Vendors throw 3Gb/s switch
Mar 12, 2009 10:06 AM, By Michael Grotticelli
With the emergence of 3-D and the desire for better-quality live replays, the need for more bandwidth for live sports production has cast a new light on the availability of large-scale production switchers capable of handling 1080p/60 signals. The format has been talked about for several years as the “holy grail” because it offers lots of space for all types of video data files, and, from it, all other HD formats can be extracted for parallel (3-D, HD and SD) distribution.
A four-M/E Grass Valley Kalypso HD switcher was used in dual-link mode onboard a Crosscreek Television production truck during a live telecast of an NFL game in 3-D.
With last summer’s Olympic Games in Beijing, the value of such production was crystal clear in the numerous HD replays that were captured with 3x slow-motion cameras from Grass Valley and Sony. There were even higher frame rate cameras from I-Movix and Vision Research in the mix. What they all had in common was a need for an infrastructure that could process a 60fps signal at 3Gb/s. Current HD productions move data at half that rate (1.5) to produce sporting events — at 30fps — in both the 720p and 1080i formats.
To date, the only equipment readily available to handle such bandwidth-intensive productions were routers, signal-processing cards that go into routers, external processing units (like frame synchronizers and color correctors) and storage devices. That’s because customers have been slow to ask for anything larger. Those building new facilities have installed “3Gb/s-ready” routers as a way to future-proof themselves.
Looking around, there is some real interest in the format. ESPN has made it clear to the various vendors that it will not install any production gear that is not at least upgradeable to 3Gb/s capability and the Miami Heat professional basketball team has installed an HD production suite inside its new American Airlines Arena that includes the ability to output a 3Gb/s signal. In addition, system integrators say they are beginning to get more proposals for it.
Testing the waters at NAB
This year’s NAB Show will have the makers of large-input production switchers talking about the HD format. For some, like Grass Valley, Ross Video and Snell & Wilcox, it will mostly be just talk, because all have stated their reluctance to put too much emphasis on a format that has few takers. For other, smaller-sized companies, however — such as Broadcast Pix, Echolab and FOR-A — products will be on the floor for hands-on demonstrations.
Sony’s MVS8000G will soon feature the ability to switch a sports production via single-link operation.
Among current large-input switchers on the market, Grass Valley’s Kalypso series, Ross’ Vision QMD/X series, Sony’s MVS8000G series and Snell’s Kahuna series all have the ability today to handle these signals by using two M/E channels in place of one. However, some say this can cause signal degradation.
Thus, a four-M/E switcher becomes a two-M/E system, which limits the amount of sources that can be used. A 40-input production using 3Gb/s cameras and other sources will have 20 inputs available to it, because the switcher is processing twice as much data. The 3Gb/s source is converted to dual link on the input, processed as a 1.5Gb/s signal via the internal engine, then converted back to 3Gb/s on the output. In most cases, this configuration also requires a “minor” software tweak.
At NAB, Sony will demonstrate its MVS8000G, which currently offers the ability to handle 3Gb/s productions by using its internal 1.5 architecture in a dual-link configuration. The company will have the MVS8000G switching 3-D content from the NFL and NBA games that have been experimented with. These events also used Sony HDC-1500 HD cameras as well. Sony plans to announce single-link 3Gb/s capability at the show, but will not deliver until “possibly” later this year.
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