Expanding on initiatives it announced a year ago, Chyron Corp. used last week's Western Show to unveil two divisions aimed at streaming media and interactive television. The broadcast graphics, automation and routing supplier also announced that Microsoft has taken a $6 million stake in the company, following up on an agreement made at the 1999 Western Show to jointly develop interactive TV graphics systems.
Chyron has been talking about streaming media and interactive TV for most of 2000. In February, the Melville, N.Y.-based company launched Clarinet, a streaming-media coder that connects to standard broadcast equipment. And at NAB 2000, the company's big news wasn't HDTV graphics or routing, but the $20 million it had raised to focus on new-media activities.
"Now we're actually doing it," says Chyron CEO Roger Henderson, who adds that the new divisions will continue to capitalize on technology contained in Chyron's existing graphics and automation products.
Chyron Streaming Services will focus on providing turnkey streaming solutions, including hardware and software, and will leverage the company's experience in handling metadata from its Pro-Bel asset-management products. Chyron Interactive Services will come up with new software that will allow existing Chyron graphics products to create interactive content. As part of the deal with Microsoft, Chyron will also work to integrate its graphics systems (which Chyron estimates are in 80% of U.S. control rooms) with the Microsoft TV platform and Windows Media systems.
