Jeff Moore, president of Ross Video, showed me several of the company’s new offerings for NAB this year, including the SoftMetal 3000 and 4000 series video servers. The next generations in the SoftMetal family are integrated media servers thatcome with I/O and storage all contained in a compact 3RU package.

The 3000 series is a Server Class Platform available in either standard or multidefinition versions. The 3000 series supports up to eight simultaneous record/play channels in SD and up to four simultaneous record/play channels in HD. It uses SATA drives and offers up to 14TB of media storage.

The 4000 series is a Premium Server Class Platform built with high internal bandwidths and processing power. The 4000 series is a multidefinition server that supports up to eight simultaneous record/play channels in HD. It uses high-performance SAS drives with a total capacity of up to 6.3TB. The 4000 series is designed to support 1080p50 and 1080p60 3Gb/s operation.

Joe Commate, Telecast Fiber Systems VP, marketing and international sales, showed me the company’s revamped Baker Box. It now includes better faceplate indicators and mic gain controls for each of the two analog audio inputs. The Baker Box a CAT-5 based product that allows two analog mic sources per location to be converted to AES. Boxes are powered through the same CAT-5 cable. Ideally suited for outside broadcasts, upt to four Baker Boxes can be daisy-chained or starred together to accommodate a wide range of signal acquisition topographies.

Marshall Electronics wowed NAB attendees with its new V-OL761-HDA OLED portable field/camera-top monitor. The unit is being touted as the world’s first OLED camera-top monitor. more…

Communications Specialties featured its all-digital Scan Do HD scan converter. The unit converts DVI input, at resolutions up to 1920 x 1080, to HD or SD-SDI output, providing broadcast-quality video images. It supports SMPTE HD-SDI output resolutions up to 1080i, and SD-SDI resolutions (NTSC and PAL).

Genlock with full phasing control locks HD/SD-SDI output to tri-level sync or black burst. Ethernet port enables control via facilities’ LAN or via the Internet. It includes fiber-optic output (SMPTE 292 and 297) and two coaxial outputs (SMPTE 292 and 259).

Other features include image processing controls for brightness, contrast, saturation, hue and sharpness; variable flicker reduction; Zoom & Shrink horizontally and vertically while maintaining the aspect ratio or set each independently; internal color bar generator; the ability to precisely position an image horizontally and vertically; and the ability to quickly store and recall favorite configurations through the remote control ports.

Small Tree announced ST-RAID, the newest member of its GraniteSTOR family of shared storage products. The direct attached shared storage technology is designed specifically for Final Cut Pro users looking for an economical, functional and easy to manage storage solution. It provides robust (greater than 500MB/sec), consistent performance over Ethernet networks while offering optimal cost-efficiency, and its low latency ensures there are no dropped frames. Available in 8-, 12- or 16-drive (1TB) configurations, GraniteSTOR ST-RAID enables instant availability and background initialization along with automatic insertion/removal detection and rebuild. For greater flexibility, more storage can be added easily for system expansion.

When you’re at NAB and you visit a booth like Panasonic, you’re almost overwhelmed because of the size of the booth and number of attendees packed inside, hoping to get a peek at the new technology. One of those technologies that had NAB 2009 attendees excited was the new the AG-HPX300 camcorder, of which I received a private demonstration.

This 10-bit, 4:2:2 professional HD camcorder features independent frame AVC-Intra recording and variable frame rates. Incorporating a low profile shoulder mounted design, it offers the flexibility of interchangeable lens but comes standard with a Fujinon 17x HD lens.

The HPX300 incorporates advanced 1/3in 2.2-megapixel 3-MOS imagers to acquire full native resolution HD images. These advanced 3-MOS imagers provide image quality while minimizing noise or sacrificing dynamic range. A new 20-bit digital signal processor (DSP) enhances the HPX300’s image performance. more…

Blackmagic Design launched today the Blackmagic UltraScope, a PC-based waveform monitor. It is a combination PCI Express card and software package designed to work in a low-cost PC with a 24in monitor for display. The monitor allows simultaneous display of six waveform views, including RGB/YUV parade display, composite waveform, vector, histogram, eight-channel audio meters, stereo audio scope and picture view.

The six scopes all update at the same time. Blackmagic UltraScope auto detects between SD, HD and 3Gb/s HD-SDI video standards. It also automatically selects between regular SDI and optical fiber SDI inputs.

At the Blackmagic Design press conference this afternoon, Dan May, president of Blackmagic Design, announced several new products. Among them were the Enterprise Videohub, a 144 x 288 model, and Studio Videohub, a compact 16 x 32 model.

Enterprise Videohub features 144 deck control ports and a single circuit board design, which reduces degradatin of high-speed data signals such as 3Gb/s SDI. It is 16RU high and less than 3in deep.

Studio Videohub is 2RU high and is designed for small post-production workgroups where people need to share a broadcast deck. It can also be used to compartmentalize sections of a facility from the main router such as a small graphic design group in a large broadcast facility.

Sylvain Riviere, Ateme EVP marketing and business development, demonstrated the Kyrion 2101, an HD MPEG-4/AVC encoder targeting a broad range of DTV applications. It features a large operating scale, from 0.5Mb/s to 25Mb/s, with advanced Main and High Profile encoding, allowing bouquet aggregators, broadcasters and IPTV service operators to reach their audience with a high picture quality. The encoder offers a complete set of MPEG-4/AVC tools, including full support of interlaced video (MBAFF).

At ATEME’s booth, Vincent Tep, product marketing manager, showed me the company’s new 10-bit Hi422P solution for the contribution market. With 10-bit AVC/H.264 encoding, content is maintained throughout an IP/MPLS network at the same resolution and picture information level as the source. This ensures pristine video quality throughout as well as increased capacity over DVB-S2 satellite feeds.