NAB 2019: Cobalt Digital To Ship 9971 Series UHD Multiviewers
Cobalt Digital (booth SL9111) announced the availability of its new 9971 Series of UHD multiviewers for the openGear platform, which support a variety of asynchronous signals and offer HDMI outputs for economical monitoring on consumer-grade 4K monitors. The cards will be demonstrated at the 2019 NAB Show next month in Las Vegas.
Three models – the 9971-MV18-4K with 18 SDI inputs, 9971-MV6-4K with six SDI inputs, and 971-MV6-4H-4K with six SDI and four HDMI 2.0 inputs – are designed to accommodate a variety of signals and applications. The 9971 Series supports 12G/6G/3G/HD/SD-SDI and UHD1 3820×2160 square division (SDQS) or two-sample interleave (2SI) quad 3G-SDI formats as I/O. Each model can output ST 2082 12G-SDI for single-wire 4K transport, while up to two HDMI 2.0 outputs at 3840×2160 resolution allow 4K video monitoring of the mosaic image output.
Using 12G-SDI “single wire” inputs, the 9971-MV18-4K supports up to 18 asynchronous discrete PiP images, and can downconvert 12G and quad UHD using 12G-SDI and quad 3G-SDI inputs, while the 9971-MV6-4K supports up to six discrete PiP images. The 9971-MV6-4H-4K displays up to 10 sources, including a mix of computer and video sources, and also works directly with commercial or consumer HDMI signals as I/O without the use of additional converter boxes.
“4K production is here, and broadcasters and OB truck operators need to be able to monitor content at a glance,” explains Chris Shaw, Cobalt executive vice president of sales and marketing. “Not only does the 9971 Series support full UHD resolution, it can handle multiple asynchronous signals simultaneously and provide full resolution display on consumer 4K monitors. It’s an uncomplicated multiviewer solution for facilities with a complicated blend of HD and 4K sources.”
Up to five 9971 cards can be installed in one 2 RU openGear frame. Multiple cards can be included in a cascaded chain that provides multiviewer layouts of up to 64 sources (8×8), with low-latency processing to prevent significant accumulated delays within the chain.
Setup is simplified with one-button template presets, but users can also create and save fully customizable layouts. Real-time changes to template and custom layouts can be made on the fly without an external setup or layout program. The 9971 cards also include text “burn-in” insertions and other graphic overlay features. Card control and monitoring are available via the DashBoard user interface, integrated HTML5 web interface, SNMP, or Cobalt’s RESTful-based Reflex protocol.