You won’t find a more passionate evangelist for Crestron’s new DigitalMedia initiative than PR chief Jeff Singer, and he presented an interesting case to me that the history of Crestron’s development of the initiative, and resulting family of products on display this week at InfoComm with more coming shortly thereafter, represents a mission to be on the bleeding edge of the industry’s current paradigm shift into the digital universe. more…

Press release

MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic Systems, a provider of fiber-optic-based video and audio transport solutions for broadcast and pro AV applications, is introducing the SilverBullet Mini 3G HD/SDI fiber-optic link at InfoComm 09 (Booth 4629). This two-part transceiver/receiver solution, designed for the transmission of SDI and HD-SDI TV signals over a single-mode fiber optic cable, maintains the signal quality that broadcasters demand—5Mbps to 3Gbps. At just 3in. in length, this cost-effective solution is ideal for a wide variety of pro AV and broadcast applications, including video production and editing, ENG, sports teleproduction, field production, remote camera links, cross-campus production, pre-fibered venues, and courtesy feeds. Read on at The Briefing Room

More InfoComm 09 news from The Briefing Room

As wonderful as HDMI has been so far, one of its real weak points has been the inability for it to span any serious distance. At InfoComm this morning, Frank Jachetta of MultiDyne introduced the company’s new HDMI-ONE, which takes HDMI video and sound up to distances of 1000 meters on multimode fiber while HDCP data stays intact. Frank also showed the new SilverBullet 3G Fiber Link, an economical solution for taking SDI and HD-SDI signals for a long ride on single-mode fiber. Also on hand from MultiDyne was the new HDSDI Repeater/Transport and HDSDI Fan Out DA with HDMI and Audio monitoring.

The crowd had barely made the floor this morning when interested parties began surrounding the Communications Specialities booth for a glimpse of its new 3620TX and 3621RX units for carrying composite video and stereo sound on fiber. The audio is DIP-switch configurable and the power connects on a captive screw connector. The tiny units are indicative of the shrinking size on this type of hardware from all the manufacturers. The 3620TX and 3621RX can send the signals on single-mode or multimode fiber.

Once again this year, at InfoComm 08 in Las Vegas, SVC’s editorial team fanned out to find some of the most important, leading-edge AV-related products debuting at the show, investigating if they might be deserving of our annual InfoComm Pick Hit awards. Read on at The Briefing Room

Liberty Wire & Cable, worldwide supplier of a broad range of wire and cable products for the audio/video trade, including custom installers and systems integrators, has announced publication of its first-ever guide to fiber optic products and solutions, available for the first time at InfoComm 2008. Read on at The Briefing Room

More InfoComm 08 news from The Briefing Room

John Lopinto and Derek Miranda at Communications Specialties gave me a great demo of their new 3150 series fiber transmission hardware. It can handle either single or multi-mode for HD and SD with no adjustments and the system has two significant firsts. The whole thing is built on strict adherence to SMPTE standards fo that it can connect anywhere to anyone’s standards-compliant equipment. Secondly, the transmitter performs EQ and reclocking so that as the signal goes onto the fiber, it is as stable as it can possibly be. They were taking a video signal and running it through 250 feet of coax and then into a one kilometer reel of fiber and it looked as clean as the original video on the source monitor. Next door in the Projection Design booth, all of the large venue displays were taking their video signals through CSI’s fiber. The crowd at the CSI booth pressed in to get a look and it appeared that word had gotten around. John Lopinto told me that the new 3150 series has “caught fire like no other new product we’ve introduced.”

The Luxtera (C1744) booth was a mob scene. Back in January, at CES, the company annouced its DisplayPort optical active interconnect long-reach cable for home and digital signage applications. At the core of the cable is Silicon CMOS Photonic technology—a chip the size of postage stamp. The company had a very compelling presentation, comparing the one Display Port cable to the large piles of the VGA, DVI, and HDMI cables. Size (smaller in this case) really does matter. more…

At the FiberPlex booth I was taken on a tour into the LightViper Shadow system by Sam Spennachio. With a 19-inch rack hardware base, the LightViper Shadow system can send up to 128 separate channels of audio, video and intercom on a bi-directional fiber link with two fiber lines. Each channel’s activity is displayed with LED activity the brightness of which adjusts itself automatically to deal with the ambient light level. The Shadow system can also adjust the sampling rate of its audio transmission to match that of any system with which it happens to be working. Hot swappable redundant power supplies give the hardware a seemingly rock solid base for reliability and the mic preamps can be remotely adjusted in 1dB steps. This was an impressive demo. Stay tuned for the audio segment with Sam in the Infocomm edition of the AV over Fiber podcast.

You can always count on Extron to have a lot of new things to unleash on the Infocomm crowd and this year is no exeption. Director of marketing communication, Mike Andrews showed Michael Goldman, Jessaca Gutierrez and I around the massive Extron area and I was particularly impressed with their new Global Viewer Enterprise. This is the new server-based AV system management and control application that I got a sneak peek at during the Educators’ reception. The primary advantage is multi-rooms at a glance with lamp time meters and a host of other control and management features. more…