Synchronous or Asynchronous: Dolby E® and SDI Signals in NEXUS

Support for all SDI formats including HD/3G SDI

Berlin, September 2010: Thanks to SDI, an important trend in today’s broadcasting technology is merging video and audio into a single data stream. The advantages are many, such as video and audio cable runs are always synchronous and simplification of the cabling. Unfortunately this is only true, in most cases, for transport of finished programmes. During the production process, audio and video must be separated.
For exactly this application, SALZBRENNER STAGETEC MEDIAGROUP offers the new XHDI 02, a plug-in card for the NEXUS audio network. The XHDI 02’s most outstanding feature is compatibility with each and every SDI format specified by the current standards, including the high bit-rate, 1080p 50/60 capable HD/3G format.
The XHDI 02 de-embeds, processes and re-embeds all the audio accompanying the video from and to the SDI stream. The board can be equipped with sample-rate converters and is then able to de-embed the audio even from asynchronous video signals and then re-embed them again.
Application of the new SD and HD/3G SDI card becomes revolutionary by combining it with an XDED (neXus Dolby E® Decoder) board. Together they enable de-embedding and decoding of Dolby E®signals from the SDI signal, which can then be processed within the NEXUS system and re-encoded and re-embedded back in the SDI stream. This procedure is even applicable to asynchronous SDI signals. As a further unique feature, the board has the ability to compensate for the delays inherent in the Dolby E® decoding and coding process. This ensures that video and audio are always in perfect lip-sync.
With this comprehensive functionality, NEXUS introduces a highly desirable simplification to the workflow and minimises the technical complexity of handling Dolby E® signals in SDI.
A number of major broadcasters — for example, ARD in Germany, — have announced their intention of making their NEXUS installations capable of dealing with the 1080p50 and 1080p60 video formats and 3G-SDI, and to use them as the formats of choice for their most important productions as soon as HD becomes a regular broadcast format. Others, such as tpc and RTS in Switzerland and ESPN have already completed this transition and are already using the brand-new NEXUS XHDI 02 boards.