Brad on Broadcast

The weather in NYC was absolutely wonderful last Wednesday. Thursday was an entirely different matter, but we’ll get to that later.

The next stop on my NYC tour was a meeting to review the new products from Scopus Video Networks (exhibiting at NAB booth SU10917). Of particular note, Scopus will debut its multiformat, dense decoder and descrambler based on its flagship Integrated Receiver Processor (IRP) — Dense Decoder and Descrambler.

The IRP platform combines a dense receiver that uses a variety of front ends, a dual decoder, a transport stream descrambler and a powerful remultiplexer. As a multiformat H.264 and MPEG-2 decoder, the IRP provides decoding for all video formats and in both SD and HD resolutions. The receive is available with a choice of input options, ensuring compatibility with all transmission media. Its density makes the receiver a smart and economical choice for many headends.

As a descrambler, it is an ideal solution for digital turnaround applications, featuring multiple front ends, multiple TS descrambling, and powerful remultiplexing. Features include multiple DVB-S/S2, ASI and GigE inputs; a variety of TS outputs including 2xASI and 2xGbE; two integrated DVB common interface modules that allow descrambling of two complete transport streams; regeneration of MPTS to multi-MPTS/SPTS, and PID/service filtering with table regeneration.

Wohler highlights new video and audio monitors

First among the new Wohler (N1102) products to be shown at NAB is a series of three products based on the RM video monitor series.

Wohler will be showing its new 2RU-high RM-2443W-2HD video monitor that incorporates four widescreen 4.3in LCDs providing 16.7 million colors. The RM-3270W-2HD is 3RU-high and features two 7in widescreen LCDs, each with 800 x 480 resolution and 16.7 million colors. Lastly, the RM-4290W-2HD measures 4RU in height and incorporates two 9in widescreen LCDs with 800 x 480 resolution and 16.2 million colors.

These video monitors are ideal for mobile trucks, news and transmission control rooms, and duplication and post-production facilities. Each monitor provides two auto-sensing HD/SD-SDI and analog composite inputs with support for embedded audio, eight-channel VU and PPM audio meters. Also displayed is ANC time code, in-monitor UMD with tri-color tally, H/V delay, underscan, safe area markers, and aspect ratio and blue-only support. In addition to two-channel analog audio support, the monitors provide one-channel-pair audio monitoring via headphone jack or built-in speaker. By Q3 of 2009, all three of the new dual input monitors will be available with a waveform display.

Following the successful launch of the AMP2-16MSDI, Wohler will be showing its new 3Gb/s audio monitor. The new monitor provides simultaneous display for up to 16 channels of embedded audio within a single multirate 3Gb/s signal. Built on a fully digital system architecture featuring multiple high-fidelity class-D amplifiers, the AMP2-16-3G provides unsurpassed near-field monitoring for any mix of stereo and mono sources in a compact 2RU design. The monitor includes demuxed outputs of eight AES pairs on unbalanced 75 ohm BNC connectors and also provides a reclocked loop output of the 3Gb/s signal. The monitor’s high-resolution LCD display boasts colorful 210-segment high-resolution bar graph level meters.

Colors and settings for scale and range are user-selectable along with several predefined scales and ballistics. Each displayed meter set clearly indicates the phase for stereo sources prior to output on the speakers. The AMP2-16-3G audio monitor also addresses key issues in DTV audio delivery, providing measurement of program loudness in adherence with ITU-1770/1771, which is displayed prominently on the unit’s LCD status screen. The AMP2-16-3G is also available with AES and Dolby E options.