EVS’s new IPD-VIA Create platform integrates Blackbird into the EVS workflow and could revolutionise the way live sports content is edited
Last week, EVS announced the launch of a web-based editing application, IPD-VIA Create. What lies behind its fairly uninspiring name is a development that has the potential to have a huge impact on the way live sports content is edited, packaged and distributed.
IPD-VIA Create features a bespoke version of the browser-based video editing package Blackbird. It integrates into EVS’s workflow, providing a fully-featured non-linear editor inside the browser, for use from ingest to playout.
Its features include a 9x16 video framing effect, colour correction, and the choice between Thumbnail and Timeline displays. This makes it possible for journalists and producers to begin drafting the first cut of their stories in Thumbnail display before it is passed onto more experienced editors to refine in Timeline view.
The functionality of the system is centred on the edit-while-capture concept, enabling users to begin working on editing projects while feeds are still being recorded and ingested.
Broadcast Sport spoke to Blackbird CEO Ian McDonough about what he believes is the significance of the company’s partnership with EVS.
Ian McDonough on how Blackbird is taking on traditional NLEs
We’ve created this incredible piece of software together. We think it’s going to be transformational for the industry in the way live sports, news and entertainment is going to be produced in the future. It’s going to be a real gamechanger.
What we’ve done is create a seamless workflow that allows for the edit-while-capture approach. It really enhances performance and speed, and provides efficiencies around costs and carbon. It’s not just cloud either. We’re known as a cloud company and EVS is known as a hardware company, and most of EVS’s installer base is on-prem, so this is an on-prem solution to begin with.
There’s a cloud-ready component too, so there’s no restrictions on how far and wide this can be rolled out.
It’s HTML5, so is browser-based – as those companies move to the cloud, this is a cloud-ready solution. I think everyone knows how much we can do in a browser – we can put an effective full editing suite in a browser, which is far more than the browser was really built for doing. The way the team here have done it is extraordinary.
EVS had a simple clipping tool called Clean Edit, and this replaces that. But it will also replace the need for downloading content and uploading it to a traditional NLE. So, it will negate the need for those systems within these workflows.
It’s a seamless experience from the end user perspective - it will look EVS but it will be known that it’s powered by Blackbird.
EVS will be bringing the editor onto the EVS platform. They’ll be taking them from traditional NLEs and bringing them on the platform, so they have the opportunity to up-sell to their currect customer base, and grow market share from their rivals that don’t have this product. The functionality of this product is unique and so they will be able to win customers from NLEs to gain market share.
We want to make Blackbird the standard around the industry. We believe we’ve got the best technology for editing functionality, speed, efficiencies and this is a great step forward in making this a standard.
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