Orad Hi-Tec Systems Limited, world leader in virtual sets, on-air graphics and sports production tools has announced the release of Maestro - Orad's turnkey real time HD/SD character generator and on-air graphics solution providing a total solution, from authoring to play out in a single package.

Maestro is a complete HD/SD solution that allows generating either HD or SD graphics and animations from the same platform. Maestro provides powerful 3D and 2D real time rendering capabilities and is suited for any type of production.

Maestro implements a common Drag & Drop concept and is equipped with a local preview window. The graphic templates are injected with data either locally or remotely by database queries, playing lists are instantly generated and last minute modifications are supported.

"We have released the first version of Maestro a few months ago and it was warmly received by our customers," says Avi Sharir, President and C.E.O of Orad. "Maestro offers a unique and efficient workflow that divides the workload between the authoring and production phases, thus allowing graphic designers to focus on their creation and production people to manage the production phases." Sharir continued, "In its new version, Maestro supports both HD and SD formats and is equipped with scene editing capabilities that provides Maestro operators the ability to recompose or even assemble a new scene without the need to use sophisticated authoring software packages."

Maestro is a scalable system that can start with just a single workstation or configured as part of a multiple stations environment. In such a case, graphic templates, data and play lists can be shared between users, increasing the workflow efficiency.

Maestro can be configured to run either in HD or SD mode running from the same rendering platform, with all HD formats supported. The Maestro newsroom plug-in allows seamless integration with all major newsroom and automation systems, allowing journalists to add stunning 3D real time graphics and animations from within their newsroom environment.

The new version of Maestro will be demonstrated for the first time at Orad's SU 7170 booth at the NAB trade show.