Gearhouse Broadcast Purchases SAM Alchemist In Prep For Rio 2016, UEFA Euro 2016

Building upon its longstanding relationship with SAM, global rental house, SI and OB provider Gearhouse Broadcast has announced the purchase and availability of 14 Alchemist HD SDI converters for its customers.

These are in strong demand by broadcasters for HD coverage of the upcoming Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil this summer and the UEFA Euro 2016 football championships being held in France in June. This recent purchase adds to Gearhouse’s existing fleet of nine Alchemist units, which now total 23.

Headquartered in the UK, Gearhouse Broadcast has been serving the broadcast market for 20 years with offices in Paris, Qatar, Australia and the United States. The Alchemist converter delivers unrivaled quality that puts Gearhouse ahead of its competition and gives its customers the best possible options within their HD productions. This is hugely impactful in a live sports production context.

Edward Tischler, Head of Projects at Gearhouse Broadcast commented: “We’ve used Alchemist for several years and we’re continually impressed with its clean and detailed format and framerate conversions. We’re delighted to continue our relationship with SAM. We’ve had a significant number of broadcasters contact us to rent Alchemist, and we expect that interest to grow as these two major sporting events draw closer.”

Alchemist Ph.C-HD provides broadcasters with a complete, one-box system solution that seamlessly converts between 1080p, HD, and SD broadcast standards and formats. It relies on SAM’s proprietary Ph.C motion estimation technology to deliver the best possible quality in a live broadcast environment.

Neil Maycock, EVP Marketing at SAM commented: “A great standards converter is essential to a live sports broadcast because the quality of the final broadcast output needs to be perfect. The fact that broadcasters around the world are entrusting their content to SAM’s Alchemist for HD coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the UEFA Euro 2016 football championships is a testament to the product’s performance and the stunning picture quality it generates. We’re delighted that working with Gearhouse ensures they are able to satisfy the demands of their customers and provide them with the high level of service their customers have come to rely on.”

Digital Alert Systems, Snell Advanced Media Partner to Provide EAS-Capable Playout Solution
Digital Alert Systems (DAS), a division of Monroe Electronics, has formed a new technology partnership with Snell Advanced Media (SAM). Through this partnership, DAS and SAM have tightly integrated the DASDEC Emergency Alert Systems (EAS) messaging platform with SAM’s ICE family of channel-in-a-box automated playout solutions to enable a simpler yet more sophisticated approach to EAS messaging.

“Tight integration of the DASDEC system with ICE playout systems ensures a smooth flow of alert information over a simple connection, providing broadcasters with an elegant package that sets up and functions more efficiently than brute-force methods,” said Bill Robertson, vice president of business development at Digital Alert Systems. “The high interoperability of our DASDEC system with industry-leading products, such as ICE playout solutions, makes it easier than ever for broadcasters to build their workflows on best-of-breed solutions.”

Designed to increase efficiency while reducing complexity, ICE channel-in-a-box solutions include an extensive toolset to manage playout operations, including single-channel, multichannel, multiregion, and multiplatform environments. The EAS-Net™ protocol from DAS simplifies the integration and installation of DASDEC and ICE systems, allowing use of a “one-wire” interface across a network connection that enables the channel-in-a-box system to handle both playout and EAS alerting. In the United States and a growing number of other countries, this integration supports broadcasters in inserting the emergency alerting information they must provide by government regulation.

“Using an IP-centric EAS interface to connect our ICE solutions with the DASDEC system, we help our customers to bring critical EAS tasks into a more intuitive and streamlined playout workflow,” said Karl Mehring, director of playout and delivery at SAM. “This approach saves our customers time while reducing their overall equipment and energy costs.”

The DASDEC-II from DAS is the latest generation of emergency messaging technology. In addition to providing integrated receivers, advanced hardware interfaces, simple software upgrades, and network-based design, the system supports common information exchange protocols and offers the industry’s broadest range of physical connections and third-party interfaces.