Snell & Wilcox announces Mach1 trade-in programme

Broadcasters can now trade in any analogue or digital standards converter and receive a generous trade-in allowance on a new Kudos Plus Mach1 M.Sc, the bestselling motion-compensated converter from Snell & Wilcox.
Priced in the same range as a four-field converter, the Mach1 M.Sc delivers far superior motion-compensated conversion quality and - with integrated aspect ratio conversion and both analogue and digital I/Os - facilitates a smooth, controlled, and cost-effective transition to digital broadcasting. Under the trade-in program, Snell & Wilcox will offer a credit greater than the second-hand value of the customer's old converter toward the purchase of a new Mach1.
"The Mach 1 has been a consistent Snell & Wilcox bestseller because it provides very high image quality in a compact package at a uniquely low price point," said Joe Zaller, the company's Vice President of Marketing and Product Management. "The generous allowances built into our Mach1 trade-in program make it easier and more affordable for broadcasters to update their existing facilities with a superior standards converter that has a proven record in broadcast plants, cable and satellite transmission facilities, and OB vans across the globe."
Broadcast companies that have recently added Mach1 systems to their facilities include Globecast and Eutel in France, DirecTV and EchoStar in the United States, and Gearhouse in the United Kingdom, as well as sportscasters LA Turf and ESPN, newscasters ABC and Reuters, and music broadcaster MTV.
While older converters are likely to have only analogue interfaces, the 1-RU Mach1 handles either analogue or digital signals and can convert video to and from PAL, NTSC, and SECAM, as well as 10-bit SDI signals, while also handling AES audio. In addition to built-in aspect ratio conversion, a key capability for DTV broadcasting, the system also boasts an all-10-bit data path.
Snell & Wilcox M.Sc motion vectors enable motion-compensated conversion for excellent image quality, which is in turn enhanced through noise reduction featuring recursive and median filtering. The Mach1's clean motion portrayal of frame-rate conversion produces video that is not just good to look at, but is also compression-friendly, helping to minimize unnecessary motion data in MPEG-2 bitstreams.
More information about how to make a cost-effective upgrade to the Mach1 from an old standards converter is available at www.snellwilcox.com.
(GB)