Blackmagic Design Inc. today announced support for the OpenGear standard for rack mount converters and processing products with the introduction of 8 new OpenGear converters. These converters are virtually identical to Blackmagic Design’s popular Mini Converter range, and the new OpenGear Converter range include models for analog video, HDMI, audio and optical fiber to and from SDI.
OpenGear Converters will be on display at NAB 2009 at the Blackmagic Design booth SL10820.
OpenGear is the television industry’s open standard for rack based conversion and processing, and now with these new OpenGear Converters, Blackmagic Design customers have a wide choice of high quality and affordable rack mount converters. Blackmagic OpenGear Converters include the latest technology such as 3 Gb/s SDI, redundant SDI inputs, switchable AES/EBU and balanced audio and support for OpenGear’s DashBoard network based control and configuration software. All OpenGear Converters automatically switch between SD, HD and 3 Gb/s SDI video formats.
There are 8 models of OpenGear Converters that are fully featured with easy to understand names. Customers only need to select the type of conversion they need.
OpenGear Converter Models:
• SDI to Analog – Converts SDI to component/s-video/composite and AES/EBU or analog audio.
• Analog to SDI – Converts component/s-video/composite and AES/EBU or analog audio to SDI.
• SDI to HDMI – Converts SDI to HDMI video and audio.
• HDMI to SDI – Converts HDMI video and audio to SDI.
• SDI to Audio – De-Embeds from SDI to 4 ch analog or 8 ch of AES/EBU audio.
• Audio to SDI – Embeds 4 ch analog or 8 ch AES/EBU audio to SDI. Includes sample rate converters.
• Optical Fiber – Converts SDI to optical fiber SDI and optical fiber SDI to SDI. Bi-directional.
• Sync Generator – Outputs 10 black burst or tri-sync reference outputs.
Blackmagic OpenGear Converters include powerful processing that can be upgraded via the USB port on the front of each card. The SDI to Analog model features a high quality HD down converter that supports letterbox, anamorphic 16:9 and center cut 4:3 modes.
Because Blackmagic OpenGear Converters fully support the OpenGear rack standard, they are compatible with a wide range of third party equipment from OpenGear partners worldwide.
OpenGear was invented by Ross Video as an open standard for rack mount converters and processing for television broadcasters. OpenGear uses a 2 rack unit rack frame that normally holds up to 10 plug in cards or, when using simpler cards, a double density frame can be used to hold up to 20 cards. Many manufacturers develop OpenGear cards and frames that can be mixed and matched. OpenGear gives customers the freedom to build their facilities without being locked into a proprietary rack standard.
OpenGear cards are hot swappable and can be centrally controlled via the Java based DashBoard network control and monitoring software that’s available from the OpenGear association’s web site at www.opengear.tv
DashBoard automatically checks the plugged in card’s functions without any complicated driver loading and, because it’s TCP/IP network based, customers can monitor from remote sites, or monitor centrally within massive installations consisting of hundreds of OpenGear cards and rack frames!
“We think our new range of OpenGear Converters will allow our customers to build larger facilities where most equipment is rack mounted. Now we have brought all the leading technology of our Mini Converter range to larger systems and broadcasters as rack based card converters!” said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design.
Availability
OpenGear Converters will be shipping in July 2009 from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide for US$495 or €385.