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[Monday at NAB]
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Nvision Adds to Its Master Control Switcher Line
Company Highlights New Tricks, Products
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by James E. O’Neal,
~ April 14, 2008
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TV TECHNOLOGY
Nvision has some new tricks up its corporate sleeves and several new products waiting to be unveiled at this year’s NAB Show.
As stations move ahead with high-definition broadcasting and construct new facilities to transmit it, a suitable master control switcher is absolutely essential. Understandably, one of the Nvision’s most popular entities for several years has been its master control switcher line.
MULTICHANNEL MC SWITCHING
Nvision’s new NV5100MC multichannel master control switching system’s scalable design addresses the need for an MC switcher that stations won’t outgrow as they move further into the digital world. The NV5100MC lets users start out in SD operations, and when it’s time, upgrade in the field to full high-definition signal switching with a simple reprogramming of the unit’s Master Control Engine (MCE).
“We are offering five different processors spanning a range of feature sets and price points,” said Jay Kuca, Nvision director of product management. “The new NV5100MC processor supports HD up to 1080p and it’s priced less than the current processor.”
The core switcher processor provides a range of keying functionality, including two separate logo keyers, full A/B mixing, a three-for-two picture squeeze and internal Dolby E encoding. The NV5100MC also features a separate preview bus to guard against switching errors that are likely to happen when the preset bus is used for this function.
Nvision also allows stations to further custom tailor their MC switcher capabilities with card cage space for a second MCE back-up unit for both SD and HD signals in a multichannel environment. And unlike some master control switchers, the NV5100MC has its own crosspoints and is not tied to an external routing system. However, if desired, the MC switcher can fully integrate with an upstream router for access to all sources available in the plant.
The new product also allows more user customization with a choice of three different hardware control surfaces, along with a PC touch-screen graphical user interface. These different configurations can be intermixed within the same MC switching system, with each control surface switching one channel, a selected group of channels, or all channels flowing through the operation.
“We refer to it as moving pictures and sound around, perfectly,” said Kuca.
SMALL AND LARGE ROUTERS
Another piece of the equation for stations making the switch to digital is mainframe routing.
“Nvision has taken a ‘broad spectrum’ approach to routing,” Kuca said. “We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel. Our first routers appeared in 1998 and these switched HD signals.”
The latest line of Nvision routers range in size from 16x16 up to 1152x1152, and all handle 3 Gbps signals.
“We pride ourselves in offering products for all sizes,” said Kuca. “We’re also showing a very high density configuration that allows users to put 576x1152 switching capability in only 32 RU of space. The DIN connectors that we’re using to achieve some of this space economy are now being sourced by at least a dozen venders.”
EXPANDED SYNAPSE LINE
Also look to Nvision’s Synapse modular product line for the rest of the digital/SD/HD equation solvers needed to be ready for the 2009 transition date. There are now more than 100 Synapse modules available for virtually any signal processing and transmission requirement. In addition, Synapse modules may be combined with other Nvision products to increase their functionality or feature set, or to reduce acquisition costs in some areas.
“We’ve got many new Synapse modules coming out at the NAB Show,” said Kuca.
Some of the Synapse products to look for this year include a card for audio compression and limiting for up to eight channels of embedded AES audio, another for up/down/cross-standards conversion, and if you need to perform high-definition quad splits, there’s also a new card that does just this.
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