Pilot Data Server 9.4.0

Release Date: 2025-12-15

These are the release notes for Pilot Data Server version 9.4.0. This document describes the user-visible changes that have been made to the software since release 9.3.1.

New Features

  • Added support for WebSocket STOMP monitoring of the changelog (PDS-1348).

  • Added support for STOMP monitoring of elements and templates, over both TCP and WebSocket (PDS-529).

  • Created endpoints for script units (PDS-1359).

Note: Media Sequencer monitors the changelog of Pilot Data Server to stay updated on changes in the Pilot Database. To use STOMP WebSocket communication, Media Sequencer 5.8.1 or later is required.

Improvements

  • Improved Concept activation and deactivation compatibility when using indexing and Oracle backend (PDS-1369).

Fixed Issues

  • Fixed issue when setting an image field using update service wrongly escaped the image asset (PDS-1354).

  • Added a workaround for an Access Violation in Oracle, by adjusting SQL statements when saving templates with thumbnails (PDS-1357)

  • The Use All Directors in scenes is now respected when importing templates (PDS-1356).

  • Fixed issue where changelog messages from Oracle could be processed multiple times (PDS-1369).

  • Reintroduced a Crop Service workaround to support cropping of TIFF images (PDS-1371).

Known Issues

  • Data Elements are not visible in Viz Pilot Edge, until the Template Index is ready (VPE-5991).

Note: This version does not automatically generate thumbnails for templates. Thumbnails must be manually generated by the user within Template Builder.

Recommended System Requirements

Pilot Data Server was tested with the following operating system:

  • Windows Server 2025

  • Windows Server 2022

It should run on any supported Windows Server OS as long as it is supported by Microsoft. 

  • Visual Microsoft C++ 2015 packages.

Note: If the Visual C ++ 2015 Redistributable Package is not installed, some software, such as Director and Media Sequencer, may encounter an HTTP 500 issue when connecting to Pilot Data Server.

As Pilot Database, either of:

  • Graphic Hub 3.9.3 (with Graphic Hub REST 2.9.3)

  • Oracle 19c with schema version 8.9

Recommended versions of other related products: 

  • Viz Pilot 8.9.3

  • Preview Server 4.7.1

  • Template Builder / Viz Pilot Edge 3.4.0

  • Media Sequencer 5.8.1

Note: The minimum requirement for Update Service, is Media Sequencer 5.7.

Authentication Compatibility

Identity Providers

Pilot Data Server uses the OpenID Connect Protocol (OIDC) to authenticate users. It can, in theory, be configured to integrate with any OIDC compliant identity provider.

The following providers have been tested:

  • Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory)

  • Vizrt SSO (Keycloak)

  • Okta

Existing Vizrt Products

Pilot Data Server authentication can, for now, only be used to add user access to the web applications (Viz Pilot Edge, Template Builder and DataServerConfig).

Some Vizrt products already support SSO solutions, but:

  • Current version of Viz Story (3.3) cannot be configured to use Pilot Data Server authentication. 

  • Although an existing Viz One installation of Vizrt SSO (Keycloak) can be configured as an identity provider for Pilot Data Server, the identity of Pilot Data Server users isn't re-used when clients are connecting to Viz One. The current version of Viz Pilot Edge still uses the pre-authenticated hosts configured in the database settings when connecting to search providers.

Newsroom Systems

Any newsroom system hosting Viz Pilot Edge in a modern, secure browser environment, should be able to utilize authentication. This requires:

Documentation

Documentation for Template Builder is available at the Vizrt Documentation Center, under Viz Pilot Edge:

Support

Support is available at the Vizrt Support Portal.