CAST BlackTrax Wins Prestigious IABM Game Changers Award at NAB

CAST Group of Toronto, Canada was awarded an inaugural IABM Game-Changer Award for BlackTrax by the International Association of Broadcasting Manufacturers (IABM). The Awards were held during NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new awards recognize products deemed to have the greatest potential to revolutionize the industry. A panel of impartial experts from across the globe reviewed products and solutions during the first two days of the show and selected this year's five award-winners, which included such esteemed companies such as Sony and Dolby.

NAB is the largest international digital event for audio, video, film, broadcast, and communications, attracting approximately 1,500 exhibitors and 100,000 media and entertainment professionals from over 150 countries. This was the first year CAST exhibited at NAB.

BlackTrax (patent protected) is a live solution that uses an IR LED beacon to track objects or people in a defined 3D space and delivers the dynamic positional data in realtime in up to six degrees of freedom -- the usual x, y, z, plus roll, pitch, and yaw -- to audio (including true 3D audio output), lighting, and media technologies, as well as CAST's new BlackBox. BlackTrax is a first and it promises to revolutionize the production industry.

Using leading-edge proprietary IR, BlackTrax 3D can track all the parameters of each uniquely tagged object in the defined 3D space (the normal installation easily handles up to 130' cubed) using a beacon (similar to a Lavalier). BlackTrax is fully scalable and can also handle extended for even larger spaces. Should the IR line of sight be obstructed, the Beacon's onboard accelerometer delivers redundant tracking data. The onboard gyroscope communicates the orientation of a moving piece or performer at over 150 frames per second. BlackTrax can deliver the precise 6D positioning data about people or objects, moving in the space, to lighting, spatial audio, and media servers directly, or through BlackBox which uses realtime bidirectional communication to a broader spectrum of production technologies so they can interact with one another. Whether for one-offs or repeat performances, these technologies will change the way production professionals work in live broadcast, film studios, road shows, not to mention churches, stages, and large venues. Whether a fixed or rental/travelling installation, BlackTrax delivers practical, economic production control and enhancement for myriad applications, allowing an entirely new degree of creative freedom, safety and control.

IABM director general Peter White quoted, "Once again, the 2012 NAB Show has proved to be a critical event for the launch of innovative broadcast products and solutions. Our judging panel had an exciting field from which to select winners for the IABM Game-Changer Awards, and we are confident that the products and companies we've honored today will be among those that fuel the continued success of our industry."

Gil Densham and Bruce Freeman accepted the Award on behalf of the CAST team. "We believed that BlackTrax was what the market wanted and now we know. We have met industry professionals from around the world and they tell us that BlackTrax is unbelievable -- and what they want. They were in awe at its speed and precision. But to be placed in the stratosphere with the other winners of the inaugural award is a resounding endorsement from the Industry."