Austria's national public service broadcaster, ORF, has selected 120 Crystal Vision interface boards including up/downconverters, synchronizers, embedders and distribution amplifiers for the HD upgrade of Studio RP6 in Vienna.
RP6 was the second ORF studio to upgrade to HD last year using Crystal Vision interface boards, following the purchase of 107 boards for Studio RP3 earlier in 2010.
ORF broadcasts six TV channels (ORF1, ORF2, ORF2 Europe, TW1, ORF Sport Plus and 3sat, along with ZDF, ARD and SRG), with programs produced at Studio RP6. Generally, big productions are transmitted on ORF1 and ORF2.
Studio RP6 will be using a total of 83 Crystal Vision up/downconverters. These include 59 Q-Down123 downconverters, known for their high-quality output, short processing delay and flexible outputs, which are individually link-selectable between analog (composite, Y/C, YUV and RGB) and digital. The monitors in RP6 are still SD, so all HD signals need to be downconverted to SD with the minimum possible delay, making Q-Down123's short processing delay of 16 lines imperative.
The Q-Down-A 3G version is also being used to downconvert embedded audio sources in RP6, with its ability to handle four groups of embedded audio. ORF used an additional 64 Q-Down123s in its RP3 studio.
ORF is using 12 of the Up-Down-A 3G up/down/crossconverters to upconvert SD embedded sources to HD while simultaneously creating an SD output of the feed, which is timed to the HD output by adding a matching delay. Featuring both motion-adaptive video deinterlacing and Crystal Vision's downconversion, Up-Down-A 3G can convert 3Gb/s, HD and SD sources; handle up to four groups of embedded audio; and perform two different conversions at the same time. This feature delivers timed dual outputs that can be configured as either 3G/HD or SD and remain unchanged in format, even if the input changes.
ORF is additionally using another Crystal Vision up/down/crossconverter, the Up-and-down-S with its onboard synchronizer, to upconvert and time SD sources before feeding them into the HD mixer.
