Many broadcast studios are today tasked with capturing multiple feeds simultaneously, which is precisely why system integrators need to be utilising the latest capture card technologies…
There are a number of key applications for capture card technologies in relation to broadcast studios. For instance, when a system integrator has been contracted to fit-out a studio set, there are typically multiple screen requirements: most studios feature a fairly complex set of monitors behind the presenter that all need feeding with various streams. Here, Datapath enjoys a high level of success with its Fx4 and recently introduced Fx4-SDI display controllers, which are utilised to drive these screens.
Ingesting video in any applications of this type is a function of the capture card. Once all of the multiple channels are captured, they can be displayed, with a high degree of flexibility, on a video wall. Ultimately, the broadcast market embraces a class of product that is generally referred to as ‘multi-viewer’, where systems are required to capture a number of sources and ‘mosaic’ them on to a single screen.
Among recent innovations in this technology segment is the Datapath range of 3G-SDI capture cards. The company also offers a quad capture card that allows users to take four lots of 3G and effectively ‘gearbox’ it into 12G. This capability is becoming increasingly important as more and more studios start to ingest 4k video.
Many video capture applications in the broadcast market relate to a control wall monitoring the various feeds, which means that modern studios must be able to reliably capture and display more than a single image on a single screen. With Datapath technology there are plenty of options available whereby a window can be taken in and presented on the desktop wherever required, at whatever size, for example.
Due to the multiple feed requirements of broadcast studios, the Datapath VisionSC-SDI4 is the capture card of choice. The four-channel VisionSC-SDI4 has been specifically developed to capture multiple high-definition SDI video signals. Each 3G-SDI input is capable of capturing 1920x1080p @ 60fps. Furthermore, all of the channels are hardware time-stamped, allowing for larger surfaces to be captured and stitched together seamlessly according to requirements.
The VisionSC-SDI4 includes an eight lane PCIe Gen.3 interface, 768 MB frame buffer memory, Datapath-unified Windows® and Linux® driver support, and full support of the Vision Feature set.
For streaming applications, the VisionSC-SDI4 can be used with Windows Media Encoder to compress and stream captured video, while the RGBEasy SDK is also available for customers wanting to integrate Datapath cards into their own software environments.
