Great new features in Cablecast 5..0

Cablecast 5.2.0 is just around the corner. I'm very happy to finally share details on all of the great new features.

Completely redesigned VOD

We totally redesigned VOD from the ground up. The new VOD implementation is designed to be easier to setup, use, troubleshoot, and provide a better product for your viewers. VOD now supports all of codecs that the SX servers support. It now supports multi-reel shows, and obeys the Cue and Length fields from the show record too. We transcode everything to h.264 with AAC audio, so all major browsers, both desktop and mobile can play VOD files. We are very excited about the user-interface updates for VOD as well. Users will now be able to see exactly what is transcoding, with real-time status too.

The Cablecast Video On Demand interface

Redesigned Digital File Management

The Digital File Management system now looks and works just like the new Video On Demand system. This will make it much easier to locate the digital file you are looking for.

Show Record updates

We needed to update the show record because of all of the VOD changes. The new show record is much faster, and provides some nice new features as well. For example, the drop-down lists of projects, producers and categories now have a handy search function. You can just type the first few letters, and it will filter the list accordingly.

RESTful API

The new API gives developers another way to interact with Cablecast. We are using this API for all of the VOD and Show record features in Cablecast. The Cablecast SOAP Web Service is still available as well.

VDCP servers support back-to-back playback

The VDCPCM now supports true back-to-back playback. Autopilot was updated to take advantage of this as well. Also, VDCPCM now supports directly cuing into the file, a much appreciated feature for any VDCP server owners.

Automatic database backups to the cloud

Every now and again, we have a customer who suffers a catastrophic system failure. We do our best to outline best practices for database backup procedures, but sometimes a backup isn't available. So, we added a great new feature that will automatically backup your Cablecast database to the cloud every few days. This isn't a replacement for backing up your own database, think of it as a last line of defense. Of course, you can opt-out of this feature if you prefer to take your chances.

Control Module Hosts screen shows software versions

Just a little feature to make troubleshooting easier. You can now tell at a glance if all of your machines are running the latest software.

SX Configuration application now shows genlock status

Another quick feature to simplify troubleshooting. It's now easy to tell if your server is properly genlocked.

Unified Installer

We wanted to simplify the software update process. Currently, there are two installers for Cablecast. One called Cablecast , which includes the Cablecast web interface, as well as the Cablecast Control Modules software. The second installer only installs the Cablecast Control Modules. We combined these into a single installer, which will automatically detect if the Cablecast web interface should be installed or not. This makes one less file to download, and one less potential gotcha when updating your system.

LINK:	http://www.trms.com/blog/2013/09/great-new-features-in-cablecast-5-2-0...
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