In Broadcast - November 2012 - 50

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

N E W S

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 14 - NOV/DEC 2012

InTECH
Signal Management Processing & QC Cont.
smartphones we’re also involved with companies like HewlettPackard, which is producing laptops with very good quality loudspeakers. Sound is more personal these days and it has to be good quality. But how the T&M, the fundamental physics is done, is the same as for the other areas we work in.” Another sound specialist is Audio Precision. Vice President of Engineering Tom Kite comments that T&M still has an important role to play in today’s digital and, increasingly, file-based world because, as digital interfaces become more complicated, with greater emphasis on protocol, the test equipment needs to provide access not just to the audio but also to the metadata and protocol elements of the interface. “There is also still a need to verify that the audio is correctly handled,” he adds. “Digital systems can clip, have poor response, truncate words and have poor sample rate conversion and so on. And all digital systems ultimately interface to analogue somewhere. There are plenty of opportunities for the audio to be degraded.” Hamlet concentrates on video but Steve Nunney says audio is part of the measuring operation as much as the picture. “The requirement is to assess the essence of a piece of material,” he says, “the audio and video and, now, the data wrapper. It doesn’t matter what the means of transmission is – cable or the internet or anything else – the need is to ensure that the content is A-OK. Loudness is becoming a prerequisite and that’s nothing to do with how the sound was originated, it’s about the effect of the audio.” As for the future, Nunney sees stereoscopic 3D as the next big thing. Although broadcasters are still working out what this means for audio, Hamlet has added a new display to its VidScope softwarebased T&M system, representing the different frequencies in a signal as colours, showing high and low levels. “It’s almost 3D in that sense and is designed for analysis,” Nunney says. Wherever it happens in the broadcast chain, T&M will always be with us as its offspring, QC grows ever more important to ensure consistent, good quality transmissions in a TV world that is increasingly dependent on automated playout. ■

Videotek’s CMN-91 multiformat signal analyser with integral LCD

Leader Instruments’ LV 7770-01 Remote Controller
50 Designed for use with Leader’s LV 7770 multi-standard rasterising signal analyser and the awardwinning LV 5770 compact multimonitor, Leader’s new LV 7770-01 remote controller has a similar frontpanel to the LV 7770 plus the same 1RU width and height but much more compact front-to-back depth. The LV 7770-01 control panel allows an LV 5770 or LV 7770 to be operated across any distance via an IP connection. This can be useful in an outside broadcast vehicle where the narrow depth makes the controller particularly easy to accommodate, or in a postproduction studio where a test instrument located in an apparatus room can be accessed from an unlimited number of workstations. The controls closely match those of the LV 7770 so no time needs to be wasted in refamiliarisation. Leader’s LV 7770 enables programme production and
LV 7770-01 control panel allows operation of an LV 5770 or LV 7770 via an IP connection

post-production staff as well as engineering supervisors in television and facilities to check video and audio content quality on a much larger screen than can be accommodated in a portable instrument. It has two autosensing 3G-SDI/HD-SDI/SD-SDI inputs and can perform tests on a total of 17 video signal formats ranging from standard-deﬁnition up to 720p, 1080i and 1080p highdeﬁnition. Tri-level sync or NTSC or PAL blackburst are accepted for external reference. The selected input is reclocked and can be fed downstream. Fully controllable from its front panel, via Ethernet or from the optional LV 7770-01 dedicated remote control panel, the instrument

employs a user interface essentially identical to the existing LV 5770, LV 5800 and LV 5700A. This ergonomic similarity allows operators to move easily between devices. The LV 7770 feature set encompasses waveform, vectorscope, peak video level display, SDI/external-sync phase difference, audio, picture and data monitoring functions. Displays can be viewed at full screen size or in assignable combinations. Extensive error detection and error logging facilities are incorporated, including gamut detection and adjustable error thresholds. Digital analysis screens include data dump as well as equivalent cable length readings. Also available within the LV 7770 are Leader’s unique Cinelite

II relative brightness analyser, 3D Assist stereoscopic signal evaluator, EIA-708/EIA-608 closed caption data display, active format description data display, optional physical layer testing and ancillary data display. A separate audio option card supports integral audio tools include Dolby metadata analysis and simultaneous display of 16 channels of SDI-embedded audio, audio loudness display, measurement of lip-sync timing. Composite signal monitoring, audio monitoring and eye pattern monitoring are available as optional extras. The rasteriser outputs test results and images through a DVI-I feed at XGA resolution, delivering high display quality. An HDMI output feeds picture plus audio. The Leader LV 7770 is DC powered and comes complete with an AC adapter. ■

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In Broadcast - November 2012

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