(Colorado Springs, Colorado--April 14, 2008) Convergent Design’s Flash XDR will soon enable HD ENG at TV stations WJLA (Washington DC). This ABC affiliate has placed a 20-unit pre-order of Flash XDR with ASI I/O, as part of their roll-out of HD ENG. Flash XDR will enable cost-effective HD-SDI to ASI encoding (on the camera) as well as ASI to HD-SDI decoding for monitoring (inside the OB truck).
Flash XDR encodes the HD-SDI (video + audio) signal at the camera into a 19 Mbps (MPEG2 TS) transport stream. The MPEG2 TS is then mapped onto a 270-Mbps ASI protocol and sent via coax cable to the OB truck. The ASI stream is then immediately relayed via microwave or satellite uplink to the local station for live-news broadcast. A second Flash XDR, inside the OB truck, is utilized to decode the incoming ASI stream (from the camera) for confidence monitoring. Alternatively, this second Flash XDR can be programmed to perform ASI encoding from a POV camera mounted on the truck or from another HD-SDI source.
In the design of this system, several connection scenarios were also considered, including HD-SDI grade coax, fiber optics, and wireless transmission from the camera to the OB truck. HD-SDI coax would reduce cable length runs from 350 down to 150 meters and required all new cabling. Fiber optical cable, while supporting very long cable runs, was considered too expensive and not rugged enough for the rough and tumble world of ENG. Wireless transmission was also deemed too expensive and added an additional potential failure mode for data transmission. All solutions required HD-SDI to ASI encoding to reduce the uncompressed HD-SDI to bit-rates compatible with microwave / satellite transmission (around 19 Mbps).
The camera-mountable Flash XDR proved to be the simplest and most cost-effective approach. By encoding the HD-SDI signal to ASI at the camera, TV crews can reuse their existing (composite analog) coax cable. Also with slight reductions in the MPEG2 TS bit-rate (from the 19.7 to 19 Mbps), comprehensive error-correction could be added before microwave/satellite transmission, thus improving the overall reliability of the video.
“Stations across the country are faced with the dilemma of how to transition their ENG trucks from SD to HD for live news coverage. After extensive research, we believe Flash XDR with ASI I/O to be the cleanest and most cost-effective solution available”, noted Mark Olingy, Director of Operations and Engineering at WJLA, Washington D.C.
In addition to HD ENG, the Flash XDR Portable Recorder / Player has many widespread applications, including digital cinematography, video assist, surgical (OR) recording, race cars, flight recorders, and POV camera recorders among others. Flash XDR lists for $4995, while the ASI I/O can be added as a firmware upgrade for $995.
More info at http//www.convergent-design.com or at NAB booth SL7828.
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