FORT LEE, NJ—Leader Instruments will unveil a new tool for comprehensive NDI signal troubleshooting and monitoring at the 2025 NAB Show, April 6-9 in Las Vegas. It says it is also launching a new product line based on its acquisition of Phabrix, which will be branded "LeaderPhabrix."

NDI Checker is a software application, running in a browser on a standard Windows PC. Simply connect this to a signal network and NDI Checker can display a full list of NDI signals in the implementation, give clear access to all the technical parameters of any individual signal, provide a confidence monitor and create an event log.

On one screen, operators can instantly confirm video format, bitrate and received frames. Up to 100,000 events can be captured by the event log, displayed on the monitor and available for export as a CSV file for further analysis.

The software application will be equally valuable to broadcasters and production companies, systems integrators verifying network topographies, and device manufacturers who need a quick and simple way to check NDI streams, the company said

“NDI has become a very popular production format, and we are pleased to unveil this addition to our family of reliable and practical tools,” said Moriharu Ide, President, Leader Instruments Corporation. “On one screen an engineer can keep track of every signal in a workflow, have a clear overview of the network performance, build an event log to track performance, and be able to watch any signal at any time, all in real time.

“IP connectivity is set to transform the way content is produced, but it brings a new and different set of challenges to maintain signal quality and reliability,” Ide said. “This meets the real requirements of network engineers and operators, with the characteristic Leader practicality. Users know they can trust the Leader brand for accuracy, alongside the simplicity in operation.”

The NDI Checker signal monitoring application will be demonstrated at NAB2025, on Booth N331 in the North Hall of the LVCC. This will also see the results of the coming together of the Leader and Phabrix development teams, including a significant new family of video analysis and test signal generation instruments under the LeaderPhabrix brand, the company said. Visitors will be able to see and try equipment for test, measurement and monitoring of all signal types: SDI, IP and hybrid, up to 4k resolution and beyond.

FORT LEE, NJ—Leader Instruments plans to showcase three new additions to the feature set of its ZEN range of test and measurement tools at the 2024 NAB Show, April 14-17 in Las Vegas. 

Leader’s ZEN Series comprises the LV5600 UHD/HD/SD SDI/IP waveform monitor and LV7600 equivalent rasterizer, LV5300A portable 12G/3G/HD/SD-SDI waveform monitor with eye-pattern and jitter measurement, plus the LV5350 waveform monitor and the LV7300 rasterizer. Top of the ZEN range is the LV5600 which provides all the facilities needed to monitor UHD/HD/SD SDI as well as video-over-IP signals seamlessly in a true-hybrid operating environment. 

Housed in a half-rack width 3U desktop chassis with a touchscreen front panel display and discrete physical buttons, the LV5600 includes test pattern generation, eye-pattern display, closed-caption monitoring, CIE color chart, high dynamic range measurement, focus assist, adjustable screen layout, tally interface, 4K/UHD operation, 25 gigabit/s IP input and 12G-SDI interfaces. SMPTE 2022-6, SMPTE 2022-7 and SMPTE 2110-10, 20, 22, 30, 31 and 40 protocols are all supported. ZEN Series instruments can be expanded or upgraded easily as new firmware becomes available.

New 3D LUT import for HDR to SDR and SDR to HDR conversion
New for the Leader ZEN Series is an integral bidirectional conversion tool which allows HDR content to be viewed in SDR and vice versa. Processing is based on the desired 3D color lookup table which can be imported via plug-in USB memory. 

The new 3D LUT capabilities will simplify live production workflows by integrating HDR/SDR conversion for applications such as camera shading and HDR supervision. On-set DITs will be able to integrate 3D LUTs instead of relying on external LUT boxes. Postproduction colorists can view the 3D LUTs for OTT and OTA deliverables prior to creating the final master.

New SDR ‘Full Range’ display
SDR Full Range is becoming a popular workflow style for digital cinematography and television drama production, not least in Hollywood. SDR as normally transmitted by broadcast television channels encompasses luminance code value levels 64 to 940 (Narrow / Legal Range) of the 1024 maximum which can be accommodated in a 10 bit digital stream. 

SDR Full Range encompasses code value levels 4 to 1019, allowing higher dynamic range to be delivered without requiring the adoption of full HDR at any point in the signal flow from initial production to home viewing. Leader’s ZEN Series already provides the tools necessary for SDR and HDR test and measurement. 

This new feature extends SDR Full Range support to display black error, CIE, gamut error, histogram, level error, audio/video timing offset, noise level, test signals, vector and waveform. Also fully supported for SDR Full Range are CINELITE and CINEZONE, five-bar, frame capture (DPX, TIFF) and image quality adjustment.

New ARRI and RED camera tools added to Leader CINEZONE
Leader is adding support for ARRI and RED cameras to its industry-proven CINEZONE real-time false colour exposure display. These new facilities are an expansion of the CINEZONE/CINELITE toolset which comes as standard on all Leader ZEN Series models. CINELITE is a built-in light meter that gives on-set production and postproduction facilities the ability to analyze a single pixel or small area of the image in either luminance, RGB, code values or f-stops. CINEZONE overlays false colors on the image. 

It colors the strong and weak areas of brightness on the picture display so an operator can judge the luminance conditions of the entire screen. This helps confirm that a camera is reproducing what is expected. The ARRI (User-A) and RED (User-R) features replicate the false color display tools that were previously only visible on the ARRI or RED cameras so they can be viewed by production staff without interfering with the camera setup and operation. Both CINEZONE and CINELITE can be displayed simultaneously on all Leader ZEN Series products.

Leader will be in Booth C5521 in the Central Hall of the LVCC. 

FORT LEE, N.J.—Leader Instruments is welcoming Thomas O’Neill to its North America sales team, where he will serve as the central regional manager.

O’Neill comes to Leader after having served as the vice president of North American Sales & Business Development at Omnitek. He also has experience with For-A, Abekas Video Systems, Quantel, Chyron, Pixel Power and as a co-founder of Cine-tal.

As central regional manager, O’Neill will be in charge of business development across the U.S. Midwest and Canada.

For more information, visit www.leader.co.jp/en.  

FULLERTON, CALIF.—Leader Instrument Corporation has announced that it will hold a demonstration at the upcoming 2015 IBC Show on its ability to provide quality control for Sony’s IP Live Production system. Leader’s FS 3103 software package will be the focus of the presentation.

FS 3102

Sony’s IP Live Production system provides an AV over IP interface that delivers low latency and noise-free switching of HD and 4K video, audio and metadata. FS3103 processes MXF audio/video media files, with the ability to analyze four MXF files at one time and reduces the processing file to one-fifth of real-time.

Leader will also demonstrate its FS 3102 software, which provides quality control for SDI video. The FS 3102 can perform real-time checks on up to four HD-SDI or SD-SDI signal streams. When combined with FS 3103, the systems can process up to four files simultaneously.

The FS 3102 and 3103 provide automatic checking and analysis of image characteristics like block noise, line noise, image skip, image freeze, edit point errors, lost source and sequences likely to cause photosensitive epilepsy. Audio tests include channel noise, timing errors, spurious transients, loudness and lost source.

Leader will demo the FS 3102 and 3101 at booth 11.10A at IBC 2015, which runs from Sept. 11-15 in Amsterdam.