Press Release: ToolsOnAir Launches New Version 5.5 of its just:in mac and just:in linux ingest solutions and Version 4.0 of its just:live and just:play playout solutions.

Vienna, Austria, July 11th, 2022 – ToolsOnAir today announced the immediate availability of their just:in mac 5.5, just:in linux 5.5, just:live/just:play 4.0 and composition:builder 5.0 solutions, featuring improved Apple silicon platform support, additional functionalities and improvements requested by customers and a revised software options licensing, adapted to the current market conditions.

“We have not only used the last year to further expand our solutions, especially for macOS, and to adapt them to the new benefits of the Apple silicon platform, but also to reflect about a more elastic pricing adapted to the current market conditions and the associated changes in our offerings” says Peter Steiner, Head of Worldwide Sales at ToolsOnAir.

What’s New in just:in mac and just: linux version 5.5:

Starting with the release of version 5.5 of just:in mac and just:in linux, every new purchase of an ingest channel will include the live:cut multicamera workflow option, formerly priced separately, to the already impressive feature set of ToolsOnAir’s ingest solutions. The immediate benefit to our customers is to enjoy two excellent solutions in one shared user interface at an unrivalled channel license price. The same new licensing benefit applies to ToolsOnAir’s valued customers who have an active Support and Software Maintenance contract or have reinstated an expired contract. The pricing of ingest channels remains unchanged.

Version 5.5 introduces Event Presets that can perform different recording or notification tasks as well as trigger or control qualified hardware devices such as AJA KiPro and KUMO or HyperDeck and VideoHub from Blackmagic Design. With this useful workflow addition, one could, for example, trigger an SDI source change event ahead of recording Start or Stop events or build and place REST API calls to 3rd party system in a very easy and straightforward way.

Also new to version 5.5 is the ability to save and switch recording configurations. This facilitates the on-the-fly configuration swapping for distinctive productions or shows and highly increases operational safety.

In addition to the existing integrations with Blackmagic Design ATEM switchers and traditional switchers via the TOA GPI Box, live:cut 5.5 adds support for the widely adapted TSL UMD protocol to further extend the compatibility with industry standard devices, such as the Ross Carbonite production switcher, for multicamera production workflows

“With these workflow-and production-oriented additions to both just:in mac and just:in linux, we believe that this release will further increase our customer’s production flexibility and operational safety” says Christian Schabasser, Senior Product Manager Ingest Solutions at ToolsOnAir.

What’s New in just:live and just:play version 4.0:

“In line with our licensing options harmonisation, we also have significantly simplified the structure of our licensing options for version 4.0 of our playout solutions, by combining selected new and existing options into sensible and task-oriented packages. As for the ingest solutions, ToolsOnAir will apply the same new licensing benefits to their valued customers who have an active Support and Software Maintenance contract or have reinstated an expired contract” adds Peter Steiner, Head of Worldwide Sales at ToolsOnAir.

Every new purchase of a just:live or just:play Video Base Layer license will now include the new Simple Graphics and OP-47 options as well as the existing Close Captions support (CEA-608/708), offering a great starter license for customers that just want to play out video files with the optional addition of a static station ID logo and including Closed Captions and OP-47 subtitles. The pricing of the Video Base Layer license remains unchanged.

The former just:live or just:play Additional FX Layer Option has been renamed to Realtime Base FX Layer and includes a site license of composition:builder. Users now have all they need to create and play out realtime graphics templates in one combined license. The pricing of the Realtime Base FX Layer license remains unchanged. Additionally, ToolsOnAir has introduced a Static FX Layer license to facilitate the playout of static images or graphics for a reduced price, so that up to 7 graphic layers (either static or realtime) can be used to achieve a budget-friendly pricing.

The existing Event Layer was extended to include the recently introduced SCTE-104 license option in addition to the options already contained such as GPI Out, BMD ATEM (Ethernet), just:in Events, HTTP Events, TCP, Bash Shell, and Apple Events Script. The pricing of the Event Layer license remains unchanged.

Operational safety has always been an important aspect in the development of ToolsOnAir’s playout solutions and therefore the decision was made to price the present Failover Control Option even more attractively, to facilitate the combination of channel redundancy and failover control. The Failover Control Option is also part of ToolsOnAir’s revised just:live and just:play Premium Bundles.

The new Simple Graphics option is aimed at customers that do not necessarily require animated graphics for their channels but want to air a simple station bug or independently need to define two still images where one will be played by default for every element in the video track (movie, live event, and so on) and the other one whenever a live event is on air.

Version 4.0 will support the insertion of OP-47 subtitles as VANC data into the SDI signal, either embedded in the MXF container or provided as a sidecar file in the .SCC, .MCC or .STL format.

In addition to the already extensive professional playout features, version 4.0 further extends its channel handling capabilities by allowing ad-hoc changes to non-engine related settings, without affecting the on-air signal. This also applies to changes to a channel with a redundant engine.

“In summary, we are convinced that these customer-oriented adaptations have further strengthened the versatility, market conformity and uniqueness of our professional ingest and playout solutions for the macOS and Linux platforms” says Georg Deisting, Senior Product Manager Playout Solutions.

For more information, please visit the following web pages:

ToolsOnAir Ingest Solutions:  https://www.toolsonair.com/products/ingest

ToolsOnAir Ingest “What’s New” information: https://www.toolsonair.com/products/ingest/whats-new-in-justin-and-livecut/

ToolsOnAir Playout Solutions: https://www.toolsonair.com/products/playout

ToolsOnAir Playout “What’s New” information: https://www.toolsonair.com/products/playout/whats-new-in-justplay-and-justlive/

Or contact us at:  moc.rianosloot@selas

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About ToolsOnAir Broadcast Engineering

ToolsOnAir Broadcast Engineering GmbH, based in Vienna-Austria, pioneered and introduced the concept of the “TV Station in a Mac” over a decade ago and offers highly innovative, versatile, and intuitive ingest and playout solutions for macOS or Linux, to accommodate the daily needs of a TV station or broadcast production facility whilst maintaining a cost-effective approach.