Ross Launches Interstellar Streaming Gateway – Explore Remote!

Ottawa, Canada, July 2^nd 2021 – One of the key trends in broadcast in recent times has been remote production, and there is no doubt that the ongoing pandemic (with its associated travel restrictions and social distancing protocols) has accelerated the industry’s adoption of tools to enable remote collaboration and production. In the early stages of pandemic Ross began trialing a new browser-based remote production platform, and that solution is now being formally launched as Interstellar.

First announced earlier this year following extensive discussion and demos with key Ross customers, Interstellar is a complete remote production platform that enables content creators to blend their ‘traditional’ working methods and onsite personnel with remote talent and contributors. Interstellar meets the needs of the live production industry in a way that on-line meeting and conference tools do not – it enables high-quality production values and combines the convenience of a web browser interface and professional feature set with extremely low latency.

A key element of Interstellar is the Interstellar Streaming Gateway, a 1RU hardware solution that provides connectivity between SDI and WebRTC transports. Once configured, the Streaming Gateway is fully controlled by the Interstellar UI and so is extremely simple to use. Supporting 720i, 1080i and 1080p, the Streaming Gateway can receive and decode four WebRTC streams, sending these out over SDI and then receiving and distributing one incoming SDI stream to the four contributors. The hardware can manage up to sixteen audio channels per stream and supports the OPUS and H.264 codecs. A full explanation of the Streaming Gateway’s feature-set is available here.

Interstellar is currently available in three editions, based on the number of remote studios, concurrent users and SDI inputs. One streaming gateway is currently required per remote studio, and customers currently have the choice of:

• Interstellar Express – 1 remote studio, 5 concurrent users, 4 streams
• Interstellar Prime – 2 remote studios, 10 concurrent users, 8 streams
• Interstellar Standard – 5 remote studios, 25 concurrent users, 32 streams

“We’re delighted to be launching the Streaming Gateway and to be forging ahead with our plans to offer Interstellar via a subscription model,” comments Amanda Holtstrom, Product Manager for Interstellar at Ross. “We’ve all seen how important remote collaboration and production has become over the last eighteen months. I’m very proud of the work our team has done in creating a solution for the live production industry that delivers what’s needed – low-latency, ease of use and rich functionality.”

To watch the webinar dedicated to Interstellar and the new Streaming Gateway on-demand, please click here.