Telecast Unveils Adder Modules, Revamped Baker Box

By Debra Kaufman

Telecast Fiber Systems unveiled modules for its Adder II Modular audio, intercom and data multiplexing system. The Adder II modules include strips for balanced AES via XLR connections. The strips come in 16-channel TX and RX or an 8×8 transceiver for customers who want balanced AES signals on XLRs. The data strips provide an additional eight or 16 RS-232 or RS-422 paths on DB-9 connectors.

The Baker Box has also been remodeled. “It’s a Cat 5-based product that allow two analog mic sources per location to be converted to AES,” says VP of Sales and Marketing Joseph Commare. “This is perfect for outdoor broadcasts.”

Telecast also announced that WHYY, the public broadcaster serving Philadelphia, upgraded its two studios with Sony PDW700 XDCAM HD camcorders, and equipped each one with a CopperHead G2 2400, which multiplexes all of the camera’s output and input signals onto a single, durable and lightweight fiber optic cable.

The CopperHeads have helped WHYY find a cost-effective path to HD, says station CTO Bill Weber. “And since the CopperHeads also accept SD inputs and outputs, they’ve enabled us to continue SD production as we complete the build-out of our control room facilities for HDTV,” he adds.

Commare says that Telecast is developing “a new tool kit” for making highly customized fiber-optic solutions for signal acquisition. “Whatever it is, the modules will just drop in,” he says. “What we’ll be doing is coming up with better electrical and optical multiplexing schemes to get more stuff onto less fiber.”

Why modules? “People want scalability,” says Commare. “They want to buy a product once and then build upon it over time.”