CAMBRIDGE, ON, Canada, November 10, 2016 – Bannister Lake has vastly expanded the integration possibilities between its powerful Brando branding automation solution and third-party traffic and billing systems with the addition of support for the Broadcast Exchange Format (BXF), the SMPTE standard that streamlines interoperability and data exchange in broadcast and production workflows.
Brando takes the complexity out of advanced branding across any number of channels, making it fast and simple for broadcasters to set up, manage and continually enhance both internal and sponsored promotions and campaigns. Brando enables users to easily map dynamic branding and informational elements — including promos, bumpers, next boards, content ratings and more — to their program schedule through an intuitive, web-based interface. Brando delivers exceptional ROI, paying for itself quickly by enabling broadcasters to offer lucrative, additional advertising placements such as sponsored bugs and snipes without the need for more staff or systems.
Also known as SMPTE-2021, BXF provides a standardized approach for the exchange of data including schedule information, as-run logs and more. The addition of BXF support complements Brando’s rapid, interactive scheduling capabilities and existing, vendor-specific traffic system integrations with standards-based program schedule retrieval and as-run log publishing. Brando can automatically import BXF-compliant scheduling data, and export BXF-formatted as-runs through its BLADE (Bannister Lake Active Data Exchange) API.
“Brando has always made it quick and easy for users to manually enter and augment program information with efficient tools such as recurrent scheduling, but direct integration with traffic systems minimizes effort and errors,” said Georg Hentsch, president, Bannister Lake. “Those benefits are particularly significant when we have customers managing upwards of 20 channels on a single Brando installation. Brando already supports a selection of proprietary data formats, but the addition of BXF support enables interoperability with many more traffic systems without custom development, and gives our customers the future-proof confidence of a standards-based approach.”
Brando tightly integrates with Ross Video’s Xpression motion graphics system in a template-based workflow that streamlines branding asset creation, dynamically updating graphics with timely program and promotional data whenever the branding element is shown. Branding events can be triggered through broadcast automation systems or manually, making Brando ideal for both pre-recorded and live programming workflows. The software supports an unlimited number of channels in a single on-premises server or cloud-based installation, including efficient cross-channel promotion capabilities. Brando can also be combined with Bannister Lake’s Super Ticker data aggregation solution, enabling sophisticated, data-rich broadcasts that mix program video with both in-house branding and external data feeds such as news, weather, scores and stock quotes.
The new BXF support is available immediately on new Brando systems and as a free upgrade for existing customers with active maintenance agreements. For more information about Brando and other Bannister Lake solutions, please visit www.bannisterlake.com.
About Bannister Lake Inc.
Bannister Lake is a leading provider of professional video graphic display solutions for broadcast television, cable, satellite, audio/visual and information presentation applications worldwide. Our solutions integrate seamlessly with your existing infrastructure while automating the integration and display of external data sources, improving the productivity of your organization. Visit us online at www.bannisterlake.com.
