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Videstra, LLC

  • The Videstra System Overview

    A rich and scalable solution designed to bring Micro-Local™ – tower, rooftop and DOT cameras into your broadcast production environment. VestraView by Videstra provides simple and familiar router-like control of every one of your Micro-Local cameras. Add DOT cameras and cameras from other affiliates within your broadcast group. With four or eight channels of genlocked HD-SDI output, time lapse, and fully-branded web publishing, even to multiple sites, Videstra has designed a flexible and powerful system consisting of three unique pieces of technology.

    VESTRAVIEW
    V-MANAGER II
    V-STREAMER
    SOLUTIONS DATASHEET

Micro-Local™ live video has never been easier 

You have strategically placed live cameras on towers and rooftops throughout the viewing area. The DOT has scores of cameras, seemingly everywhere viewers travel. Yet getting them on the air and posted to a website and digital properties is a challenge, especially when the news is breaking quickly. With VestraView™ from Videstra, put those cameras and feeds to work to connect with viewers.


Videstra brings together multiple IP-based cameras from many different manufacturers with H.264/H.265 streams and our powerful V-Streamer™ technology to output a live-to-HD-SDI source from each camera for your broadcast plant, as well as generating still and time-lapse imagery for use on your web and digital properties.


Using the latest technology, it provides everything you need to go from camera to screen. The four-channel V-Streamer decoder offers genlock, overlays, cropping, and most importantly reliability. Its user interface is easy to use by both technical and non-technical staff.


AXIS COMMUNCATIONS AUTHORIZED PARTNER

Videstra has full access to the entire line of Axis cameras and accessories. If your application requires something more advanced, such as the Q86 PTZ series for 135° ground-to-sky view with 0.05° preset accuracy, or a simpler fixed position camera where the expense of a PTZ doesn’t make sense, Videstra can recommend, sell and support any of the available Axis fixed camera models.

Videstra is an authorized U.S. reseller for Axis Communications 

network cameras and accessories.

VESTRAVIEW CLIENT SOFTWARE

The Vestraview client software is installed on Windows PCs around your station. Typically the client software is installed in Studio Control , Master Control, the weather office and other locations. Vestraview includes five concurrent seat licenses with the system. We often find client software installed in one or more locations in the newsroom, as well as the chief engineers office/laptop. The software can be installed on as many PCs as needed (must all be Windows 10/11), but only five can be connected to the V-Manager™ at one time. You may purchase additional licenses if desired. A copy of VestraView is also installed on the V-Manager. For the control rooms, VestraView has a touchscreen mode that eliminates the need for a keyboard and mouse.

VestraView Features and Benefits

DOT CAMERAS
CLIP & TIMELAPSE FACTORY
TOUCHSCREEN MODE
VIDEO OVERLAYS
BROADCASTING
ONLINE PUBLISHING | CLOUD SHARING
TILEVIEW MODE
DOT CAMERAS

THE DOT TRAFFIC CAMERA INTERFACE IN VIDESTRA

Our DOT interface brings every available camera from your state’s DOT to your fingertips easily and instantly . Click on an interactive map (that includes current radar) to select cameras and they are directly routed to air through the Videstra system. Your team can create multiple drive-time favorites so cameras used most often are quickly available. Time lapse is also available for DOT cameras making it easy to present long-term traffic conditions in an interesting and informative way. All of this interfaces directly with Max Traffic from The Weather Company , an IBM Company, so video, images and time-lapse are ready-to-air in seconds.
    • Customized for each state's DOT
    • Access to DOT approved cameras
    • Map-based selection
    • Radar Overlay
    • Preview, favorites, and search
    • Time-lapse factory enabled 
CLIP & TIMELAPSE FACTORY

CLIP FACTORY™ AND TIMELAPSE FACTORY™

Timelapse and Clip Factory give you tools to easily create movies using images and clips from up to three days in the past Videstra saves a full resolution image every 15 to 60 seconds from every source. Timelapse Factory can automatically create movies based on a schedule and automatically send them to your weather graphics system, ready for air. With Clip Factory and select cameras that feature onboard memory, you can download and edit clips from up to three days in the past. Movies and clips can also be automatically scaled and sent to your web and digital properties. 

    • Timelapse on-demand. No setup required 
    • Timelapse available for any time-period within the last 72 hours.
    • Recorded live video from select cameras

TIMELAPSE STABILIZATION

REAL-WORLD STABILIZATION

TOUCHSCREEN MODE

VESTRAVIEW TOUCHSCREEN MODE PERFECT FOR ON-AIR OPERATION

Videstra VestraView features a touchscreen mode designed to streamline on-air operations. The touchscreen mode eliminates clutter in the control room and greatly reduces the risk of operational and on-air errors.

When activated, touchscreen mode provides large, touch-friendly controls without the need for a mouse or keyboard. Users can select any source, route it to any on-air output, select saved camera presets, and access pan/tilt/zoom controls. The touch screen mode, combined with API access to the production control automation system, helps seamlessly integrate all your live camera, DOT, and other h.264 sources into your live production workflow.

VIDEO OVERLAYS

VIDEO OVERLAYS

Videstra VestraView includes a powerful new graphic overlay capability to enhance the viewer experience and boost sponsorship and advertising revenue. This new capability allows users to configure each camera with an overlay from an unlimited selection of unique, full color, full or semi transparent graphics.

The overlays are automatically added to the HDSDI output when the source is selected for air and routed to any of the V-Streamer outputs. Images and streams from the sources can also be digitally published to a virtually unlimited number of locations, each of which can have a unique overly.

Now every camera and stream can include a station logo, location graphic, or sponsor message creating new opportunities for advertising revenue and new ways to connect with your community.

