CRYSTAL VISION’S NEW PRODUCT LINE BRINGS LARGE ORDER FROM CHANNEL NINE (2005)

New from Crystal Vision are nine products (six frames and three control panels) which run on 48 Volts, developed following a request from Channel Nine. The Australian broadcaster required 48V equipment for eight digital news gathering vehicles, and bought eight 2U frames, eight control panels and 54 interface boards.

48 Volts is becoming increasingly popular, especially in communications and Outside Broadcast applications. People generally use 48V if they want to avoid the high voltage of mains power for safety reasons, or if mains power is not readily available and they therefore need their equipment to be driven by battery.

There are three 2U frames (Indigo 2-48V, Indigo 2A-48V and Indigo 2S-48V) and three 1U frames (Indigo 1-48V, Indigo 1A-48V and Indigo 1S-48V), each selected depending on the level of control required (board edge, frame active front panel or PC software). Also released are three 48V control panels for the SW808 8 x 8 routing switch (SW808 Controller-48V), the CoCo104 colour corrector (CoCo Controller-48V) and the general product range (REMIND-48V).

These products retain all the features of the 'standard' versions and work with Crystal Vision’s normal interface and keying modules. The only difference is that they run on 48V DC instead of mains, working with any voltage in the range from 40V up to 75V. A Powerpole power connector on the rear section of the frames and control panels ensures mains cannot be plugged in by accident. The frames have a special 150 Watts power supply (PSU-150i-48V), with dual PSU redundancy still available for the 2U versions. The three control panels - which share a common chassis - have their own 48V input power supply. All the products work with positive or negative earth.

Brisbane-based broadcaster Channel Nine was the first customer for the 48V products, buying eight Indigo 2-48V frames and eight SW808 Controller-48V control panels along with 54 interface modules for its digital news gathering vehicles. These eight vehicles are equipped throughout with 12V and 48V products for safety and efficiency reasons, with the equipment running off batteries.

The equipment had to fulfil stringent conditions in order to be suitable for the installation. Firstly, it needed to be compact because there was only 3U rack space available in each vehicle. It also had to be very reliable and hard wearing to withstand rugged road conditions in Australia. Finally it had to be easy to use to allow the crew to respond quickly to breaking news stories. Crystal Vision won the order against tough competition from both local and international suppliers and is providing all of the routing as well as transmission of the signals back to the broadcast station. The equipment was sold through Crystal Vision’s Australian distributor, Mastatek.

In each of the vehicles the 3U rack space is filled with one Indigo 2-48V 2U frame to house up to 12 modules and one 1U SW808 Controller-48V to operate the SW808 8 x 8 routing switch. The 54 boards inside the eight 2U frames include SW808 routing switches, Demon de-embedding monitors, DEC101S and DEC104S composite to SDI decoders, and TANDEM-300 embedders/de-embedders. The TANDEM-300s were selected for their ability to manipulate audio gains digitally.

Based at Whittlesford near Cambridge in the UK, Crystal Vision provides digital keyers and a full range of digital and analogue interface equipment including converters, decoders, encoders, distribution amplifiers and audio embedders to the professional broadcasting industry worldwide.