Everest's ability to provide live to air graphics at both standard and high definition gives CBS the flexibility we need going forward. We chose Everest for its designer friendly capabilities and the opportunity to put great looking graphics on-air instantly. Everest runs on Silicon Graphics Onyx computer systems. Everest offers authoring tools which are used to design the on-air look and create graphics templates. Colors, animation, fonts, transparencies and position on screen are all defined at this stage.
Performance is checked to make sure any required combination of graphics executes flawlessly.
When the design is finished, tools are built for the production team and links are created to the historical statistics and incoming results data. Everest enables the director to use any graphic at any time, without concern for other graphics running simultaneously. For example, a lower third can be brought on while a clock and score or head-shot with a caption is already in use. The system produces digital video plus a key channel for layering into the live action. For the Fall NFL season, CBS designed a proprietary control system for use in the control room by the on-air team to cue graphics for play.