IBC 2011: Hall 8 Stand A04

CB are showing three new products -

TC-5
LTC-Midi Timecode display/Converter,
A very versatile unit with LTC In/Out, Midi In/Out/Through, USB Midi IN/Out and Virtual Machine.Locking to Crystal, Video or Wordclock with simultaneous conversion between formats

UR422-USB 
A complete redesign of the UR-422, now includes USB, Video Sync input, Timecode Output and Virtual Machine. We have implemented the Odetics extensions to the Sony P2 protocol and plan to add the VDCP protocol to this product.

T-Bar 
We are showing the T-Bar control fitted to the UR422-USB but it may be fitted to any of our keyboard designs and we welcome discussing with customers and agents the optimum keyboard and port configuration.

Dynamic Offset & Edit Offset - What are they? Why do you need them?

Dynamic Offset +/- 4 frames
An offset that is used only in play, unlike the normal offset this is removed in stop. Dynamic Offset is occasionally required to correct for errors in devices (I remember one DAW that required 4 attemps to get the LTC and RS422 in sync). Dynamic offset can also be used to correct for projector/screen delay if the video is on a different device to the audio.

Edit Offset +/- 4 frames
An offset that is only used in playback or record when one or more tracks are armed. A number of digital video devices switch to confidence mode when recording. The timecode switches to be in sync with the playback and is then several frames out of sync with the record. Edit offset is used to correct for this, if not then when you layback the audio it is out of sync.. 

ADR Taker Updates to CBServer and SR software

CBServer has been updated to make it easier to download loops to the Streamer and to SR-Keyboards

We have also added  Setup|Auto/ADR|Options|"Menu 093- Loops from?" to the on SR keyboards, this allows the user to select loops from  the keyboard memory or directly from CBServer using the <> or Prev and Next keys. When using the ID keys the user should also check that Setup|Unit|Generic|"Menu 038- ID<> Key Function" is selected to "2=Loop". 

Using the new software you can prepare or import loops into the cue list on CBServer, then download them to the Streamer and or keyboard and if selected to "Loops from CBServer" you can use the mouse the computer keyboard or the ID<> keys on the keyboard to select the next loop. 

Using the VS-1 with different Video sources

I designed the VS-1 in 1985/6 and we are still making it 27 years later, for a product with a 27 year life we have not sold a great number, probably about 10 a year, and not that many now.

I have been asked a number of times to upgrade the VS-1 to work with HD video. My problem has always been which format? The market size will not finance a big development project. Here are some interim alternative solutions.

SD Component,

If setup for syncs on green, insert the streamer on the Green line

VGA

I have tried the Startech VGA to composite converter, this works well and is a cheap solution but the resolution is not as high as I would like. Kramer and TV One make more expensive boxes but I have not compared their resolution. 

S-Video

Insert into the Luminance line

Software Solutions

There are a number of cheap software solutions available but I find them jerky, possibly I need a super computer!

One way forward without investing a large amount of time would be to design a system for VGA, but with computers now using DVI, HDMI and SDI is this a viable approach?

Let me know your ideas

Using HD Syncs with the MC-1, BS-1 and BS-2

Daniel my French agent set me this test, translate this information from French!

Like a all CB products the MC-1, BS-1 and BS-2 automatically detects the reference video standard, but on some products it is necessary to use the video standard and make make manual settings

The following standards are recognized by CB prioducs

.

SD:- Bi-Level:

PAL: 25fps

SLOW PAL: 24fps or 23.98fps

NTSC: 29.97fps

NTSC BW: 30fps

HD - Tri-level:

24 / 25 / 30 / 48 / 50 / 60Hz:

23.98 / 29.97 / 59.94Hz

The Standard Dependent settings on the MC-1, BS-1 and BS-2

UNIT parameters

Film Std:: 24; 25, 30.

Gen Std:: 24 ; 25, Drop  30.

ReF: : 48; 50, 60.

Normal settings for a 23.98 or 24 fps Video Reference

Film Std = 24 ; Gen Std = 24,  ReF = 48.

Normal settings for a 25 fps Video Reference

Film Std = 25 ; Gen Std = 25,  ReF = 50.

Normal settings for a 29.97 fps or 30fps Video Reference

Film Std = 24 ou 30 ; Gen Std = Drop or 30(Non Drop),  ReF = 60.

Always check the UNIT parameters after changing the video reference standard! The 6 configuration memories may be used to to save a different setting for each video standard

Raid Arrays 2

We fitted the best raid array controller we could find to our system yesterday and as expected there was a small improvement on running 4 discs in Raid 0, as the CPU usage also dropped then in actual use the improvement would probably be greater. Another advantage was that it allowed us to fitt an extra drive as the motherboard was limited to 5 drives only.
The connection from the raid card is mini-sas, a raid card with and external mini-sas can be used as a fast  low cost  external raid by using a suitable cable and 4 drives in a midi tower pc case.

A san is probably the preferred solution but it is more expensive and still requires management. Portable Raid Arrays make a low cost scalable entry into this technology and you can always use the drives in a san at a later date.

Raid Arrays

Although not directly connected with any of our existing business Daniel (CB and C2-Cine  IT Support Engineer) and I have been investigating Raid Arrays as a low cost alternative to a SAN for use with video scanning and/or multitrack audio. We tested the external eSATA Raid Arrays on two very different computers.

External Raid Box:

StarTech 3.5in eSATA 4-Bay Raid Enclosure, supplied with its own eSATA interface card.

Throw away the supplied eSATA interface as it has a maximum transfer speed of 60MBytes/Sec. Provided your computer supports SATA then a  eSata cable costs about £6.

Raid Drives:

Four 2TB drives, as our primary interest was in recording and playing back raw video files we selected low power 5400 rpm drives which work better for this application. Sur 

Test Computer 1
AMD Six core 3GHz 1075T, Asus Crosshair III Formula Motherboard, running 64 Bit Windows 7, this machine has 4GB of 1600 Memory and a ATI 4850 video card. The computer supports internal software RAID and has an ESata port

External Raid using 2 x 3.5" 2TB drives in Raid 0 speed approx 180MByte/Sec, There was no advantage in using 3 or 4 drives.

Single 2.5" enclosure with eSATA and USB

USB-2 about 32MByte/Sec

ESata Limited by 2.5" drive speed to about 80MBytes/Sec

Test Computer 2
Toshiba Tecra M10: Two core 2.6GHz Centrino running 32 Bit Windows XP, this machine has 3GB or Memory and is fitted with an ESata Port
Note: XP Maximum partition size is 2TB

External Raid using 2 x 3.5" 2TB drives in Raid 0 speed approx 180MByte/Sec, There was no advantage in using 3 or 4 drives.

Single 2.5" enclosure with eSATA and USB
USB-2 about 32MByte/Sec
ESata Limited by 2.5" drive speed to about 80MBytes/Sec

A few brief conclusions on current setup
1) The processor made little difference to the disc access speed
2) External eSATA Raid drives show no improvement with more than 2 drives
3) If Running XP only then remember the 2TB partition limit
4) Use eSATA not USB-2, I will be checking USB-3 later
5) For hi speed disc access we are looking at internal raid with the drives mounted in caddies
6) If you must use an external raid then use Mini-SAS
7) Our next test will be to compare the built in software motherboard raid with a hardware raid card