PHABRIX And The Future Of Higher Frame Rates At IBC2014

IBC2014 is bound to be focussed on support for 4K UHDTV so it is no surprise that PHABRIX has set its considerable R&D resource on supporting the latest test and measurement requests of its many customers world-wide.

At the stand in Hall 8 E40, visitors will find a special room crammed with the latest technology from PHABRIX. This will be an active demonstration of all things UHDTV. As the industry continues to debate exactly where to focus its support for 4K, PHABRIX has rumoured to have a new platform on display. With the future being higher frame rate interfaces at 3G, 6G, 12G and beyond, PHABRIX may be in a position to leap-frog all the intermediary formats that today’s technology can provide, in favour of what most would consider the ‘right’ solution for UHDTV.
At the moment, PHABRIX are tight lipped about their technology, but a long list of high end manufacturers have been invited to the PHABRIX stand to see for themselves what the company has to offer.
Having played a pivotal part in providing a solution for 3G-SDI support in 2008, this innovative British company went on to produce the ‘standard’ test and measurement solution for that format way before the competition caught up – perhaps this is PHABRIX doing it again – we’ll find out at IBC.
What we do know is that PHABRIX will be showing its new TAG portable T&M instrument for the first time at IBC. Released at NAB in April, this cost effective hand held packs quite a punch. Still supporting the form factor brilliance evident in the established Sx series, the TAG has interfaces for testing analogue, SDI and optical infrastructures. A very useful SFP cage opens up support to both fibre and copper SFP modules and the ability to test SDI to optical and back is a real bonus on this instrument. Priced at under £2,000, you have to think this is going to be another hit for PHABRIX at IBC.
The rest of the Sx series has also been upgraded to support Dolby E, Dolby D and Dolby D Plus via an easy to install option key, with good news for existing users being the addition of an A/V generator across the range.
PHABRIX’s big seller, the eye and jitter-capable SxE, continues to grow in popularity, becoming a mainstream instrument in almost all of the world’s major networks. With over 4,000 installed, its reliability, ease of use and portability make it the engineer’s choice for a combined, generator, analyser and monitoring solution. All this in an instrument you can carry in one hand – pretty neat!
The PHABRIX Rx rack mount range is also beginning to attract the networks in broadcast, offering a multi instrument solution that can route its rasterized output through both HDMI and SDI at 1920 x 1080. The company is beginning to see considerable sales in both QC and OB applications where this versatile, modular system offers both video and audio toolsets. With the release of V9.1 at the show, the Rx gets a boost with enhanced closed caption support, V chip indication, frame capture and playback. Four-channel, simultaneous support for video, audio, 608/708 and Loudness has seen a move by many broadcasters away from the traditional Quad picture solution. Broadcasters now have to monitor so many aspects of the SDI signal that the multiviewer type solution provided by the Rx is an ideal new choice.
Full Dolby decode of Dolby E, Dolby D and Dolby D plus also makes the Rx an attractive proposition for European markets where Dolby transmission is mainstream. PHABRIX have certainly concentrated on the audio as well as video instruments in their latest Rx version.

The article is also available to read in BFV online.

(IT/CD)