Pilot Data Server 9.7.0
Release Date: 2026-08-31
These are the release notes for Pilot Data Server version 9.7.0. This document describes the changes that have been made to the software since release 9.6.0.
New Features
New Viz Pilot Edge settings panel in DataServerConfig, exposing some of the most commonly used UI settings (PDS-1434).
Updating a concept entry via PUT with a different concept name will now start a backend operation that renames the concept and replaces the concept name in master templates and data elements. This may be a long-running operation (PDS-1428).
Improvements
Updated and extended documentation for the REST API and Asset Integration APIs (PDS-1425).
Added more URL parameters to the
/changelogendpoint to allow filtering by resource ID and date (PDS-1421).Crop Service: Returns JPEG output if the original image is JPEG. Added a setting for JPEG quality (PDS-1426).
Crop Service: Improved security by adding an optional allow-list of permitted image sources (PDS-1430).
Fixed Issues
No issues to fix this time… yeee 
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.
System Requirements
System |
The above operating systems are also supported as virtual machines on VMware ESXi 7.0 or higher. |
|---|---|
CPU | 8 cores with a base frequency of 2.4 GHz or higher |
RAM |
|
Disk | 40 GB free disk space for application and logs. |
Additional | 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. |
System Requirements (Crop Service)
System | 64-bit Windows Server 2019 or newer |
|---|---|
CPU |
|
Disk | 5 GB free disk space |
Recommended Software Requirements
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 8.9.5
Preview Server 5.0.0
Template Builder / Viz Pilot Edge 3.7.0
Media Sequencer 5.9.0
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:
The newsroom web hosting environment is served out over HTTPS.
The internal web browser is considered secure, when supporting the SubtleCrypto web API, as specified here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/SubtleCrypto.
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.