SAM unveils Masterpiece

At NAB 2017, Snell Advanced Media (SAM) is showcasing the world’s first UHD master control switcher, Masterpiece 12G-SDI. The system has been designed to meet the needs of mission critical operations, offering rock steady 24/7 master control that can handle any live application, be it sports, news or live entertainment, covering media over the air (OTA) via multichannel video program distributors or real-time streaming.

Handling SD/HD/1080p and UHD, Masterpiece 12G-SDI allows broadcasters to seamlessly move into UHD workflows without any compromise in quality and capability and provides branding functionality such as keying and DVE for squeeze backs and effects. Masterpiece provides a control interface to SAM’s Morpheus playout automation solution and when used in combination, the two systems deliver robust and resilient content distribution and flexible device management. It receives audio signals via both SDI embedded audio and direct AES inputs and can handle a range of audio mixing tasks from audio lead and log background transitions to voice overs and voice unders.

Robert Szabó-Rowe, EVP and General Manager, Live Production and Infrastructure, SAM said: “Broadcasters today need to be able to deal with multiple formats, coming from multiple sources – including user generated footage from mobile phones – without any disruption to their live output. Masterpiece 12G-SDI has been designed and built to stand up to the most demanding of live broadcast environments and easily copes with today’s increasingly multiformat productions. It’s very important for us that we help our customer’s transition to any new formats and technologies including UHD as easily and painlessly as possible.”

Incorporating SAM’s FormatFusion 3 technology, Masterpiece 12G-SDI provides broadcasters with more capacity to feed multiple format material into their channels. The system provides full support for HD, 1080P and UHD all within a 2U mainframe and with full power redundancy, eliminating the need to create multiple versions of the same material for different format channels. Furthermore, it removes the need for external conversion equipment, saving valuable space, time and money.

Key features:

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• UHD processing

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• Single link SDI connection

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• Keying for channel branding,

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• Audio embedding, de-embedding and shuffling

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• Video mixer

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• Audio mixer for mixing VO and Voice under

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• DVE for functional squeeze backs and effects

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• FormatFusion 3 for multiple format workflows,

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• Automation and manual control

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• Dedicated panel for easy operations