Award-Winning Emerald Receiver Boosts Agility and Efficiency in Accessing up to 16 Remote Sources Within a Single Customizable Workspace

DALLAS — Black Box®, a leading IT solutions and consulting services provider to businesses worldwide, today announced that WFMZ-TV, an independent television station in Allentown, Pennsylvania, is deploying the award-winning Emerald® DESKVUE receiver in its master control room to enable efficient operator interaction with more than a dozen sources across multiple screens. Simplifying connections to physical, virtual and cloud-based systems within a single personalized workspace, Emerald DESKVUE is a space-saving solution that facilitates convenient monitoring and fast, error-free switching between sources.

"When I saw the Black Box demo of the Emerald DESKVUE at the NAB Show, I immediately thought of all the different places we could use it," said Henry Crush, IT director at WFMZ-TV. "We’ve been looking forward to getting the system installed here at the station, where we’ll use it as a cost- and space-saving replacement for multiple operator stations in master control. If the Emerald DESKVUE works in our environment the way we expect it to, then we’ll expand from there and deploy the system in other areas as well. The possibilities are phenomenal."

The Emerald DESKVUE receiver allows users to simultaneously access, monitor and interact with up to 16 physical or virtual systems across up to four 4K screens, which connect to the small-form-factor device along with a keyboard and mouse, audio, and other USB 3/2 devices. Giving users access to distributed physical systems, virtual machines via RDP, PCoIP, PCoIP ultra, H.264/H.265 sources, and Virtual Network Computing (VNC), Emerald DESKVUE enables efficient handling of numerous sources. These sources and systems can be freely positioned across screens as movable windows, and instant switching simply requires moving the mouse between these windows.

While Emerald DESKVUE is a KVM-over-IP receiver, the system eliminates the need to switch from one system to the next or to run client software to access virtual machines. Rather, the receiver provides anywhere, anytime access to physical and virtual machines, along with extremely low bandwidth usage and HD/4K video interoperability.

"Over the years we’ve been working together, WFMZ-TV has always been ready to take advantage of innovation to drive greater efficiency and flexibility across its operations," said Ed Krach, senior solutions architect at Black Box. "This investment in the Emerald DESKVUE — an NAB Show Product of the Year Award winner — is a great example of the station’s continuous improvement to its connectivity and control capabilities. We look forward to seeing how WFMZ-TV takes advantage of this new solution."

The Emerald DESKVUE receiver is the latest addition to the Emerald KVM systems deployed at WFMZ-TV. The station also relies on Emerald systems in its news and weather departments, as well as in master control, for seamless remote desktop connectivity and point-to-point control of computers — across the station and satellite locations — with optimal use of network resources. The Boxilla KVM system management platform from Black Box allows for comprehensive control of all Emerald KVM devices.