BBC BECOMES FIRST SHARC-XP ASPECT RATIO CONVERTER USER DURING EURO 2004 (June 2004)

The BBC has used ten Crystal Vision ShARC204-XPs for aspect ratio conversion for one of the most important sporting events of the summer – Euro 2004. Operating from a large outside broadcast truck in Portugal, the BBC became the first customer to use the dual channel 10 bit horizontal aspect ratio converter. One reason the broadcaster opted for Crystal Vision is because the company was able to supply the large number of boards needed for the event.

Crystal Vision dedicated extra development time to finishing the ARC specifically in time for the European football tournament. Commented Philip Scofield, Managing Director of Crystal Vision, "When we heard the BBC's requirement for 18 channels of aspect ratio conversion for Euro 2004 exactly fitted our plans for the ShARC-XP, we naturally went all out to have the product ready for the BBC's timescale. We had always thought that a large sports event was the perfect application for ShARC-XP because of its combination of high picture quality, near zero delay and small size with up to 24 channels in a single 2U frame."

The Portuguese national broadcaster RTP had the rights to film the football matches, and supplied the pictures to the BBC in 4:3 format. The BBC also had some of its own cameras in Portugal, which filmed in 16:9. ShARC-XP was used to make the Portuguese and BBC formats consistent. ShARC-XP only changes the horizontal aspect ratio, maintaining an exceptional output quality because there is no deterioration of vertical performance. The product encompasses the latest technology and can perform two horizontal conversions. In this case the BBC used the 4:3 Pillarbox function to compress the image and add black bands either side to make it suitable for a 16:9 monitor. The picture was then sent back to the UK where it was broadcast directly to digital television viewers and underwent further conversion to 4:3 for analogue viewers. In Britain the coverage of the tournament was shared between BBC1 and ITV, with the BBC broadcasting 12 out of the 24 first round matches.

ShARC204-XP also has a 16:9 Full Screen function, which converts a 16:9 picture to 4:3 by taking the central 75% of the image and stretching it to fit on a 4:3 monitor.

ShARC-XP, a space-saving 100mm x 266mm board, is part of a modular system and can be slotted in to the same frame as other audio and video modules. Being able to fit 24 channels in 2U becomes vital when space is limited, such as in the BBC’s outside broadcast truck. It offers an extremely high quality output at a very competitive price. There is a wide and flat frequency response, due to high performance digital filtering ensuring that distortion is minimal. With just ten microseconds of propagation delay, ShARC-XP preserves audio-video timing with no lip-sync errors. The minimal delay introduced on the digital video avoids the need for any audio delay products for non-embedded audio applications. Embedded audio and auxiliary data are passed with the same delay as the picture. ShARC-XP is very straightforward to install and use. Control is flexible, with board edge, GPI, active front, remote panel and Statesman, Crystal Vision’s PC control software, all being options. There is also a single version of ShARC-XP.

The ‘Euro’ football competition occurs four-yearly and Euro 2004 took place from 12th June to 4th July in Portugal. Out of 50 teams who played in the qualifying matches, 16 went through to play in the tournament.

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, aspect ratio converters and audio embedders to the professional broadcasting industry worldwide.