Extron Parties, Rolls Out New Products
Prior to celebrating its 25th anniversary with a blowout bash at the Las Vegas Palms featuring country music star Dwight Yoakam, Extron took the wraps off a litany of new products at InfoComm 08.
Prior to celebrating its 25th anniversary with a blowout bash at the Las Vegas Palms featuring country music star Dwight Yoakam, Extron took the wraps off a litany of new products at InfoComm 08.
First was a major expansion to its fiber optic product family for long haul, digital transmission and distribution of AV signals. The new Fox 4G Matrix 14400 is a high performance, modular fiber optic matrix switcher expandable from 16×16 to 144×144. It includes hot-swappable input/output boards and redundant power supplies for field upgradeability and reliability in mission-critical environments, according to the company.
Extron also introduced three new fiber optic extenders, including the FoxBox 4G VGA for sending RGB computer-video signals, the FoxBox 4G DVI for DVI signals, and the Fox 2G AV for sending component video, S-video, or composite video. All three extenders are transmitter and receiver sets that send video, audio, and RS-232 control signals on just a single fiber with no compression.
The company also used InfoComm to underscore twisted pair as a mainstream technology for transmitting AV long distances. Extron introduced its MTP 1500RL Series of extended distance twisted pair receivers. Available in four models, the new receivers work with MTP Series transmitters to send high-resolution video, along with RS- 232 or audio signals 1,500 feet or more over a single Cat-5-type cable. They’re compatible with resolutions up to 1600×1200 UXGA and offer separate continuously variable level and peaking adjustments that optimize image quality for various cable lengths.
Among Extron’s many other product introductions:
- The new CrossPoint Ultra Series of Ultrawideband matrix switchers, with 600 MHz bandwidth, ultra-flat frequency response, and an efficient, reliable design. The CrossPoint Ultra is available in twelve models and six I/O sizes from 8×4 to 16×16.
- Three new signal routing solutions for multi-rate serial digital video applications: the SW4 3G HD-SDI, Four Input Multi-Rate SDI Switcher; the 3G HD-SDI 101 Cable Equalizer for Multi-Rate SDI; and the Fiber Matrix 6400 3G HD-SDI Board. All the new multirate SDI solutions support data rates up to 3G-SDI, 2.97 Gbps.
- More than 20 new products for integrating DVI and HDMI sources and displays, including DVI and HDMI matrix switcher boards for the SMX System MultiMatrix, and the first products from Extron for dual-link DVI applications including an Extender and an Equalizer.
