MicroVideo, supplier of signal processing and data insertion technologies for the broadcast, IPTV, cable and satellite industries, has announced the expansion of its switching product range with the addition of seamless, 3G capable, SDI and near-seamless ASI switches. The HDS 201s and ASI 201s switches are based on MicroVideo's series 300 3G hardware platform, and form part of the company's Series 300 range of products.

The HDS 201s provides seamless switching between two mistimed SDI input sources even when the primary feed is lost.

In the typical 2x1 switches available in the market today, switching is performed in line with the SMPTE specified switching point; switching takes place within the blanking period and therefore is unseen by the viewer. For manual switching, the HDS 201s does exactly this, but it's when the primary feed is interrupted that the MicroVideo switches come into their own. The HDS 201s aligns the incoming primary and backup feeds to an external reference and in the event of errors will switch to the backup within the next four lines, a four line buffer ensures a smooth switch. The input feeds can be mistimed up to one complete frame without any sign of glitch or jitter when a switch takes place.

The ASI 201s, closely related to its SDI cousin, provides a near-seamless, automatic, ASI video switch of a main signal to a backup feed. Provided with two feeds, a primary and a backup, the ASI 201s constantly monitors the transport stream (TS) of both feeds. If a fault is detected and the backup feed is correct, the secondary feed is automatically switched to the module's output. The ASI 201s provides near seamless switching of ASI signals by preserving the output stream's TS packet structure.

Both MicroVideo switches operate in two modes, automatic or non-resetting. In full automatic mode, the output will return to the primary signal once it has been restored. In the non-resetting mode, the secondary input remains routed to the output, even after the primary input has recovered, allowing the engineer to check the cause and remedy any problems before returning to the primary feed.

Ian Hudson, MicroVideo's CEO, said: "The MicroVideo switches, like all MicroVideo products, are designed to allow broadcasters to solve real-world problems cost-effectively. This translates to simplicity, practicality and flexibility. MicroVideo products do exactly what they claim to do and the HDS 201s and the ASI 201s are no exception."

Series 300 cards are compatible with MicroVideo 1U and 3U frames offering up to six cards in a 1U and 15 in a 3U. The Series 300 hardware platform offers unrivalled flexibility and the lowest cost of ownership in the broadcast industry.

www.microvideo.co.uk