UK-based Gearhouse Broadcast purchased 96 yellobrik CDH 1811 SDI to HDMI converters fromLYNX Technik, a provider of modular interface solutions, for use in the 2010 World Cup International Broadcast Center (IBC) in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The IBC consists of television studios, production rooms, technical rooms and related office spaces that have been transmitting content from the tournament to billions of viewers around the world. Several global broadcast clients of Gearhouse Broadcast have used the converters for their production gallery monitoring in the IBC.
The converters, part of the yellobrik line of modular interface products, are being used as monitoring solutions to convert SDI signals to HDMI for driving 23in and 46in HDMI displays. SDI video inputs from a multiviewer and a routing switcher are fed through the converters onto 1920 x 1080 Sony, LG and Samsung monitors as standard HDMI signals for reference monitoring and display of incoming game feeds.
The enhanced audio de-embedding of the converters also allows Gearhouse Broadcast clients to drive several separate audio monitors. Any two of the 16 supported audio channels from an incoming video signal can be de-embedded and output as digital AES or analog audio, or embedded into the HDMI output.
Unique to the CDH 1811 is its selectable timecode and metadata overlay mode. The converter detects and displays timecode formats, indicates audio presence and also detects the presence of key metadata parameters in the incoming SDI stream. All user controls are located on the top of the module and are clearly labeled and easily accessible.
