UK

Vislink Group today announced a significant strengthening its corporate management in the US with the promotion of Tony Finizio to the new position of US Chief Operating Officer and the appointment of Morgan Kurk as President of MRC.

In his new role as US COO, Tony will continue to report to Vislink Group Chief Executive Ian Scott-Gall, and will have responsibility for the implementation of the Vislink Group's strategic plans in the US. Foremost amongst those plans are the implementation of the North American technical services plan and the strengthening of Vislink Group's channels to market and product portfolio in the broadcast, defense, law enforcement and security markets through organic growth and possible strategic acquisitions.

Tony was appointed President of MRC on the company's acquisition by the Vislink Group in July 2000 and was also appointed to the Board of Directors' of Vislink plc in December 2004. He held senior management roles running a number of technology companies before joining MRC in November 1999.

Morgan Kurk is joining MRC from Andrew Wireless Solutions Group, where he was Vice President and General Manager of the Wireless Innovations (WIG) business unit. Under his leadership the WIG team has seen substantial growth in sales and made key financial contributions to Andrew Corporation. Morgan has been part of the WIG team for more than ten years.

New synchronizer reduces cost and complexity of HD systems

Crystal Vision's latest multi-functional HD product combines on one board the traditional functionality of five different products - video synchronizer, tracking audio delay, embedder, de-embedder and audio processor - making it suitable for any applications involving untimed HD or SD video and associated audio. Not only does this ability to be used in many different ways give enhanced flexibility to the system designer, it also brings significant cost and rack space savings.

With its most common use as a straightforward video synchronizer for embedded audio environments, SYNNER HD has an enviable list of synchronizing features. Essentially a frame synchronizer allowing any timing difference, SYNNER HD additionally offers the advantages of a line synchronizer, with a short minimum delay of 2us and quick recovery of input timing. SYNNER HD can both synchronize incoming video signals which are not locked to the local reference and compensate for timing delays within the video system. Its ability to cross-lock means that an HD or SD input can be referenced to either HD tri-level syncs or SD Black and Burst - therefore allowing it to use any existing timing signals. The output timing relative to the reference can be adjusted through an entire frame using horizontal and vertical settings. SYNNER HD offers a powerful and unique synchronizing system, synchronizing at three separate points which allows it to avoid picture disturbances for switches on the input that are between mistimed sources and that occur in the vertical blanking. Manual freeze allows it to be used as a simple still store, while automatic freeze is available when input fails through loss of signal.

SYNNER HD includes an internal tracking audio delay which tracks the video delay, running the audio fast or slow to ensure the video and audio stay correctly timed and to avoid lip sync errors. Up to 20ms of fixed audio delay can be added on top of the tracking to compensate for early audio.

By fitting the standard Crystal Vision piggybacks to the motherboard SYNNER HD can also include an audio embedder or de-embedder for analogue or digital audio - allowing the embedding of one or two groups of audio into the video or the de-embedding of one or two groups of audio timed to the system. Crystal Vision is well known for the powerful audio routing which appears across its range, and SYNNER HD provides full channel shuffling via its 16 x 8 mono router which allows the audio tracks to be rearranged between the two groups and additionally audio replace where an input piggyback can be used to overwrite some of the original audio channels from the HD or SD feed.

SYNNER HD also offers powerful audio processing capabilities. The audio level can be increased or decreased to match the rest of the system, with each mono audio channel offering individual gain control, adjustable between +3dB and -3dB in 0.1dB steps. Audio channels can be muted, while stereo to mono conversion helps those broadcasting a multi-language service. Forward error correction ensures audio quality is maintained.

Crystal Vision's Managing Director, Philip Scofield, sums up the product's usefulness: ‘With its huge range of audio and video processing, SYNNER HD turns ambitions and complicated broadcast station designs into elegant and tidy solutions.'

SYNNER HD is a space-saving 100mm x 266mm module which fits in Crystal Vision's standard frames, allowing 24 boards in 4U, 12 in 2U, six in 1U or two in a desk top box. It can be used with two frame rear modules to access all the inputs and outputs, with the RM33 used for applications involving analogue audio or 110 ohm AES and the RM39 for 75 ohm AES. It comes with the full range of control options to suit all preferences - including board edge switches, an active front panel on the frame, a remote panel located in a different room or the Statesman PC software.

Corrigent signs a long term agreement with Media Broadcast GmbH

Corrigent Systems, announced that its CM-100 and CM-4000 product lines were selected by Media Broadcast as a main network infrastructure building block for network solutions deployed by Deutsche Telekom's wholesale business unit, and leased to a leading cable operator in Germany. Deployments in Lower Saxony and Bavaria begin this year, and rollout in further regions for the leading cable operator are expected to span over the next years as part of a 15-year agreement. First shipments of the CM-100 have commenced.

Corrigent's CM platforms offer a 10Gbps solution combining Ethernet transport, full support of legacy SONET/SDH capabilities, MPLS and RPR technologies, with end-to-end network management, to allow cost-effective and resilient delivery of video, voice and data multi-play services.

The CM-4000 supports the gradual migration from today's broadcast-centric services to future personalized video services, offering the highest levels of Quality of Experience (QoE) with capacity scaling capabilities required to address the expected growth in on-demand services.

"We are proud to be selected by Media Broadcast for Deutsche Telekom´s cable operator customers" said Izhak Tamir, President and CEO of Corrigent Systems, "We are looking forward to establishing a long term partnership with Media Broadcast and Deutsche Telekom, and will work with them closely to address their customers' evolving needs."

USA

Harris Corporation announced that IRIS Networks of Nashville has installed a Harris^® IPTV headend featuring NetVX^TM MPEG-4/H.264 video encoding for the delivery of standard and high-definition terrestrial TV channels to rural independent telecommunications companies.

IRIS Networks is a member-owned organization comprising 11 independent telephone companies in Tennessee, southern Kentucky and Virginia. The organization's Nashville point-of-presence (POP) serves as a centralized distribution point for the delivery of 16 channels of local off-air station programming from Nashville and Knoxville, Tennessee, to participating telecommunications companies, all of which provide TV services to rural areas underserved by traditional cable TV service providers.

The Harris^® IPTV headend installed at IRIS Networks' POP in Nashville includes Harris^® Videotek^® DDM-800 ATSC demodulators and NetVX^TM MPEG-2 decoders to receive and decode the TV signals from off-air antennas; and NetVX^TM ENC-A21 MPEG-4/H.264 encoders to compress and transport the multiple standard and high-definition TV channels over a fiber-based IP backbone to the rural telephone companies that deliver the channels to subscribers at home and elsewhere.

‘The ability to offer television service to existing and potential subscribers is extremely important for local and regional independent telecommunications companies to compete against larger cable and satellite service providers," said Peter De Bono, director of engineering for IRIS Networks. "The Harris^® IPTV headend solution provides a technically superior yet cost-effective solution that allows us to get up and running quickly with local TV services to ultimately create a more attractive consumer product. The highly integrated architecture supports our IPTV initiative today with lower total cost of ownership and provides a scalable platform to build on in the future.'