ABC News is using the Snell & Wilcox Prefix CPP100 compression pre-processor to clean videophone signals that originate from the Middle East for its live news coverage. Mike Strein, assistant director of Technology and Strategic Planning for ABC, said a pair of the compact units are installed in the TV-3 newsroom operation center at the network’s New York headquarters.
The CPP100 features recursive, semi-transversal, median, spatial and linear filters, MPEG de-enhancement filters and optional high performance decoder for composite input. It has user selectable or MPEG specific presets, a panel lock and system bypass facility and on screen status facility.
Feeds are sent live from the Middle East via videophone, then passed through the Snell CPP100 in N.Y., where artifacts caused by the harsh conditions and transmission are reduced prior to going to air by adjusting the bit rate.
The performance of digital video compression systems such as MPEG can be significantly improved by removing unwanted components of the signal, including video noise, cross color from decoders and satellite impulse noise. The Prefix CPP100’s proprietary design incorporates seven filters to allow the unit to remove unwanted signal elements. The CPP100 also allows enhancement or reduction of high frequency signal content.
Sophisticated video analysis circuits built into the CPP100 not only provide optimum noise reduction, but also generate signals which are embedded in the auxiliary data of the SDI output for use as early warning signals by the compression encoder (for shot change, 3:2 sequence film/video identification, etc).
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