Arctek taps FOR-A HD converter for IIHF Final

Arctek and Galaxy Light & Power LLC in London
selected FOR-A FRC-7000 HD frame-rate converters for the live broadcast of the
World Championship of the International Ice Hockey Federation. The three week tournament was played
in Halifax Nova Scotia
and Quebec City
Canada. An SD signal was also
supplied, after being down converted to PAL.

Arctek had been contracted to provide a 1080/50i HD signal
to Europe during the World Championships and
were looking for frame rate conversion solutions during NAB2007. Upon meeting Anthony
Klick, FOR-A Sales Manager for Eastern and Midwestern Regions at the FOR-A
booth, Galaxy Light & Power was brought into the mix to make it happen.

According to Andy Grant, of Galaxy Light & Power,
several challenges arose during the event. “Hockey is one of the most difficult
things to convert, the puck moves at high speed when hit, there are Contrast
issues because the players are wearing white and so is the ice. We’ve had an
FRC-7000 for quite some time and were able to optimize it to produce the
highest quality conversion possible.”

The FRC-7000 uses vector motion compensation processing to
analyze and determine the pixel movement in each image frame. This is
accomplished by comparing the movement in the frames before and after the ones
being converted.

“The FRC-7000 estimates where the images will appear – it
tracks motion to work out where it will be in different intervals. I’ve worked
with lesser converters with fast movement and they often will produce
artifacts. In this case, I considered the production pretty flawless and
unnoticeable.”

The Championships also required that Dolby sound was fed to Europe. With many live music and sports events being made
available in Dolby 5.1, together with it being the audio standard for the
mastering of DVD/ BD, this invaluable function saves having to use a large
amount of additional peripheral audio processing.
“Once Dolby E audio became the transmission
requirement, the FOR-A conversion unit was our only choice,” said Brian
Stanley VP of Operations for ARCTEK HD. “Not only does the
FRC-7000 pass the Dolby E stream but it maintains the highest picture
quality during the conversion. For hockey or any fast moving sport
this is the only HD standards conversion I would
consider.”