports streamlined work flow from graphic design to content scheduling and last minute boards or tickers.
  • Super Ticker Player outputs to multiple HD channels using RossVideo XPression BlueBox.
  • New Ticker Player channels can be added without affecting existing Ticker Players.

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Chameleon and CTV CanadaAM

2010 CTV Canada AM was looking for a ticker solution to display weather, traffic, finance, scores and news. Chameleon was used as the solution. 

  • Each station manages local news, sports and weather content.
  • Content administration of 7 channels are managed by CTV Agincourt.

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BL Elector – 2011 and 2014 Ontario Provincial Election

TVO required a comprehensive ‘real-time’ turnkey election package to manage their Election results for the Agenda’s coverage of the 2011 and 2014 Ontario Provincial Elections. Bannister Lake Elector on RossVideo’s XPression BlueBox provided TVO with a superior level of editorial and graphic control for their entire election telecast.

Printable Version

  • Reliable connection to Consortium Feed with full support for automated and manually entered results.
  • Flow, BL Elector’s web based content management dashboard, provided a centralized hub for TVO talent, producers and political analysts to the “real time” election data. Data included, candidate and riding context, scenarios and alerts that assisted in highlighting close and tight races.
  • Elector’s standardized graphics specification allowed TVO unlimited graphic design freedom without programming modifications.
  • Flow’s candidate management module allowed easy addition of candidate head shots for on air broadcast.
  • Main and Backup Elector Players output to 2 Channel RossVideo XPression BlueBox.