In Broadcast - November 2014 - 68

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

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 37 - NOVEMBER 2014

N E W S

InTECH
Transmitting Broadcast Video With No Strings Attached Cont.
high bitrate streaming to the Web,
and cinema want to employ iPads
and iPhones as conﬁdence monitors.
WHDI, on the other hand, is suited
to high-end production:
"Cinema users require Bolt's
zero latency for focus pulling and
uncompressed video feed to ensure
what is being recorded in the camera
is exactly what they're seeing on
their monitors," says Gailing.
Boxx TV's Alicia Young concurs:
"WHDI gives you extremely high
picture quality and zero delay where
COFDM compression systems
enable you to trade off picture quality
for greater distances. For now, WHDI
is only in 5GHz which is great if you
don't have the budget for licensed
frequencies. Then again systems
at the licensed 2GHz frequencies
are going to have better range than
any 5GHz systems or worse 7GHz
system - that's just science."

68

Long-range, low latency Teradek
Beam unit

Signal Systems
Teradek used IBC to launch its
long-range, low latency Beam unit.

Piggy-backing onto a shouldermount camera, it can encode HD
video up-to 50Mb/s. For Boxx
TV, the focus was on a prototype
wireless system with a 600m
range. Its advanced functionality
allows monitoring of the system's
performance, signal strength and
conﬁguration using a smartphone.
Mobile Viewpoint introduced
the WMT Agile 2.0 HD video
transmission backpack. A small
and light-weight IP encoder, it ﬁts
between camera body and battery
pack and allows connection to up-to
eight 4G modems. It also features
a LAN connection, satellite/KAsat/BGAN support and 32GB of
removable storage for recording
video locally, ready to edit.
"We wanted to offer our customers
the fastest, smartest and smallest
IP bonding encoder on the market.
Up to eight industrial 4G modems
are built inside the body of the WMT
Agile 2.0, with external antenna
connectors and next to SDI also
analogue CVBS and HDMI input,"
said Mobile Viewpoint CEO and
research leader Michel Bais. "Like
all our other systems we integrate
the newest industrial modems which
deliver much better throughput
compared to USB dongles. We
also added an SD-card slot for
removable storage."
Paralinx lifted the lid on Arrow-X
at this year's IBC. Its small form
factor (the transmitter weighs less
than 180g) is intended for use with a
Steadicam, gimbal or UAV. Boasting

a 215m transmission range and low
latency, it is available in HDMI or
SDI variants.
Paralinx Co-Founder, Greg
Smokler claimed that the Arrow-X
systems were pitched at an
aggressive price point and that
"nearly anyone who wants longrange, zero-delay HD wireless
now has access".
For innovator Amimon, the focus
was on wireless gimbal control. Its
engineers have enabled full control
for gimbals through SBUS protocol
as well as zero latency wireless video
transmission. This makes camera
operation considerably easier for
broadcasters, cinematographers
and drone operators.
"By making it possible to fully
control the gimbal operation via
our HD wireless video link, we are
combining two wireless links into
one and eliminating the need to
support a dedicated wireless link
for the gimbal control," said Ram
Oﬁr, CEO, Amimon. "Now, a gimbalmounted camera can soar, ski or ﬂy,
with the beneﬁts of lower weight,
lower power consumption, fewer RF
interferences and a much simpler
system to operate."
Chinese manufacturer CVW
released CVW300, a system with
300m transmission range. This
attractively designed transmitter
seems to tick all the boxes. This
raises a conundrum: with so many
similarly specified products, on
what should buyers be basing
their decision?

Robust Configuration
For Boxx TV the answer is clear:
"Conﬁguration and ﬂexibility is king.
A system which is plug-and-play
might be ﬁne for a single camera
production but commonly our client
base use from two cameras up to
eight wireless cameras in the same
area. Plug-and-play systems with
no monitoring or configuration
capabilities will not be able to
handle that set up very well."
An alternative view is offered
by Teradek: "We have always
tried to democratise professional,
high level technology by bringing
it to the masses with affordable
pricing. To this end, we differentiate
ourselves from lower
level offerings with
features such as
3G-SDI connectors,
Lemo
power
connectors with wide
voltage ranges, higher
output radios, and
additional channels to
transmit over.
"We also build a
sturdier chassis design
using milled aluminium.
Compare that to
flimsy consumer
chassis' that cannot
withstand regular
use of challenging
environmental
conditions."
Paralinx Arrow-X is
available in HDMI
or SDI variants

Why Do Extended Display Identification Data?
By Orrin Charm
Product Manager, Gefen

O

ne of the great mysteries of the
AV world is EDID: the 'Extended
Display Identiﬁ cation Data' that
allows displays to communicate
its capabilities to upstream devices.
Many failures to get the best picture
(or any picture) on a display are the
result of EDID issues.
For a system with a single
source and display, EDID operates
in the background, with no user
intervention required. For more
complex systems, with multiple
displays and sources, it is critical
that EDID is set properly.
To understand the issues, you
need to know how EDID works.
EDID is data stored in a display's
memory. The data consists of tables
describing the video resolutions,

timings, audio capabilities and
other information that the display
is capable of supporting. When a
source is connected to the display,
it queries the display's capability,
and conﬁgures its output to the best
signal the display can handle.
If there are other devices in the
link, such as an AV receiver, the
EDID is passed upstream to the
source, but the receiver modiﬁes the
data to reﬂect its own capabilities.
So the display may have two
speakers, supporting two-channel
audio, but the receiver can decode
7.1-channel audio, so it tells the
source to send 7.1-channel. If there
are multiple displays with different
capabilities, the source needs to
send the best signal that all of the

displays can handle.
So if the system has
one 1080p and one
720p display, the
source will send
720p content.
The process isn't always perfect,
so there is often a need to "fool"
a source into sending a different
format than the EDID is suggesting.
To do this, devices called EDID
Detectives are used. A Detective is
connected to the display and stores
the display's EDID, which is sent to
the source, so that it provides the
desired format. The EDID Detective
also has internally stored, common
EDID settings.
Gefen created several EDID
Detectives, and besides Detectives
for HDMI, DVI and DisplayPort, many
Gefen products
have
EDID
management
built-in
to
s u p p o r t
implementations.
The new Gefen Syner-G toolkit

makes the process even simpler,
by allowing users to view and edit
the EDIDs stored in the Detective,
download a previously edited EDID
from a computer or the Internet
and copy EDID tables from one
device to another.
The Gefen Syner-G EDID+
tool manages uploading and
downloading of EDIDs, and
breaks complex EDID tables into
manageable pieces, clearly showing
each function.
The Gefen Syner-G suite combines
the world's best EDID manager with
tools for IP discovery, software
conﬁguration, and ﬁrmware updates
into a single seamless package,
bringing a new standard in video
management tools to the AV and
IT professional.

Gefen Pro 8x8 DVI DL Matrix
conﬁdence monitoring for shoots
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