In Broadcast - July 2017 - 40

40

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 7 - Issue 6

InTech

Silvus Ships 4x4 MIMO Radio
S

ilvus, a leading developer
of
military-grade
wireless
communications
via
MN-MIMO
radio
solutions, has launched its
new StreamCaster 4400
(SC4400).
This powerful wireless radio
was initially unveiled at the
NAB show in Las Vegas.
"Initial field testing of
the SC4400 has shown an
incredible increase in range
and performance thanks to
8 watts of power plus all-new
transmit beamforming. With
demo units and customer
orders both rolling off the
production line, we look forward
to getting the SC4400 into our
customers' hands to see what new
missions we can help enable," said
Silvus' VP of Sales, Jimi Henderson.
The SC4400, like all Silvus radios,
operates in both licensed and
unlicensed wireless bands. It creates
an ad hoc, self-healing/self-forming
mesh network of "nodes" that can

StreamCaster 4400 offers
transmit beamforming

operate independent of Wi-Fi or
cellular infrastructures.
Transmit beamforming, coupled with
traditional receiver beamforming,
delivers an immense boost in signal
strength that translates into longrange, wireless bi-directional delivery
of HD video, audio, and command and
control at significant distances.
"Transmit beamforming provides

roughly 6dB of extra signal strength,
which allows the SC4400 to deliver the
equivalent performance of a 32 watt
radio with minimal size, weight and
power," added Henderson.
Other notable features include:
spatial multiplexing for enhanced
throughput; space-time coding for
enhanced robustness; data rates up to
100+Mbps; automatic link adaptation

to
continually
optimise
throughput
in
dynamic
environments; and ultra-low
latency.
Recognised and respected
for developing advances
in
cutting-edge
military
technology
to
provide
wireless communications in
the harshest of environments,
Silvus claims to excel where
traditional systems fail.
Silvus leads the Mobile
Networked MIMO waveform
revolution with mesh radio
solutions
designed
to
distribute video and high
bandwidth data anywhere.
Silvus StreamCaster radios create
robust,
self-healing/self-forming,
fluid mesh networks. Delivering
COFDM modulation and up to 4x4
MIMO with mesh networking , Silvus
provides higher throughput, longer
range, better reliability and more
flexibility than any wireless standard:
true, military-grade "plug and play"
operation.

SMPTE Reports
On Time Code Use
S

MPTE
has
published
two
documents, The Time Code Summit
Report and The Material eXchange
Format (MXF) Time Code Study Report.
Both reports offer valuable insights
into how the SMPTE Time Code
standard (ST 12-1 Time and Control
Code) can evolve to serve as a more
useful tool in media production.
"SMPTE Time Code is used
extensively throughout production and
post-production. With the evolution of
media technology since its introduction
in 1975, it is showing its age in some
areas," said SMPTE Director of
Engineering and Standards Howard
Lukk. "We are exploring ways to
improve Time Code. The results of The
Time Code Summit Report provide a
better understanding of the drawbacks
in its current use, in and beyond the
conventional audio/video community,
and of the direction we need to take
in developing a new standard. At the

same time, we're using The MXF Time
Code Report to clarify Time Code in
MXF and how facilities can work with it
more efficiently."
The Time Code Summit Report
presents the methodology and
findings of surveys performed at the
Time Code Summit, a series of focus
groups held in London, New York, and
Los Angeles. The report summarises
user requirements that must be
addressed by any new Time Code
standard, particularly the proposed
Time Labels standard to address the
radical changes brought about by
the industry's integration of Internet
Protocol (IP), the push to higher and
variable frame rates, and other factors
testing the limits of the existing Time
Code standard.
The report also includes an
explanation of the study effort,
the survey questions asked and
answers provided, and the dialogue

that occurred at each
summit.
The MXF Time Code
Study Report focuses
on the current usage of
Time Code within the
MXF file format. Since
the creation of MXF in
2004, Time Code has
been stored within MXF
files in many ways - sometimes as
metadata, and sometimes as actual
Time Code values from a tape or
stream. This report is the result of two
years spent investigating current MXF
Time Code practices and documenting
findings.
The report considers applications
that need to write MXF files with Time
Code and applications that need to
read MXF files containing Time Code. It
examines the three core requirements
highlighted by the study group: MXF
should be able to store multiple Time

"We are exploring ways
to improve Time Code"
Howard Lukk, SMPTE

Code values per frame, and they
should all be identical; store multiple
Time Code values per frame, though
they may be from different sources
and have different values; and include
the appropriate Time Code in audioonly files.
Both SMPTE reports are
now available.
http://www.inbroadcast.com http://silvustechnologies.com/products/streamcaster-4400 https://www.smpte.org/news-events/news-releases/smpte-publishes-key-reports-time-code-standard
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - July 2017
