The venerable Chyron is celebrating its 40th anniversary here at the show. The biggest announcement at NAB 2006 is Lyric PRO, a live graphics renderer that splits graphics into component parts (”persistent objects” within “scenes”). Senior VP and COO Kevin Prince showed me how these objects can be added, removed, and altered at any point during an animation, live, regardless what’s happening on the air. Based on InterFuse technology, Lyric Pro is available as an option for Chyron’s HyperX and LEX graphics platforms.

Prince also showed off HX200, a lower-cost HD/SD switchable turnkey graphics platform that fills in gaps in the product line. Channel Box is Chyron’s first channel branding product. Chyron heard complaints from broadcast stations that it’s unreasonably hard for their staffs to remember how to change channel branding content - it doesn’t happen very often, and staff turnover is such that often those with expertise have left the building once it’s time for a rebranding. Chyron claims that Channel Box’s GUI makes it super-simple to update content.

Two of the most intriguing tech announcements from Chyron have nothing to do with shipping product. One is a patent associated with the creation and delivery of graphics to mobile devices, cellphones, and IPTV. (If you’re noticing “content delivery to mobile devices” as a theme for NAB 2006, you’re not alone.) The patent enables a CG system to embed graphics metadata into a video signal, either in addition to, or instead of, its normal function of overlaying graphics into the traditional picture, according to Chyron. A big issue for broadcasters trying to deliver to mobile devices, says Prince, is that cellphones have about five or six different aspect ratios that need to be accounted for in the delivery of graphics. So the technology that Chyron has patented allows broadcasters to “pre-purpose” their content. “The data that you build knows what to do with itself depending on the aspect ratio,” says Prince.

The second technology announcement comes from John Remmler of the ChyTV division. He told me that ChyTV, a hardware box that allows digital signage overlay over live video, is getting a web-based control component called ChyTV.net. ChyTV.net allows the upload of text, scheduling data, graphics, and RSS info. The ChyTV boxes regularly check ChyTV.net in order to incorporate new content. Users can manage several ChyTV boxes in various locations over the Web. ChyTV.net goes live later this summer and at least for the time being will be free to ChyTV users. Later down the line is ChyTV HD, which handle 1080p output natively and will incorporate IPTV. Chyron thinks that IPTV will handle the concerns of those looking for clip scheduling and management (ChyTV, remember, currently just adds graphics and text to a live video source). A lot to look forward to…