Friday 12 February 2010

Using the TG-2 with Avid Media Composer

On Tuesday this week I visited Anthony Sachot at Eurosport Paris with Daniel Gollety from RS422 our agent in France. I was supposed to visit in December but the flights were cancelled due to snow. I was lucky this time as on Wednesday the flights were again cancelled due to snow!

Eurosport is using a 50i Media composer (25 fps EBU timecode) to import selected takes directly from a 60i HDCAM (SMPTE Drop or Non Drop timecode). This requires a standards converter in the video and the TG-2 to convert the timecode and RS422 communications. A similar setup can be used with a 60i Media Composer and 50i/48i HDCAM. The problem is how to set up the TG-2

This is one of the simpler jobs for the TG-2 as there is it requires no Pullup or Pull down but simply standard translation. On looking at the default setup of the TG-2, I discovered that an number of setting changes were required to make this work. The next software update on the web will include an update to the default setup that will simplify the settings. The setup is as follows:-


1) Connect HDCAM TC Output to TG-2 input
2) Connect HDCAM RS422 input to Serial B on the TG-2
3) Connect Media Composer RS422 output to Serial A on the TG-2
4) Connect 25fps video syncs to the TG-2 , Tri / Bi Level.

The main TG-2 Settings are as follows
1) Input Auto and Output Auto ON
2) Output frame rate selected to 25
3) Serial B Config set to Chase Enable (current Default is Chase Always)
4) Unit Config Set to Ser Auto
5) Gen ref Set to Video

Once the setup was correct the system worked flawlessly and we left a happy customer!