Williams AV Launches Annotation Pro

Williams AV introduces Annotation PRO, the next generation of annotation systems designed for the professional AV & Broadcast marketplace. 

Annotation PRO brings true 4K video to system designers wanting to add annotation to their professional 4K video designs. With the enhanced broadcast graphics capabilities of the NVIDA processor, the Annotation PRO provides stunning graphical annotation overlays that provide brilliant detail, crisp colours and sharp images. 

The Annotation PRO is built on a NVIDA Pascal GPU system architecture with 256 NVIDIA CUDA cores. This processor can deliver real time video processing with less than two frames of latency. The embedded software application runs on a Linux OS and offers upgrade possibilities that are unavailable in a hardware based FPGA or ASIC solutions.

With two digital video inputs, a HDMI and USB 3.0 video and PIP (Picture-In-Picture) capabilities, the system can be configured to support many different dual video output viewing configurations such as Near End/Far End Video, People & Content, Judge & Defendant and so on. The USB 3.0 can also be configured for video capture applications.

Designed for the AV integrator, it can be easily integrated into your system design and works with any HDMI switcher and third party control system. The Annotation Pro can work in a video in-line or loop through video design. Depending upon the project requirement the Annotation Pro can be ordered in either a Non-HDCP  (Annotation PRO) at $2995 or as a HDCP compliant (Annotation PRO Plus) device at $3995. 

Designed to support many different types of touch screens and comes equipped with two RS232 ports and five USB control ports for HID touch screen support, supporting hundreds of different touch screens. 

The easy to use Presenter Toolbar user interface allows anyone to use the system with minimal training. Annotation, whiteboard and highlighting tools can be changed on the fly on any live video source, allowing the presenter to truly engage with their audience.

“Annotation Pro is a totally new annotation platform designed for live annotation applications where high-resolution imaging is required,” explains Rob Sheeley, president and CEO of Williams AV.  “This system is unlike those other lower resolution HD 1080 annotation systems. The Annotation Pro is designed to support true 4K video which is now the standard being used by professional AV integrators.” 

Sheeley also brings to light some of the new changes at Williams AV by stating, “This is our very first annotation system with the Williams AV brand, the Pointmaker team has now been fully integrated into the Williams family and now all the manufacturing, quality control and tech support is all being handled in our Eden Prairie headquarters.”