On Booth C9922 at the 2021 NAB Show Crystal Vision will be showing the latest best-of-breed video processing software apps for its MARBLE media processor hardware, all of which can work with IP, with SDI or with both IP and SDI at the same time. The functionality offered by these apps – which support ST 2022, ST 2110 video and 31 different SDI standards including 1080p – includes chroma keying, linear keying, video delay, profanity delay, color correction, legalizing, picture-in-picture and fail-safe switching. This support for multiple signal formats gives the easiest possible SDI to IP upgrade, while also making the apps perfect for mixed SDI and IP installations as well as fully IP or fully SDI environments. Crystal Vision will also be discussing how the software-based MARBLE platform makes it easy to create custom products to solve problems using SDI or IP video.
Making its global debut at the 2021 NAB Show will be the M-SAFIRE real-time chroma keyer software app – the industry’s first and only IP chroma keyer which can also be used with SDI, or with both IP and SDI simultaneously for hybrid systems. Chroma keyers have traditionally been some of Crystal Vision most popular products – with over 50 users in the US alone – and the M-SAFIRE offers Crystal Vision’s best picture quality to date. The MARBLE media processor’s extremely powerful GPU processor allows the M-SAFIRE to generate a noise-free key which is fundamental in creating a believable virtual reality, while the numerous tools to optimize the picture include advanced clip processing, color correction, edge shrink, color spill processing, lighting compensation and shadow processing. Crystal Vision’s chroma keyers have always been regarded as the easiest to operate and the M-SAFIRE’s quad split multiviewer output facilitates setup. It allows the Output video, Output key, Keyed foreground and Keyed background to be viewed simultaneously and to zoom into any area – especially useful when dealing with any issue that really benefits from close inspection such as shadows or spill. The key can be faded up and down, while internal and external masks can be used to force areas of foreground or background – making it easy to linear key a logo or add virtual objects or sports graphics. The M-SAFIRE offers enhanced system timing features, being the company’s first chroma keyer to include reference redundancy, PTP as a timing source and ten frames of delay on the output as well as on the input.
Profanity delays are another of Crystal Vision’s most popular products in the US and Booth C9922 will provide the first chance for in-person demos of the M-CLEANIT IP/SDI profanity delay software app, where visitors can see how many cleaning options are available to prevent the broadcast of unwanted or offensive video or audio material. These cover options include clean switching to two different video sources or a web page, blurring the video, showing black or blue or colour bars, muting individual audio channels and switching to another audio source. To give the operator time to react, the M-CLEANIT allows an IP or SDI live content stream to be delayed by up to 600 frames, which is 24 seconds in 1080i50, 20 seconds in 1080i59.94, 12 seconds in 720p50/1080p50 and ten seconds in 1080p59.94. With intuitive control from a smart button box, separate reaction controls to event and restore and a fixed multiviewer output allowing the operator to monitor everything that is happening, the M-CLEANIT’s flexibility allows it to be fully customized for any workflow.
The M-COCO-2 IP/SDI color corrector software app has been generating considerable interest for those needing to adjust the colors on in-shot monitors while saving them money by being dual channel. In addition to its RGB gain, RGB lift, YUV gain, YUV lift, Video gain, Chroma gain, Chroma hue and RGB Gamma adjustments, the M-COCO-2’s unique Black Stretch and Highlights Stretch tools are particularly useful for correcting the contrast on brightly lit on-set monitors where the studio lighting has been set to suit the people in shot. These Y Stretches allow the signal to be stretched or compressed for a limited range of the signal, without affecting any other luminance levels outside of this range. The Black Stretch allows levels close to black to be more visible and brings the low level detail back into the final picture, while the Highlights Stretch allows useful changes to the bright areas. Also proving useful for the in-shot monitors is the M-COCO-2’s included gateway functionality to convert an ST 2022 or ST 2110 signal to SDI, which then allows the use of SDI to HDMI converters which are considerably cheaper than IP to HDMI converters.
Booth C9922 will additionally provide the opportunity for Crystal Vision to discuss with visitors how the MARBLE platform can be used to create custom products to solve their specific problems using SDI or IP video. An advantage of MARBLE being a software-based platform is that the functionality from different apps can easily be combined to produce new apps. These functions include keying, picture manipulation and scaling, video delay, color correction, legalizing, switching, synchronization and IP to SDI conversion. Compared with the normal cost of creating custom products, using MARBLE is very economical. New apps can be therefore developed for low volume applications, while for customer proof of concept evaluations Crystal Vision has been able to develop one-off products to show how MARBLE can help broadcast engineers with new ways of working. The customization process is also very quick, with new features having been added for customers within 24 hours.
Based at Whittlesford near Cambridge in the UK and with an office in the USA, Crystal Vision provides a full range of interface and keyers and helps people transition through a range of technologies – from SD to HD, from HD to IP and from IP to IP.
