Broadcaster France 3 has purchased 94 Crystal Vision aspect ratio converters to fulfil the new legal requirement in France to produce and broadcast in 16:9. The 94 ARC-10MC modules are being used to convert SDI signals from 4:3 cameras to 16:9 for 60 regional offices and nine news-gathering OB vans for both national and regional news, and were selected for their picture quality and price following extensive evaluation. (09/03/10)

On Booth N820 at NAB Crystal Vision will be showing for the first time the fibre input and output options for its latest embedded audio and up and down modules. This integrated fibre connectivity makes the Up-Down 3G up/down/cross converter, Q-Down 3G down converter, SYNNER-E 3G multi-functional synchroniser and TANDEM 3G embedder/de-embedder extremely powerful products which still only use a single slot in a frame, and allows signals to be sent and received from beyond the local equipment bay without being restricted by the cable length issues posed by 3G video – and without the need for separate fibre optic transmitters and receivers. (12/02/10)

Crystal Vision has released its most intelligent switch yet with the Smart Switch 3G. Designed to secure the video output in systems that demand high reliability, Smart Switch 3G provides intelligent 2 x 2 switching to a backup signal source by monitoring two 3Gb/s, HD or SD video inputs with up to four groups of embedded audio, and switching between the sources if a specified fault condition arises – no matter how subtle the fault. (28/01/10)

SIS LIVE, Europe’s largest provider of outside broadcast and satellite uplink facilities, has selected 12 of Crystal Vision’s MultiLogo V431 logo keyers for its transmission of the ITV UEFA Champions League football and as part of the technology currently being installed into its new Outside Broadcast vehicle, OB 1. (20/01/10)

Crystal Vision has added a fourth variable video delay to its range with the introduction of the ViViD HD-40, designed for engineers who need to match any very long delays in their system.  Featuring an 8 GB video store, it provides up to 43 seconds of delay in HD and 238 seconds in SD, and also excels at saving rack space by allowing 12 video delay modules to fit in just 2U of rack space. (04/01/10)

Crystal Vision will be showing its new generation of embedders, synchronisers, down converters and switches, and unveiling the exciting new features of its Picturestore product range on Stand D64 at the UK’s broadcast exhibition, Broadcast Video Expo 2010 which takes place at Earls Court 2 in London between 16th and 18th February. Having made its UK show debut at the 2009 Broadcast Video Expo, Crystal Vision’s Picturestore range now boasts new features on the MultiLogo logo keyer and Clip N Key clip and sting store. (17/12/09)

UK systems integrator Dega Broadcast Systems has purchased 317 Crystal Vision interface boards for the HD upgrade of the two largest studios at The London Studios. Located on the South Bank in London, and owned by ITV, over 2,350 hours of entertainment, sport and factual programming is produced from their studios each year for the ITV network, the BBC, Channel 4 and other broadcasters. (11/12/09)

Crystal Vision’s SW221 3G has been designed to provide simple and affordable 2 x 2 switching between two 3Gb/s, HD or SD signals, making it ideal for switching between the main and backup feeds of a television station. Selected for its functionality, reliability and price, the SW221 3G can be used either as an emergency transmission switch to avoid broken equipment, or alternatively to manually bypass products requiring maintenance on a 24 hour station. (01/12/09)

New from Crystal Vision is Up-and-down-AAFD, one multi-functional board designed to up, down or cross convert video signals containing embedded audio, provide fully flexible aspect ratio conversion for SD sources and insert SMPTE 2016 Active Format Description data into the output video for aspect ratio correction by downstream equipment. (12/11/09)

Crystal Vision has introduced a new five year warranty for customers who register their products. This extended five year back-to-base warranty is applicable to all products shipped after 20th August 2009, and is available to those who register their products within 60 days of their shipping date. (27/10/09)

