Snell announced that it is now offering 4K functionality at no additional charge in a range of products, including select routing switchers, fiber infrastructure and the Kahuna 360 multiformat production switcher, which now enables users to seamlessly mix and match any combination of SD, HD, 1080p and 4K sources in the live production environment.
Integrated 4K UHDTV distribution and routing are key to maintaining a reliable and efficient workflow in today's emerging 4K UHDTV production environment. From the camera, each of two 4K UHDTV four-stream SDI signals can be converted into single-mode fiber-optic signals, and Snell's IQCWM09 fiber-optic CWDM module can, in turn, multiplex these eight fiber streams into one fiber output, suitable for transmission by Snell's IQOTX80 multichannel fiber transmitter over considerable distances.
At the studio, the IQCWM09 demultiplexer and IQORX80 multichannel fiber receiver can convert the signals back to two groups of four SDI streams, which can then be routed precisely together to the appropriate destination, such as the Kahuna 360, via Snell's Sirius 800 series router. The 11RU Kahnua 360 system can accept incoming 4K UHDTV feeds, mix them with 1080p and output the result as 4K UHDTV, 1080p or both formats simultaneously.
Kahuna 360 support for 4K is transparent, requiring no change to the switcher layout. Working with 4K and 1080p inputs, broadcasters can use Kahuna 360 to mix HD and 4K either as backgrounds or key layers on the M/E. Unique MakeM/E technology allows switcher resources to be shared among multiple M/Es and output either as 4K, HD or simultaneously in a parallel workflow. Thus, broadcasters can output an HD signal for broadcast, as well as a 4K signal for a projector or other distribution target. Existing functionality such as color correction may be applied just as readily to 4K signals as to HD inputs or outputs.
