PlayBox Neo, a leading provider of media playout solutions, experienced a significant increase in traffic during the NAB Show, held April 6-9 in Las Vegas, as compared to NAB 2024. Fueling the uptick were upgrades to the company’s range of smart media solutions.
While the big news from PlayBox Neo at NAB was enhancements to its PlayBox Neo Suite, a professional media platform that streamlines and enhances broadcast workflows, existing features received their share of positive feedback.
“We had a really diverse range of visitors to our booth at NAB this year,” said Van Duke, US Director of Operations, PlayBox Neo. “From large broadcast groups to mid and small-sized local stations, government channels, and some schools. In addition to our upgrades to the PlayBox Neo Suite, several large broadcast group engineers were particularly interested in our ability to support all major trafficking systems as well as using PlayBox Neo servers as a cost-effective alternative for dot channel playout. All in all, it was truly a wonderful NAB for us. We look forward to the New York show in October.”
The ability to insert commercials at a headend via SCTE triggers was another area of interest for many attendees, reported Duke. “Live events inserted into the playlist in real-time are output as either SDI signals or IP streams. SCTE DPI’s (Digital Program Insertion) trigger ad insertion into the live programming. And our system can do this at the headend, so they can localize the ads for each market in real-time.
“Our engineers have been putting in exceptional effort. The flexibility and cost-effectiveness of the PlayBox Neo Suite is unmatched. Because our solutions are based on modular products and services, they’re easily customizable for any scale of channel playout management - from ingest and scheduling right through to transmission.”
The PlayBox Neo Suite offers effortless centralized control, monitoring, and administration of an optimized multimedia workflow. The current line of "Channel in a Box" products integrate seamlessly with the PlayBox Neo Suite, maximizing existing investments while providing a unified interface for future upgrades.
Featured Innovations at NAB 2025:
- RIST Output: Reliable Internet Stream Transport (RIST), a more reliable successor to Secure Reliable Transport (SRT), offers an open alternative to proprietary commercial options such as ActionStreamer, Zixi, VideoFlow, QVidium, and DVEO (Dozer).
- RTP Output with Redundant Links: Seamless delivery of SMPTE 2022-7 compliant streams with RTP output featuring redundant links for enhanced reliability.
- Colors Support in STL: DVBSubtitle Server and SubtitleBox now support colors, providing vibrant and dynamic subtitles for your broadcasts.
- Frame Interpolation Option: New frame interpolation option on framerate conversion, ensuring smooth and high-quality video playback.
- PlayBox Neo Suite Triggers: Integrate external devices, including BlackMagic Atem mixers, with PlayBox Neo Suite. It allows AirBox Neo to perform actions when triggers are executed, streamlining your workflow.
- TS Encoder: TS Encoder now supports AAC and MPEG1 L2, capable of generating 44.1 and 48kHz sample rates for superior audio quality.
- AirBox Neo Graphics Mixer: Performance improvements in AirBox Neo graphics mixer, delivering enhanced graphics capabilities for your broadcasts.