Demoing SightDeck: New Presentation Capture and Stream Technology

iMatte‘s strong roots and foundation begin with the award-winning technology company, Ultimatte Corp., the world’s recognized leader in sophisticated matte extraction and compositing tools for the film, video and graphics communities. Founded by Petro and Paul Vlahos in 1976, Ultimatte provides real-time hardware and computer software products, allowing industry specialists the ability to create completely seamless film effects in motion pictures and virtual studios for broadcasters.

Paul Vlahos,CEo of iMatte, realized the potential of taking the technologies he helped to develop at Ultimatte and enhancing them for the digital and e-commerce age. His vision energized key associates at Ultimatte to join him in the establishment of iMatte to undertake this new direction. iMatte is developing immersive presentation technologies that easily enable the presenter to interact directly with the graphics and collaborating presenters to create more compelling learning experiences.

The premier product of the newly established iMatte is their SiteDeck interactive presentation system. Corporate TechDecisions was able to demo this product using StarLeaf recently, and the application was quite impressive. SightDeck is a solution that allows for presenters to interact with the screen they are presenting on, in essence turning it into a touch screen. A laptop is connected to the system, and the display of the laptop is shown against the projection screen. Touch components are enabled so that your finger acts as a cursor against the screen, making presentations more interactive.

This is only the beginning of the capabilities of the system. SightDeck has created something unique in the way that they stream and capture these presentations. SightDeck turns that display screen into a green screen, and underlays the images behind the presenter. So, to those in the room, the presentation is engaging and open, as should be. To those watching the presentation in real-time or after being captured, they see a production value presentation.  The presenter interacts with images that he sees on-screen, and at the same time green-screen quality images are shown behind him to those watching the presentation remotely.

This allows for the production of high quality videos with all the benefits of a green screen studio, while avoiding the pitfalls of a visual effects production loaded with post expenses.  In addition, the performances by the presenter are unaffected, because they are performing to a live audience at the same time. To increase this production, several cameras can be installed throughout the room to pull back and show the presenter if he walks off-screen. If the presenter is stagnant for a period of time, an additional camera will zoom in until he raises an arm, in which case the system reverts back to a green screen view. This type of automatic direction keeps remote audiences engages while allowing the presenter the mobility of a live presentation.

The output of the system is HD-SDI, meaning you can handle it like a camera, capturing and streaming agnostically. This makes it simple to distribute the video in real-time or after capturing. This also allows for collaborative presentations. Two presenters in remote locations, working with the SightDeck solution, can interact with the same graphics on-screen. They are pulled together in capture and stream in real time, as if the presenters are standing next to one another. This can work as a screen-share, or, for sensitive information, the software can be installed on both computers. While commands are sent back and forth, they are manipulated separately, and the data itself stays off the airwaves.

SightDeck does come at a price (starting at $125k) but the applications are astounding. You get production value presentation capture and streaming with no extra work or cost. You allow presenters to act naturally in front of an audience, and that translates to the videos created from the presentation. You can capture presentations in an engaging and quality video for employees, customers, and the public to view. If you are a company that is looking for an interactive way to present, and wishes to capture and send out those presentations, SightDeck is a solution you should be checking out.

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Video: Watch a full demo of SightDeck’s capabilities.

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