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AutoAspect

Broadcast Pix, who redefined the production switcher to include graphics, clips and monitoring, now becomes the first switcher to include aspect ratio management as standard equipment. New AutoAspect lets 16:9 and 4:3 inputs, clips and graphics be used interchangeably and mixed together in the same production, while maintaining the aspect ratio of each, and can be extended to simultaneously output both sizes.

The Aspect Ratio Challenge

Widescreen productions and video content are becoming more and more common. TV stations are moving toward widescreen production. Widescreen DVDs are very common, as are widescreen projectors. Yet conventional switchers do not have a good way of dealing with widescreen. When widescreen and traditional (4:3) sources are used together in the same production, the conventional switcher can only do this by treating the sources anamorphically. Anamorphic means that images are stretched to fill up the screen when crossing formats. For example, when producing a widescreen (16:9) show, a source from a traditional 4:3 camera is stretched, and the person on that camera winds up looking too fat, as sown on the left below. And when producing a traditional 4:3 show, any widescreen cameras will be squeezed resulting in the people looking to thin, as as shown on the right below:

AutoAspect Inputs

AutoAspect addresses the many challenges of dealing with wide-screen production and content. It enables traditional (4:3) and widescreen (16:9) cameras, clips and graphics to be used in the same production, while preserving the aspect ratio of each.

Each input on the Slate switcher can be set for one of four AutoAspect treatments: box, crop, 14:9 or anamorphic (stretched), as shown below. AutoAspect’s box, crop and 14:9 settings all maintain the original aspect ratio of the camera. The box setting adds bars in any color selected. Crop expands the image until the bars are gone, and crops off the extra video. 14:9 is a great in-between setting, with two thin bars, and just a little cropping. When a wide screen production is done right after a full screen one, AutoAspect automatically sets the right sources now pass through untreated, and treats the others. No other production switcher includes any aspect ratio management as standard equipment, and only a few offer some of the features as an expensive option.

AutoAspect also works on clips and animations within Slate’s built-in, four-hour uncompressed digital clip store, as well as the graphics in Slate’s five stores of titles, stills and logos. Each clip or graphic can be individually set to one of the four aspect settings, enabling 4:3 and 16:9 clips to be used interchangeably in all productions. There is no need for separate stores for each aspect ratio. AutoAspect also manages each DVE box, so clips and graphics can be dropped into a picture-in-picture box without worrying about their aspect ratio. A clip or graphic’s aspect setting can even be instantly changed on the fly in the middle of a show.

As an option, AutoAspect can be extended to outputs to simultaneously create 16:9 and 4:3 productions, such as for wide and full screen TV, or Internet and digital TV, or a projector and cable TV. Unlike conventional aspect ratio output converters that simply crop off the ends of a widescreen production to create a 4:3 one, AutoAspect can automatically handle the best placement of graphics, such as placing the logos in the corners of each production.