Anaheim, California (January 13, 2014) – Extron Electronics is pleased to introduce the Annotator 300, a high performance, hardware-based annotation processor that allows a presenter to draw, point, or type over live presentations using a touch display, graphics tablet, or a keyboard and mouse. The HDCP-compliant Annotator 300 includes HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, a universal analog video input, and three simultaneous outputs including two HDMI and a DTP 230 twisted pair output. It also features advanced Extron video signal processing with a high performance scaling engine and fast, reliable switching. The DTP 230 twisted pair output extends HDMI and bidirectional control signals to a DTP 230 receiver over a single CATx cable up to 230 feet (70 meters). The Annotator 300 offers a wide range of annotation tools and controls, all easily accessible by the presenter using an intuitive on-screen GUI.

“The Annotator 300 offers many powerful, easy-to-use presentation markup and highlighting tools, on a hardware-based signal processing platform built for reliability and optimal image quality,” says Casey Hall, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Extron. “This high performance, multi-format switcher and scaler is ideal for bringing annotation capabilities into a wide variety of AV applications and system designs to support functions such as live audience presentations and videoconferencing.”

The Annotator 300 is compatible with a wide variety of popular touch displays and graphics tablets. User-friendly graphical icons and menus provide quick access to essential annotation tools for drawing freehand or lines, adding rectangular or elliptical shapes, typing text, highlighting an area of the presentation, and more. Additional annotation functions include the ability to use a touch flat-panel display as a whiteboard, zoom and pan within the image, and freeze a live image. Annotated images can be captured and saved to internal memory, a removable USB flash drive, or a network location. Images can also be sent to a network printer.

The advanced scaling engine in the Annotator 300 scales HDMI, DisplayPort, RGB, component, and standard definition video to a common high resolution output. It provides high performance 1080i deinterlacing and Deep Color processing to deliver optimal image quality. EDID Minder, Key Minder, and SpeedSwitch ensure fully reliable image display and virtually instantaneous switching speeds for HDCP-encrypted content. For integration flexibility, the outputs of the Annotator 300 can be configured as separate Main and Confidence outputs so that the presenter can access the annotation GUI on a local monitor, while the audience sees only the annotated presentation.

The DTP 230 twisted pair output can be used to extend HDMI, audio, and control to a DTP 230 receiver behind a flat-panel display on a wall or above a ceiling-mounted projector, with the receiver powered over the same CATx cable. This output can also be used for sending video and embedded audio to any HDBaseT-enabled display.

To watch a product introduction video, please visit: www.extron.com/annotator300video

For more information on the Annotator 300, please visit: www.extron.com/annotator300pr