OTTAWA—In the early stages of the nearly 18-month pandemic, Ross began trialing a new browser-based remote production platform. Today the company formally launched its new platform as Interstellar.
Ross touts Interstellar as “a complete remote production platform” that enables content creators to blend their traditional working methods and onsite personnel with remote talent and contributors and says it developed Interstellar based on extensive discussion and demos with key Ross customers.
The heart of the platform is the Interstellar Streaming Gateway, a 1RU hardware solution that provides connectivity between SDI and WebRTC transports. Once configured, the Streaming Gateway is fully controlled by the Interstellar UI making it simple to use. Supporting 720i, 1080i and 1080p, the Streaming Gateway can receive and decode four WebRTC streams, sending these out over SDI and then receiving and distributing one incoming SDI stream to the four contributors. The hardware can manage up to 16 audio channels per stream and supports the OPUS and H.264 codecs.
Interstellar is currently available in three editions, based on the number of remote studios, concurrent users and SDI inputs. One streaming gateway is currently required per remote studio, and customers currently have the choice of:
“We’re delighted to be launching the Streaming Gateway and to be forging ahead with our plans to offer Interstellar via a subscription model,” comments Amanda Holtstrom, Product Manager for Interstellar at Ross. “We’ve all seen how important remote collaboration and production has become over the last eighteen months. I’m very proud of the work our team has done in creating a solution for the live production industry that delivers what’s needed – low-latency, ease of use and rich functionality!"
A full explanation of the Streaming Gateway’s feature-set is available here.
