Touts broadcasters' interest in online graphics system

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/22/2009

Las Vegas -- Graphics supplier Chyron unveiled at NAB several improvements to its Axis online graphics system, which lets stations create graphics using templates that are fed through the Internet by Chyron-managed servers.

The Axis system has already been employed by Gannett Broadcasting to streamline its graphics operations and reduce headcount, and Chyron CEO Michael Wellesley-Wesley says the system is receiving "an enormous amount of interest from networks and station groups," though he didn't have any new installations to report.

Wellesley-Wesley says that Axis is emblematic of a larger technology shift that broadcasters need to make, from a "fixed-cost model to a low-cost, variable cost model" that lets stations scale their technology by using online-based services in a new architecture Chyron calls "distributed centralization." He notes that new-media entrants who are competing with broadcasters are already employing such a model.

In that vein, Chyron this summer will release a new version of Axis with "track and order," a library and order management solution designed to organize and manage media across a hub-and-spoke architecture. The company has also created the "Axis Cloud" development platform, in which third-party developers will be able to integrate directly with the "Track and Order" system to offer more services through Chyron's servers.

Companies such as Maximum Throughput, Atex Polopoly, Asseto, Forbidden Technologies and Txtstation have agreed to use Chyron's APIs (Application Program Interfaces) to offer new services such as craft and web-based editing; content management system integration; file conversion and distribution management; and direct integration with user-generated content through voting and interaction.

"We're constantly adding partners to bring more content into the whole environment," says Chyron COO Kevin Prince.

Updates to existing Axis services include the addition of Microsoft Virtual Earth satellite imagery integrated with maps, and new management reporting tools that show how stations and personnel are using the Axis system.

According to Prince, such process analysis tools are essential when stations shift from the traditional model, where they could look over a graphic artist's shoulder to check in on the production process, to a distributed model where graphics are being fulfilled remotely through the Web at multiple locations.

"We can provide a lot of media management tools that used to be intrinsic by just walking around," says Prince. "Once you go into distributed centralization, it becomes very important."