- Remove the need for tapes and VTRs, improving the flexibility and efficiency of your business.
- Reduce maintenance costs by avoiding wear and tear on your VTR equipment.
- Reduce inventory and physical storage costs by reducing your reliance on tape stock.
- Handle standard definition (SD) and high definition (HD) in one go, effectively doing the work of two VTRs.
- Switch between 525, 625, 720/1080 HD and 23, 24, 25, 29, 50 and 60 frames per second in a single mouse click, saving you time in having to reboot your HD VTRs to change the rates between different video standards.
- Extend video beyond two hours with dozens of hours of continuous local storage space and even more when bridged to network-attached storage (NAS) or a storage area network (SAN), so you can be as flexible as you like in the way you store and deliver content.
- Easily record live satellite feeds direct to disk with standard definition and high definition serial digital interface (SDI) ingest and pre-compressed asynchronous serial interface (ASI) MPEG-2 ingest.
- Switch easily between tapes and files with a system that bridges your video and IT infrastructures and allows you to improve your workflows with seamless conversion and SDI video, giving you a much more efficient and cost-effective operation.
Earn more by discarding your VTR
Use AmberFin’s iCR Virtual VTR to cut costs and improve workflows
Benefits at a glance:
With productivity and cost savings as important as ever, is using a video tape recorder (VTR) the right approach today? There are clearly good reasons why the VTR has been a mainstay of the film, broadcast and video content industries for years.
It is a familiar piece of equipment which is simple to use and rarely leads to errors. The problem is that it doesn’t exactly improve the efficiency of your operations.
However, if you are still relying on VTRs for temporary content storage, repeated play, recording live feeds, viewing, sound editing, dubbing or as a source for linear editing, we may have some good news for you.
You can now have a system that is just as easy and error-free to use as a traditional VTR, but which doesn’t create the same bottlenecks: AmberFin’s iCR Virtual VTR.
A more efficient way to handle content
iCR Virtual VTR is a self-contained VTR-like recording, storage and playback system incorporating the necessary tools to work seamlessly in a traditional VTR environment and bridge video and IT infrastructures. Features include:
- High definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) capabilities in a single device with multi-format frame-accurate recording and playback.
- Up to 16 channels of audio including support for Dolby D.
- Native support of Panasonic DVCPRO P2 and Sony XDCAM formats in Material eXchange Format (MXF) and QuickTime, ready for editing.
- Multiple hours of local storage.
- Direct operation over storage area networks (SAN) or network-attached storage (NAS).
- Control from any Sony-compatible edit controller or through an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI).
Drop-in VTR replacement
When used in VTR emulation mode, iCR Virtual VTR brings the benefits of random access to your content thanks to its disk-based operation. This includes instant recording without the worry of erasing something valuable or of potential tape drop-outs.
In addition, iCR Virtual VTR provides smooth and frame-accurate control of playback, with looping, non-linear jogging, seeking and programmable shuttle speeds.
The system also provides advanced features you’d expect from a conventional VTR, including live time code overlays during preview and programmable auto-edit offsets to compensate for external delays.
Ways you can integrate an iCR Virtual VTR into your workflow include:
- Use in your machine room for dubs and copies.
- Record live satellite and contribution feeds.
- Input and output content directly for non-linear editing (NLE) and production systems.
- Use with linear editing systems as source or recorder.
- Record live shows straight from a camera.
- Use for reviewing or sound editing.
Much more than a VTR offers
iCR Virtual VTR offers much more than a conventional VTR would. It gives you a number of unique options that really make it stand out from the crowd.
As an example, iCR Virtual VTR can directly ingest pre-encoded Asynchronous Serial Interface (ASI) satellite or contribution feeds without any generation loss by directly capturing the pre-compressed signal and making it available as a video file for playback and review, allowing you to save precious time in live breaking events.
iCR Virtual VTR also supports the Harris Video Disk Control Protocol (VDCP), which allows it to perform operations under an automation system that you wouldn’t dream of doing with a conventional VTR.
In this mode, clips can be named, deleted and organized through powerful library browsing tools.
When equipped with quality control (QC) capabilities, iCR can also automatically assess video as it is being encoded, guaranteeing that what you have on disk meets your technical expectations.
iCR then automatically produces a QC report that can be used as a pedigree for the files you have encoded and added to your asset management or business systems.
iCR is also IT-aware, ensuring that you take your workflows to a new level by, for example, triggering actions such as producing proxies in real-time and sending notification e-mails to contributors while recording, or automatically uploading copies of content to the web or another system or location.
Virtual VTR - Traditional Workflow
Virtual VTR - Improved iCR Workflow