CNBC'S NEW HD CHANNEL PRESENTS MORE INVESTOR INFORMATION USING MIRANDA IMAGESTORE 750 FOR GRAPHICS PLAYOUT

October 19, 2007

Source: Miranda

Miranda Technologies announced today that CNBC HD+, the new HD financial news channel from CNBC, is using an Imagestore 750 master control and channel branding processor to present more investor information to its viewers than the current SD channel.

The new CNBC HD+ channel incorporates an upconverted clean feed of the SD channel, which is used in 4:3 format on the left of the HD screen area, with HD graphics and tickers in the foreground. The space on the right of the screen area is used for supporting graphics, and this allows much more financial data to be presented than the existing SD channel.

'We've taken a whole new approach for our HD+ channel. We wanted to give our viewers, the most affluent in cable, more tools to make financial decisions. We will display a lot more than simply automatic data on a loop', says Steve Fastook, VP of Technical and Commercial Operations at CNBC. For example, if we're running a story on a particular company, we can use the HD+ channel's graphics side panel to display in depth statistics about the company, its competitors, the industry subset, and even insert headlines with real-time input from our producers, to add real value for our investor viewers. As our viewers become more accustomed to our investor's tool kit, their eyes will move naturally to the data on the right.'

Fastook continues: 'We have a tremendous amount of business expertise which, in the 4x3 world, hasn't been readily available to our audience. With our HD channel, we can now give the viewer more data, more insight, and more tools to work with.'

CNBC's standard definition channel shows only three major indices with variance and price at the top of the screen, such as the DOW, Nasdaq, and FTSE. In contrast, the new CNBC HD+ channel, allows five indices to be shown so investors do not have to wait for relevant information to appear. The real-time financial data is fed from the stock exchange, and the Imagestore 750's DVE enables the data to be displayed in different positions for prime time and weekends.

Fastook: 'For the HD channel, we'll be able to use relatively small text but it'll be sharper and more readable than the SD ticker - effectively doubling the information that we can display for investors.'

The Imagestore 750 processor also allows a second video stream to be made available to CNBC HD+ viewers, using a small window in the bottom of the HD screen. Viewers can use their remote to switch the audio from the main video feed to the second video stream. Fastook adds: 'We can now show a long press conference, congressional testimony, or in depth interviews with industry leaders on this second stream, a feature not possible in SD.'

Miranda's Imagestore 750 provides easy selection between SD and HD at 1080i or 720p, and offers four keying layers, four group audio mixing, dual DVEs, and automated character generation. The processor is controlled by a customized touch screen GUI, created by CNBC's IT department.

An HD viewing station, which includes Miranda's Kaleido-X multi-image display processor, allows the CNBC producer to control the graphics content based on the run down, so that highly relevant and up to date content is uploaded to the HD channel.

CNBC originally designed and budgeted the HD+ channel around a full production switcher, but spotted the more affordable Imagestore 750 at NAB. Fastook observed: 'Any production switcher that was powerful enough to do two hi-def DVEs, and provide two or three keyers was pretty pricey, and the feature sets did not closely match our requirements.'

'The new HD+ channel is all about providing real-time, actionable information to our viewers, and we've amassed a tremendous amount of capabilities with the new system, not only in data, but in video, delivery, and digital editing. We've taken the latest technology available in order to get the most informative data to our viewers, faster and with better quality than anyone else.'

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