Broadcast suite
a set of small and affordable software products specifically designed for broadcasters and proAV experts.
PLAYER FOR PROFESSIONAL VIDEO FORMATS
The Broadcast Player is a versatile tool for file-based environments. It plays most SD, HD, and UHD formats and supports camera, editing, archiving, video server, streaming, and download formats, making it suitable for ingest, review, and quality control workflows.
RECORD SDI AND NDI CHANNELS IN PARALLEL
The Broadcast Recorder is a powerful tool for live productions, business TV, feed recordings in broadcasting, instructional material recordings, engineering, and disaster recovery. It records in all essential SD and HD video formats and supports a wide range of source devices and formats.
MONITOR SDI AND NDI SIGNALS
The Broadcast Monitor is a tool for live productions and broadcasting. It is designed to display SDI and NDI signals on computer monitors. It can play all SD, HD, and UHD video formats thanks to its incredibly powerful decoding engine.
MIni PLAYER FOR PROFESSIONAL VIDEO FORMATS
The new x-dream Broadcast miniPlayer provides basic playback operations and features, including automated media file association during playback. The Broadcast miniPlayer is a light version of the Broadcast Player.
SINGLE-BITRATE AND ADAPTIVE BITRATE LIVE ENCODER
Broadcast Encoder is live encoding and transcoding software designed to create single-bitrate or adaptive-bitrate streams from video or stream sources.
PROGRAM AND COMPETITION MONITORING SOLUTION
Broadcast Compliance Recorder is a video program recording and stream capture software used to review and verify aired content. It addresses legally mandated requirements to demonstrate regulatory compliance, supports fact verification in disputed cases, and helps maintain quality standards.
FEED RECORDING AND INGEST SOFTWARE
Broadcast Server is a video ingest software used to record one or multiple feeds and programs from satellites, internet streams, studio productions, and other sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
General Overview
What is the x-dream Broadcast Suite?
The x-dream Broadcast Suite is a collection of small, specialized, and affordable software tools designed specifically for broadcasters, ProAV experts, and production facilities. Unlike larger monolithic systems, the Broadcast Suite offers focused applications for playback, recording, monitoring and stream management.
Who should use the Broadcast Suite?
It is ideal for regional and national TV stations, news channels, event production companies (sports, music, entertainment) and corporate/business TV departments that need professional-grade tools without the complexity of a full enterprise system.
Is the Broadcast Suite part of x-dream-Fabrik?
While they are developed by the same group, they serve different purposes. The Broadcast Suite consists of standalone software tools for direct media handling, whereas x-dream-Fabrik is a managed, end-to-end cloud/hybrid solution for the entire media supply chain.
Core Components & Features
What specific tools are included in the Broadcast Suite?
The suite includes several key products:
- Broadcast Player: A multi-format player with professional SDI/NDI output.
- Broadcast Recorder: A multi-channel tool for capturing SDI, NDI and web streams.
- Broadcast Monitor : A lightweight application for supervising multiple signals.
- Broadcast Encoder : A live encoding software for single or adaptive bitrate (ABR) streams.
- Broadcast Compliance Recorder: A tool specifically for legal logging and content verification.
- Broadcast Server: Designed for scheduled ingest and stream capture.
Which video formats does the Broadcast Player support?
The Broadcast Player is highly versatile and supports almost all professional SD, HD, and UHD formats. This includes camera raw formats, editing codecs (ProRes, DNxHD), archiving formats and streaming files.
Can I monitor multiple signals simultaneously?
Yes. The Broadcast Monitor and Broadcast Player allow for multiple instances to be run in parallel. The Broadcast Monitor is specifically designed to visualize multiple SDI and NDI signals on standard computer monitors with professional audiometers and Under Monitor Displays (UMD).
Does the suite support NDI and SDI?
Yes. The suite is built for hybrid environments, supporting traditional SDI (via professional I/O cards like Blackmagic, AJA, or Bluefish) as well as modern NDI for IP-based workflows.
Technical Specifications
What are the hardware requirements for the Broadcast Suite?
While requirements vary by module, a typical entry level system requires:
- CPU: Intel 4-core (2.4 GHz) or similar,
- RAM: 8 GB,
- Storage: 512 GB SSD,
- GPU: NVIDIA Quadro P400 (or similar with GPU decoding support),
- OS: Windows 10 Pro or later.
How does the "Side-by-Side" view work in the Player?
This feature allows users to load two different video files and view them simultaneously on two monitors or a split screen. It is an essential tool for quality control (QC) and direct visual comparison of different versions of a file.
Operations & Licensing
Is there a trial version available?
Yes, x-dream-media typically offers demos and trial requests for the individual tools within the Broadcast Suite so you can test compatibility with your specific hardware and file formats.
How is the software licensed?
The Broadcast Suite is marketed as an "affordable" set of tools. Licensing is usually per-instance or per-seat, providing a cost-effective alternative to expensive high-end broadcast hardware.
Does the Broadcast Recorder support ISO recording?
Yes, the Broadcast Recorder and Broadcast Server modules support ISO recording from SDI and NDI sources, making them suitable for multi-camera live productions and archival ingest.
x-dream-fabrik
x-dream-Fabrik is a pre-integrated, pre-configured and managed end-to-end solution for the media industry. Thanks to its unique UI and microservices architecture it covers the complete business process from content production to post-production, asset management, story creation to playout, publishing, sales and distribution.
x-dream-Fabrik is a ready-to-go platform with a clear licensing model. It runs on-premises, in public or private clouds or hybrid.
Media Suite
Media Suite is the next-generation software platform for file-based workflows, including transcoding, ingest and integrated AI features like transcription, translation, and face recognition.