BROADCASTING

BROADCASTING

With VestraView™, you own your camera feeds and we give you the power to share these feeds with partners and affiliates with our powerful VestraCloud Sharing module.
Send any feed to your broadcast facility in HDSDI with a single click thought V-streamer
    • 4 HDSDI outputs standard
    • Optional upgrade to 8 outputs
    • Automate routing and switching with API integration
    • Custom intergration of streaming video feeds like SevereStudios
    • Metadata from cameras and provider including Understory Weather local high resolution ground truth data.

Establish and extend your presence throughout your viewing area. Grow viewer loyalty in the metro and outlying areas. VestraView™  cameras can be located in every community within your reach. Viewers respond when your weather reports, community events stories and breaking news coverage include live video from their town. When viewers see their neighborhoods on your station, they notice and come back.

Add new sponsors by placing cameras at their facilities and watermarking the video feed. These sponsorships are great tie-ins to your other digital channels. Allowing sponsors to use camera feeds and images on their web-sites creates sponsor loyalty.

ONLINE PUBLISHING | CLOUD SHARING

ONLINE PUBLISHING

VestraView™ Online Publishing provides practical gateways to leverage your captured images.

Think beyond the living room; go outside and play! Today your viewers spend less time in their living rooms – you should be out there with them. Put your most local content into the hands and hearts of your viewers and conveys your commitment to their communities.

Automatic, live publishing. Your website will always have up-to-the minute views from each neighborhood in your coverage area. All or your news, weather and traffic apps can include images, live views and time-lapse video to match locations around the viewing area.

Monetize your digital content and camera feeds in multiple ways by driving more traffic to your website and with new, online sponsorship opportunities for the camera feed itself. Some of your best local advertising opportunities like medical centers, colleges and universities, furniture stores, car dealerships and the like are great prospects to sponsor a live camera at their facility.

CLOUD SHARING

Leverage the power of all the cameras in your group with Videstra Cloud Sharing. Track approaching weather as it moves through your sister stations’ markets. Go live with video when breaking news happens anywhere in your group and their cameras capture it, without disruption to their workflow. Cloud Sharing only requires one connection to ensure full resolution and framerate video is available from each camera, regardless of how many stations take the feed live. Each instance can have a also unique graphic overlay.

    • Share and use cameras from stations within your group
    • Immediate and secure access
    • Each station controls and can lock out or limit its camera's PTZ access
    • Timelapse factory ready
    • Digitally publish any or all cameras

TILEVIEW MODE

VIDESTRA CONVENIENT TILEVIEW MODE

NEW V-Manager™ II

The V-Manager Server is a Windows 10 LTSC (Long Term Service Channel) computer that runs VestraView V-Manager Server software. Windows LTSC is designed for professional engineering environments and only receives security and stability updates up to 10 years from release.

V-MANAGER II SERVER
V-MANAGER SERVER SOFTWARE
V-MANAGER II SERVER

V-Manager II Server™

Our new V-Manager II and optional IIR server is the brains of the Videstra camera management system.  It is a 1RU high-powered Windows computer and provides all the logic and communications between one or two V-Streamer 4-Channel decoders, IP Cameras and the VestraView software clients. The V-Manager also performs the work necessary to brand and publish up-to-the-minute images, timelapse movies, and branding for Videstra’s Live-to-Web on your web site(s).  This powerful server is tasked with many functions and is a core part of the Videstra system.  Because it is an important component it will also make a backup of all critical files to a secure videstra.net location every night. This makes disaster recovery (should it ever be necessary) much faster.

V-MANAGER SERVER SOFTWARE

V-Manager Server Software

Services on the V-Manager manages and controls all transactions between VestraView clients, cameras, 3rd party streams and the V-Streamer (decoder). The V-Manager software also does all of the heavy-lifting when it comes to web publishing. It is responsible for generating branded still images, branded time lapse video, and branding for live streams on your web site. Operating almost entirely behind-the-scenes the V-Manager software controls nearly every aspect of your daily VestraView usage and provides backups and updates on a regular basis.

V-STREAMER™ H.264 | H.265 | MPEG4 DECODER

The Videstra V-Streamer is our exclusive 1RU 4 channel HD-SDI decoder for use with VestraView. As an integrated part of the VestraView solution it provides a flexible way to decode 4 cameras or streams simultaneously. Two V-Streamers can be daisy-chained to create an 8 channel system. The V-Streamer offers a single GENLOCK input and full GENLOCK offset capability with 720p/1080i/1080p output.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

V-STREAMER TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

 OUTPUTS 4 Independently Controllable via VestraView Software
VIDEO 720p 50/59.94 | 1080i 50/59.94 | 1080p 50/59.94 (3GA) Note: Standard Def no longer supported
GENLOCK Blackburst/Tri-level
GENLOCK OFFSET Pixel/Line (H/V) offset up to 1 full frame
CONNECTORS 5X BNC or Mini BNC W/Pigtails (SDI X4 | Genlock X1)
DENCODING MPEG4 | h.264 (AVC) Baseline | Main | High Profiles | h.265 (HEVC)
TRANSPORT
rtsp | rtmp | udp(ts) | hls | srt
GOPVariable
SCALING Full (all incoming resolutions are scaled to HD output resolution)
PROCESSOR Intel i7
 RAM 8 BG
NETWORK 2 RJ-45 1 Gb Ethernet
MONITOR DVI-I (DVI-D & VGA Combined) - convertible to HDMI | HDMI | DP
PERIPHERALS USB
POWER 110-220 V
COOLINGDual fans
OSLinux
IO AJA Corvid (OEM License)
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