NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center to Launch PESA Cheetah 64WE

Mar 9, 2006 8:00 AM

PESA, part of QuStream, announced that NASA's UNITeS (Unified NASA Information Technology Services) contractor has purchased a PESA Cheetah 64WE routing switcher populated as a 32x32 HD matrix for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

UNITeS purchased the new Cheetah system through the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) program, and it will be used in the center's photographic analysis laboratory. HD imagery of shuttle launches and landings and related systems testing is analyzed in the facility.

The Cheetah 64WE supports a 64x64 configuration in a compact 6RU frame, providing support for PESA's WatchDog redundant crosspoint matrix, and it comes standard with Viewport Windows Diagnostics software and SNMP support. The PESA router handles a variety of video and data signals, including HD, SDI, ASI, analog video, and AES/EBU from 3Mbps to 1.5Gbps with reclocking at both SD (SMPTE 259 m) and HD (SMPTE 292 m), as well as input EQ to 300m for SD and 100m for HD. Every individual output features a bypass mode to enable support of non-standard data signals.

All output options—fiber outputs, HD downconversion, and analog conversion—are available on the Cheetah 64WE model, and PESA's full-featured 3500Pro control software provides high-level diagnostics and configuration capabilities typically found only in higher-priced control systems.

"The new line of Cheetah frames provide our customers with the configurations and the options they really need," says Bob McAlpine, senior vice president of sales and marketing at PESA. "And now at pricing that is extremely cost-effective."

For more information about PESA, visit www.pesa.com.