Frequently Asked Questions

airZStudio makes real-time broadcast graphics (CG) software for television and live production. The airZ Broadcast Solution has three products: airZ Editor, where graphics are designed; airZ Controller, where operators run the show; and airZ Engine, which plays graphics to air. One scene file travels from the designer's desk to the program output unchanged, so what the designer previews is what the audience sees.

Yes. It covers what a broadcast CG system does, lower thirds, tickers, scoreboards, clocks, election and results graphics, full-screen data graphics, 3D and video walls, and adds design, animation and interaction tools that usually live in separate applications.

Traditional pipelines design a graphic in one application, rebuild it in another for playout, and hand data and control to a developer. In airZ the file the designer makes is the file that plays: airZ Editor has the tools of a motion design application (bones and weights, meshes, constraints, text modifiers, layouts, a graph editor), opens the files designers already use, lets the designer bind every value to data by name, and airZ Engine plays the result with no rebuild. The same file also runs on studio touch screens and in a web browser.

airZ Editor is the design application of the airZ Broadcast Solution. It combines vector artwork and text, timelines and Animation States, live data binding, live video slots and real-time 3D in one scene, with 57 real-time shaders, 200 materials, 34 ready-made scene elements, preflight checks, versions and an assistant that builds a graphic from a description. Manual: https://airzstudio.com/docs/airz-editor/

Photoshop PSD (a layer per picture, in order, with opacity and blend mode), Lottie (JSON and dotLottie, as editable keys), SVG (as editable paths), .riv files, 3D models in glTF, GLB, FBX, OBJ, COLLADA, 3DS, STL and PLY (with parts, materials, cameras, lights and animations), HDR skies and panoramas, video clips (MP4, MOV, M4V, MXF, WMV, AVI, MKV and WebM), PNG and JPEG pictures, and TTF and OTF fonts. Anything a file holds that the editor cannot bring across is named in an import report.

No. Animation States wire states, transitions and conditions on the data, with listeners for clicks, keys and touch, without code. Data binds by name. When a graphic needs more, airZ Editor also has a built-in Luau script editor, and ready-made script elements such as charts, clocks, a parliament and a swingometer.

airZ Engine is the real-time playout engine of the airZ Broadcast Solution. Measured on its own output with an NVIDIA RTX A4500: ray-traced 3D at 1080p59.94 with zero late frames, video walls across several frame-locked outputs from one scene, HLG and PQ HDR per channel, SDI fill and key, NDI in and out, and armed graphics rendering their first frame in 9 to 15 ms. It is controlled over the network from automation systems, with OSC and health checks.

airZ Controller is the operator's desk: rundowns, templates from airZ Editor, the values an operator fills in, take in and take out, preview and program, operator panels, live data, newsroom integration and a MOS gateway, with playout to airZ Engine. It also has a streaming side with multistreaming, chat, alerts and remote guests.

Yes, both ways. airZ Controller has a newsroom rundown built in: journalists and producers edit it in their browsers on the studio network, with a live preview of each graphic, and the gallery takes it to air. A station that already runs a newsroom system connects it through airZ Controller's MOS integration: running orders and stories come in, and graphics go back into the story.

Yes. airZ Engine can drive a studio touch screen directly: a screen output set as interactive takes touch and mouse, and what the presenter does shows on the channel's program outputs. airZ Controller also serves any scene as a web link, so it opens on a touch screen or tablet (3D scenes play in Chrome). Graphics answer touch when they were designed with interactions in airZ Editor. The same file plays on air in airZ Engine and in any web page on the airZ player, which runs the same runtime airZ Engine uses. The live scenes on airzstudio.com are examples.

Yes. airZ Editor puts real-time 3D inside the graphic, keyed on the same timeline and connected to the same data: imported models, realistic materials, softboxes and area lights, HDR skies, a camera with a real lens and depth of field, and camera tracking (FreeD). Where the graphics card can trace, shadows, reflections and ambient occlusion are ray traced, and global illumination bounces light between surfaces. airZ Engine plays ray-traced 3D at 1080p59.94 with no late frames.

Yes. airZ Engine outputs SDI fill and key and NDI, takes cameras and feeds in over SDI and NDI, outputs HDR (HLG and PQ) as well as SDR, and drives video walls across several frame-locked outputs from one scene. airZ Controller can also put out its own program over NDI (Pro) and over SDI on a DeckLink card (Enterprise).

From the sources a newsroom already keeps: SQL databases (PostgreSQL, SQLite), spreadsheets (CSV and Excel), web APIs (JSON), RSS feeds and web pages, or typed in by an operator. Lists can filter one another, for example a city and then its districts, and each rundown item keeps the operator's choice rather than a copy of the figures. The designer names the parts that change in airZ Editor, without code.

An operator in airZ Controller, from a rundown with preview and program monitors and control panels the designer built for that show. Journalists can fill in the text from the browser rundown. A graphic goes to air with one press, or an edit can be staged and taken when the moment comes; an Elgato Stream Deck (Pro) puts select, take and take-out on physical keys.

Yes. One airZ Controller drives several airZ Engines and their channels across the studio network, each with its own role, and reconnects on its own if a link drops.

No. airZ Controller, its newsroom rundown and airZ Engine run on your studio network, and airZ Controller has a local mode that works offline. airZ Editor works offline too; only its online template library needs a connection.

Yes. The airZ Editor manual, 126 pages with pictures taken from the editor itself, is at https://airzstudio.com/docs/airz-editor/. Manuals for airZ Controller and airZ Engine are coming soon; all of them are listed at https://airzstudio.com/docs/.

Request a demo at https://airzstudio.com/contact/: we build a graphic with you and play it to air. airZ Controller can be downloaded at https://airzstudio.com/download/.

Try the live scenes on https://airzstudio.com, read the documentation at https://airzstudio.com/docs/, or request a demo at https://airzstudio.com/contact/.

Yes. The streaming side of airZ Controller handles multistreaming with chat overlays, alerts and remote guests natively, without third-party plugins. See https://airzstudio.com/airz-controller/streaming/

It uses native WebRTC bridging: send a link to your guests, and their video and audio route directly into your production. No external bridging software is needed.

airZ Controller can send a backup stream (Pro), fail over between network cards by priority with a speed test, and, on the Enterprise plan, bond several network connections over SRT so a fluctuating line does not interrupt the stream.

No. It connects directly to Twitch IRC and EventSub for moderation and hardware-accelerated alerts, without browser sources.