Snell & Wilcox revamps switcher range for NAB

Snell & Wilcox (S&W) have produced new dimensions to its existing range of technology for the broadcast, television and film industries in the build up to NAB 2002.
S&W have added features to its entire switcher range, including its flagship HD 2524, with new Version 2.5 software, and “Power Pack” cost-effective FX solutions. Through S&W’s recent acquisition of PSP Digital, the company will introduce two new SD, and three new HD, switchers. The HD switchers feature a two-channel “squeeze and tease” DVE option.
Through its acquisition last autumn of Post Impressions, S&W will show "Spirint" & "Spirint TK" disk-based workstations.
Spirint TK adds workflow enhancements to any telecine or tape colour-grading suite. The Piccaso real-time, disk-based workstation colour grades film or electronically originated images, and offers substantial workflow advantages and new levels of cost-effective colour grading.
Alchemist Platinum, the upgrade to premier standards converter featuring Ph.C motion compensation Alchemist, will make its NAB debut. The product has the important option of an HD output, making it one of the market's first motion-compensated, frame-rate-converting upconverter.
The new CVR 450 – linear standards converter, a new addition to the Kudos Plus product line, supersedes the CVR45 and will offers an enhanced feature set - including 10-bit processing, digital I/O and improved noise reduction.
Also released will be the MPEG2 "Long GOP" ingest, with progressive image quality in SD and HD based on MOLE and Ph.C technology. The demonstrations at NAB will include “Constant Quality Ingest”, UMIDs ("Unique Material Identifiers") and advanced metadata generation and handling.
The "TBS 180" range of TBC synchronisers are new for NAB and feature a full range of audio and video I/Os for analogue and digital signals. The range includes 10-bit video processing, improved noise reduction, and an optional "super-reference-quality" 3D composite decoder based on award-winning S&W “Golden Gate” technology.
Snell & Wilcox, www.snellwilcox.com
(GMcG)