This system that was widely prevalent all over the world is now coming to India in August when Monarch Virtual On Air system will be launched as the only such machine to be developed in the country. In the recently concluded Broadcast Asia Show in Singapore, Monarch Computers Pvt. Ltd unveiled its machine that is indeed going to make the country proud. “No one could believe that India could be a part of such a big innovation and that to on its own might. So immense was the response that we were flattered to no extent when people came and congratulated us,” says Satra adding, “that would definitely be a red letter day when our first machine of Virtual On Air System enters the market.”

Monarch’s Virtual On Air System eliminates the need of any expensive camera trackers to emulate virtual camera motions. With a single static physical camera, a user can seamlessly integrate live camera input with a 3D virtual set and move around the set without moving the camera. The system works without any pre-rendering of 3D virtual sets because a specially designed hardware and software does the rendering in real time.

Detailing their Virtual On Air System, Chandulal Shah, Head-Products, Monarch Computers Pvt. Ltd says, “The advanced ‘C’ key technique developed by us is highly sophisticated; it performs extremely well even with non-professional video equipment and in poorly lit background or lighting. All complex calculation of the chroma keying software are done instantly and a user can manually fine tune the keying parameters for perfect chroma keying of live input source without any colour spills or spatial effect. With our system a user can have a number of amazing broadcast studio sets in a limited space and time and that to at an affordable price.”

Talking about the advantages of Monarch Virtual On Air System, Satra avers, “While using our system one requires a minimal space (10x10 feet) to put up a green or blue background and with the help of a single physical camera one can have many angles and different camera motions.” “Let me show you a demonstration of this system,” Satra says after which he asks a company boy to stand before a green background. Then the technician, with the pressing of a few buttons shows us the TV on which the boy strolling before the green background is seen strolling across a beautiful garden. “So in essence, virtual studio technology saves time, money and space and extends an advanced dimension to studio-based programming.”

Monarch Virtual On Air System will be useful for Cable TV operators, TV channels, serial makers, universities, distance learning centers and non-commercial broadcast departments and is very easy to use with very familiar switches like interface used in the broadcast industry. A single operator can control the video production process using a touch-screen, mouse or keyboard short cuts. The Monarch Virtual On Air System can be applied on areas like Production of News and Talk shows, production of game shows and entertainment programmes. The system can be used effectively for covering business and political events, corporate presentations and training. “Wait I will show you something interesting, “ says Satra asking the same boy to sit on a chair affront the green background and lo and behold we find the boy seated in front of a blackboard with a whole classroom in sight as if he was going to give some lessons.

Key features of Monarch Virtual On Air System are that it has a Media Gallery that helps in the organising the graphic and movie files scattered in different hard discs and folders in different categories which can later be categorised, sub categorised and edited in a non-destructive way. One can create, edit and display in multilingual fonts, texts can be placed switched on or off online and it can be placed anywhere on the screen. A user can superimpose graphic image in supported standard formats with 32 bit alpha channel information on the virtual set. Virtual On Air System has an unique recording, playback and editing facility with VTR like controls (rewind, forward play, pause, stop etc.) Video output can be directly recorded and later telecast live in Mpeg 1, Mpeg 2 or AVI file format. The system besides other features also has a separate video capture module. Video can be captured in AVI format which can be later used for adding in Media Gallery and can be assigned online in the 3D virtual set.

From a humble beginning as an entrant into the world of videography in 1984, the success graph of Monarch has been on a slow, patient and steady rise and is now seen as a trendsetter in providing turnkey solutions for the Audio-Video industry and revolutionizing the Photo-Video industry across the globe. “We believe in giving ‘Utmost Customer Satisfaction and Delight’ that is followed by our entire team religiously. It is with this philosophy that we have embarked on a vision… to develop and expand the range of hardware and software solutions in the areas of Audio, Video and Imaging in order to suit the needs of different fields like Broadcast, Cable & Multimedia,” concludes Satra.