Programmable logic adapts to video
01 October 2006
The International Broadcasting Conference (IBC) proved a showcase for programmable logic. Both Altera and Xilinx used the event to show the broadcast world how FPGAs can meet the changing and evolving standards for broadcast within the time and budget constraints of this competitive market.
At IBC 2006 last month, programmable logic company, Altera, demonstrated what it claims is the industry’s first FPGA-based audio/visual kit designed to support triple rate SDI (serial digital interface), including the new 3Gbit/sec SMPTE 424M standard, defined by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
(SMPTE).
The Audio/Video Development Kit, Stratix II GX edition can be used by designers to create or design next-generation studio and broadcast applications, such as switchers, H.264 encoders, transcoders and integrated receiver decoders, based on the high-definition (HD) 1080p format. It provides the means for broadcast audio and video systems to be designed on a single programmable platform to meet cost, performance and quality requirements in the strict time to market windows of the industry(www.altera.com/b/broadcast.html)
The 3Gbit/sec data rates is described as an evolutionary step for broadcast equipment. It provides a single-link, 1080p-capable standard that simplifies hardware design and reduces the complexity and cost of the equipment setup. The current practice to support the HD 1080p format uses a dual-link connection from cameras to the mixing and recording equipment, doubling the number of cables required.
The kit provides input and output devices for ASI (asynchronous serial interface) SDI (synchronous digital interface) and DVI (digital video interface) as well as audio interfaces. The company’s video and image processing technologies are included so that designers can implement in a single FPGA or as an FPGA coprocessor supporting digital signal processors.
The serial data can be supported on up to 20 full duplex transceiver channels across a range of 270Mbit/sec to 3Gbit/sec. The transceivers can also support data rates up to 6.375Gbit/sec and the low power transceivers embedded in the Stratix II GX provide low-jitter performance, claims the company.
Also in Amsterdam, Altera’s competitor, Xilinx (www.xilinx.com) demonstrated the way FPGA-based solutions can be effective in broadcasting. Demonstrations were based on the company’s Virtex-5 FPGA platform, the 65nm FPGA.
The ML571 Serial Digital Audio and Video platform supports serial digital video formats SMPTE292M, SMPTE259M, DVDASI, and the 3Gbit/sec SDI and Dual-Link HD-SDI and AES/EBU Audio.
Virtex FPGAs are used in the Video over IP reference designs, exploiting the arrays’ embedded features of high-speed I/O, Ethernet MACs and high-performance processors. Similarly, video processing, demonstrations were used to highlight the scaling, de-interlacing, picture-in-picture and DVE that have been developed in partnership with Image Processing Techniques (www.imageproc.com).
The IBC 2006 was also the platform for Digital TV Labs (www.digitaltv-labs.com) to reveal how Europe’s problem of varied broadcast parameters and different network characteristics could be overcome with the elimination of full field testing for DVB-T receivers.
The conformance testing specialist claims to be able to cut the cost of DVB-T testing with its virtual Radio Frequency field testing service.
The service allows virtual field testing to be carried out in the lab for the first time and is based on a library of actual RF field recordings across Europe. Until now, field testing has been necessary to ensure correct reception in challenging RF conditions. DVB-T and DVB-H front-ends can be tested against a library of RF recordings, taking hours rather than weeks.
The company worked with Taiwanese manufacturer Adivic, which manufactures the vector recording and playback instruments. The RF recordings are at least 20 seconds long and use spectrum analysis at the test sites. Analogue and digital interferers are measured to be played back simultaneously with the RF recording to reproduce the real RF spectrum characteristics.
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