Murraypro At NAB 2017

Visitors to Murraypro at either Amsterdam's ISE or London's recent BVE exhibition benefited from the continuous live demonstrations of “Test Chest”, and they had the opportunity to gain 'hands on' experience with this keenly priced product, and also its young sibling "TV Eye", shown here in its new livery.

Despite the wealth of new features unveiled, the most frequent 'wow' remark related to these units' incredible speed of operation – which has always been a hallmark of the Murraypro test products – and a major selling point since their introduction.

In fact, with its near instant power-up, using a Test Chest only six times a day will, over the space of one year, return the staggering time saving of well over 24 hours. Impressively, that equates to a couple of extra full days' productivity a year!

Test Chest and TV Eye enhancement continues, and a popular introduction this year was the "cable length" histogram which is displayed on the screen when viewing television pictures. So now, not only do these units display the detected input standard, but cable lengths up to 200m will also be immediately reported as well.

This last parameter is particularly important with SDI operation as cable length approaches the proverbial "digital cliff", a point where performance plummets and rapidly becomes erratic, before finally crashing.
Further enhancements have been implemented in Test Chest's unique TDR utility too, a powerful feature for investigating cables and networks.

Systems under evaluation are probed with a very fast and narrow pulse, and any unwelcome reflections produced by system anomalies are displayed on the LCD screen, together with their distance down the cable.

This impressive TDR feature will easily inform you in a moment or two whether a cable is faulty, and if it is, which end needs re-termination. Using TDR, it is only the work of seconds to be able to determine the length and integrity of an unknown cable, whether it be coiled or installed in a duct.

The design of the input stage of Test Chest's Eye~Pod accessory and stand-alone TV Eye have been re-visited to good effect. Signal bandwidth has been extended in the 'raw' mode, with a revised and improved presentation of the equalised SDI display.

A weak point of rival testers is the operational endurance of their internal battery, and Test Chest Users will anticipate in excess of four hours' service; and following internal power supply refinements in the diminutive TV Eye, its endurance has been substantially extended to around two hours in most modes.

Murraypro will be displaying these products, together with further refinements at NAB on Stand 5924 in the North Hall.

Details: www.murraypro.com or E: [email protected]

This article is also available to read at BFV online here, page 64.

(JP/LM)