Crystal Vision has released Q-Down Mini – a new version of its popular broadcast down converter and distribution amplifier. Q-Down Mini is Crystal Vision's first minibox and has been designed for attaching directly to the back of SD monitors in space-challenged environments with no spare rack space. Q-Down Mini is a down converter with two major advantages: a unique level of image quality in its price range (with its sophisticated two dimensional filtering which avoids aliasing while retaining picture sharpness) and a short processing delay of just 16 lines which eliminates the need to compensate audio signals for the video delay. (08/10/09)

Crystal Vision will be showing its new generation of embedders and down converters on Booth 1304 at HD World 2009, which takes place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York on 14th and 15th October. These new products include TANDEM 3G – the first single board solution providing a combined embedder and de-embedder for four groups of audio. Also on show in New York is the Q-Down Mini down converter – Crystal Vision's first minibox designed for attaching directly to the back of SD monitors in space-challenged environments with no spare rack space. (01/10/09)

Crystal Vision has released a free version of its PC control system. Launched on 9th July, the Statesman Lite Windows-based software has been designed to make it easy for customers to set up and monitor the status of their interface, keying and picture storage boards from any PC on an Ethernet network – at no additional cost. Ideal for anyone installing the more feature-packed Crystal Vision boards such as the embedding and synchronising products, Statesman Lite makes it easy to select the required board options during installation, view the inputs present and save the chosen settings to a PC. (23/07/09)

Crystal Vision will be showing its new generation of embedders, synchronisers, down converters and switches on Stand 2.B11 at IBC 2009. This new range of uniquely-featured 3G HD products proves that Crystal Vision is leading the way with its 3Gb/s technology, with the competitive pricing making the products suitable for use in 3G, HD and SD systems. (17/07/09)

Europe's largest provider of outside broadcast and uplink facilities SIS LIVE has purchased another 36 of the Q-Down183-A down converters from Crystal Vision for its coverage of the Wimbledon tennis championships, with the entire event being covered in HD for the first time this year. SIS LIVE is providing all the HD technical facilities to host broadcaster BBC Sport for its coverage of Wimbledon, covering matches on nine courts at the Grand Slam tennis tournament which takes place in London between 22nd June and 5th July. SIS LIVE already owned 99 Q-Downs and needed another 36 of the Crystal Vision down converters due to the large number of discrete feeds involved. (29/06/09)

Crystal Vision's new MultiLogo logo keyer is the most feature-packed, space-saving and easy-to-use modular solution to HD or SD station branding. Available in four versions and with up to 12 logo keyers fitting in just 2U of rack space, the MultiLogo V131, MultiLogo V131 8G, MultiLogo V431 and MultiLogo V431 8G each provide three layers of keying from a variety of internal and external sources. The choice of four allows the broadcaster to select the perfect logo keyer for his application – depending on whether he needs to store five or 500 logos and whether he wants to use live or pre-prepared sources. (16/06/09)

Crystal Vision has introduced three video distribution amplifiers ideal for any analogue source. The VDA110M HD, VDA110R HD and VDA210M HD have been designed for the distribution of SD Black & Burst or HD Tri-level syncs analogue reference, or for distributing SD or HD analogue video. Between them they offer the choice of varying numbers of inputs, outputs, loop-throughs and manual or remote control to suit any installation requirements. (21/05/09)

Crystal Vision has released a new version of its popular down converter and distribution amplifier. Q-Down-A-AFD combines flexible outputs and a unique level of image quality in its price range with the ability to use the SMPTE 2016 AFD data embedded in an HD video input to automatically select the appropriate aspect ratio when down converting. (10/03/09)

On Booth SU3102 at NAB2009 Crystal Vision will be introducing new features for the Picturestore range – the company's area of speciality based on solid-state fast reading and writing DRAM and permanent Flash picture storage – as well as launching its 3G HD product range. (19/02/09)

Ed Holland has joined Crystal Vision as Director of Sales, North America. Based in the US, Ed Holland brings with him a thorough understanding of Crystal Vision equipment and its applications, having sold the interface and keying products for the last two and a half years working with a Crystal Vision partner. Ed enjoyed such success in that role that he was persuaded to come and work for Crystal Vision full time. (19/01/09)