For-A FRC-7000 HD frame rate converters are being used for live broadcasts of operas from New York's famed Metropolitan Opera to participating digital cinemas around the world.
Remote production company All Mobile Video has purchased two FRC-7000 units for use in transmitting Metropolitan Opera performances: one situated at the Met in an uplink truck and one at its teleport.
Since "The Metropolitan Opera: Live in HD" began in December 2006, digital cinema audiences in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, and Sweden, have been able to watch an opera live from The Met as if they had the best seats in the house.
The HD opera productions are transmitted to participating digital cinemas and projected onto big screens in HD with 5.1 surround sound audio.
"For-A's FRC-7000 has been a key part of this groundbreaking application because it handles the critical HD format conversion that is needed to serve our diverse international delivery requirements. The image quality and motion are crystal clear and smooth — even the surtitles," said Mark Schubin, engineer-in-charge at the media department for The Metropolitan Opera.
"Initially, we planned to use 1080i at 29.97 frames per second (American standard) as the frame rate for all theaters. But, after our first tests, one of the European groups discovered that their satellite receivers couldn't deal with it. That's when we knew we had to deliver 1080i at 25 frames per second, too," said Lenny Laxer, vice president of operations for All Mobile Video.
"The For-A FRC-7000 enables us to provide everyone with the HD format they need," Laxer said. "Until now, we've been sending the European theatres both a U.S. and European version. But today, since the For-A FRC-7000 has proven its ability to output superb quality, motion-compensated HD frame rate conversion, we're confident that we can discontinue sending the U.S. version. So, the For-A FRC-7000 will be saving us money."
