PHABRIX Stands Out At IBC 2016

PHABRIX reported to have a very successful IBC 2016 with many more visitors to the stand, and many eager to view the latest announcements surrounding the company's new UHDTV test and measurement product – the PHABRIX Qx.

Designed to provide video, audio and data toolsets for broadcast manufacturers and broadcasters, the Qx is a new platform offering compliance testing and verification of SMPTE standards using a specific suite of instruments for UHDTV.

Paul Nicholls, PHABRIX Director, commented: "The Qx offers several USP's with regard to T&M at 4K and UHDTV. Our trademarked RTE 'Real Time Eye' technology on the Qx was of particular interest adding our patented eye and jitter knowledge to our newest product at 12G. The Qx also comes complete as standard with support for HD, 3G, 6G and 12G-SDI and customers can either select the combined analyzer and generator version or the analyser/generator version with 12G-SDI eye technology."

With many exhibitors at IBC announcing support for IP infrastructures, PHABRIX too was demonstrating its development for SMPTE 2022-6 IP on the Qx. With two SFP + cages at 10GE integrated into the instrument, PHABRIX encapsulated an IP signal and then de-encapsulated the signal back into the SDI test domain of the Qx seamlessly. Additional instrumentation for packet loss and timing were also part of the technical demonstration.

Phil Adams, Managing Director, added: "Our support for SMPTE 2022-6 on the Qx shows our commitment to both SDI and IP infrastructures. Given that the Qx is a 'hybrid' product each technology requires specific instrumentation. The IP support is enabled on our own FPGA core and requires only industry standard SFPs to provide the interface on the 10G Ethernet optical network as demonstrated on the stand. We are now at the stage of productising our IP development in conjunction with feedback from the industry and will have the IP option available Quarter 1 2017."

PHABRIX also added more to its existing range of hand held and rack mount T&M products at IBC. Of particular interest to visitors was the release of V9.04 software for its popular Rx rack mount rasterizer range which includes the dual TFT 2U Rx2000, the 1U Rx1000 and the half rack Rx500.

The Rx range is unique in offering video, audio and data tool-sets in a single product. This functionality combined with its modular approach to adding additional channels enables the product to support from 2 to 4 channels simultaneously dependant on the chassis selected. It can offer a range of up to 99 presets from simple Quad instrument split to a sophisticated 16 instrument view per channel. In the past it would take several different manufactures to provide this all-encompassing offering, however, PHABRIX has broken this mould allowing a range of broadcast specific broadcast applications to benefit from a single product solution. This cuts down on both the space required for T&M and the cost with the added benefit of a single support vendor.

Enhancements to the Rx included new solo buttons allowing precision checking of separate audio channels – particularly useful when diagnosing those channels associated with Dolby. From a QC point of view the ability to check each audio channel on a Dolby E transmission is critical before release. Cleverly, PHABRIX have also added a Dolby Dial Norm indicator onto its 16 channel audio display presenting the operator with all the critical information in one instrument. Loudness has now been mandated in many countries and so PHABRIX have added an additional 'True Peak' enhancement to the Loudness instrumentation. PHABRIX also presented several pre-configured units which come complete with Closed Caption and Loudness toolsets targeted at key Rx customers and applications.

V9.04 software offers new auxiliary data presence and line checking. This is invaluable as an aid in the diagnosis of data that may have been assigned incorrectly to a video frame. For example, this may include closed caption information which is allocated to the wrong line and may therefore not be displayed on picture. By checking the new auxiliary line display, operators can quickly see on which line this important data is being sent and correct accordingly.

PHABRIX is well known for its award-winning PHABRIX Sx hand held series of T&M instruments. Each features a combined analyzer, generator and monitoring toolset. Following on from the success of the PHABRIX SxE with its physical layer toolset, the newest addition to the range the PHABRIX Sx TAG has the ability to offer multiple interfaces from analogue to SDI, optical and HDMI with its onboard SFP cage for connectivity.

All in all an impressive exhibition from a very innovative British company that continues to provide the very best in test and measurement instruments.

www.phabrix.com

This article is also available to read at BFV online here, page 40.

(JP/LM)