OSLO, Norway—Monitoring solutions provider, Bridge Technologies has significantly expanded the capabilities of its production-focused monitoring probe, the VB440.
Designed to be used by broadcasting networks, production studios, master control centers and outside broadcast vehicles and venues, the new enhancements include the recently-announced accommodation of the JPEG XS compression standard, Closed Caption support and Packet Capture functionality.
The features will ship with all future versions of the VB440, as well as being accessible online to existing customers.
Simen Frostad, chairman of Bridge Technologies, explained that “the constant expansion of the VB440’s functionalities, including Closed Caption review, PCAP and improved audio visualization tools – and its capabilities, supporting data rates of up to 100 Gbit/s, 4K and above, and both uncompressed or compressed data types, including new compression standards such as JPEG XS - all represent our endeavor to create the ultimate, indispensable production tool.”
“The expanded VB440 carries particular value for those operating in the field of remote, outside and distributed production,” he added, “granting production professionals the tools and insight they need to carry out both creative functions and technical review of production quality from anywhere in the world, all through an HTML-5 browser. This ultimately results in higher production values, greater flexibility and creative potential, and lowered production costs”.
Designed to deliver ultra-low latency analytics of compressed and uncompressed data in a range of production environments, the VB440 offers a monitoring solution for both IP and SDI-encapsulated production environments across ST2110 and ST2022-6 defined high-bitrate broadcast media traffic, the company said.
The new Packet Capture functionality (PCAP) is designed to help those who are moving from SDI to IP-based 2110 uncompressed data streams, the company said.
Its PCAP capability allows users to capture individual or collective components of the ST2110 stream, based on either time or packet limits, on a fixed or rolling basis. This ability to capture a single packet as it crosses a specific point in the network allows for more in-depth identification of data and packet loss, the troubleshooting of network behaviors, diagnosis of congestion issues and recognition of security threats, the company reported.
The Closed Caption review function has been introduced in order to aid broadcasters in their commitment to providing accessible productions which meet the diverse needs of audiences, including those with hearing impairment, the company said.
The Closed Caption addition to the VB440 will allow the display of Closed Captions (CEA-608/CEA-708) and Subtitles (OP-47), giving visualization of the incoming ancillary data on the output reference video, and allowing the user to review, control and correct caption placement and characters. Alongside displaying the captions an additional ´debug-view´ functionality provides a deeper insight with decoder logs, encoding errors, field reversal warnings, and a visualization of the grid itself, the company explained.
The functionality supports all of the most common incoming caption types.
Bridge Technologies will showcase these new functionalities and more solutions at IBC Show 2021 (booth 1.A71).
More information about Bridge Technologies and its products is available at www.bridgetech.tv.
