StreamLabs ALPHA SDI Capture / Playout Card with TELE-INFO Software

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StreamLabs ALPHA SDI Capture / Playout Card with TELE-INFO Software
Stream ALPHA SDI is a multi-functional video card, which is able to substitute several devices in a studio at a time. Besides the primary function of graphics overlaying on transmitted digital signal of SDI format or its output for external mixer, the video card may converse analog signal to digital SDI format of video signal and work as frame-grabber and video sequence-grabber.

Stream ALPHA SDI works with 8- and 10-bit serial component SDI input signal and 10-bit - output signal, in accordance with CCIR656 and SMPTE259m instructions. At signal passing through the board all service information is kept, and sound packs may be either kept or replaced depending on the required conditions. In the input signal error check with calculation of checksum under EDH technique is performed. At output, EDH packs are always generated anew according to SMPTE165 instruction.

The board works in external synchronization mode, which is performed on the input video signal. If at the output is only computer graphics, synchronization signal Black burst may be sent to the main input or to optional analog one. At external synchronization absence internal generator is used.

For use of the described devices in combination with external mixer having DSK input (Down Stream Key), key signal output (of alpha channel) is specially designed in analog and digital format. Board setup program allows setting both positive and negative delay of key signal in relation to the output graphics within broad range.

At switching off computer power supply or at BYPASS mode activating inputs and outputs of all devices form a circle through relay, and 75 Ohm load is switched off. During power supply switching off and also initialization no distortions of the transmitted signal take place at the output.

For output of computer graphics the video card memory buffer is used of 720x576 points size for 50 Hz video systems and 720x480 points for 60 Hz systems. Each point has 32-bit representation, 24 bits of which are used for representation of its color (16 mln. shades), and 8 bits - for specification of one of 256 transparency degrees (alpha channel). Although the component of points color of computer graphics has 24 bits in its presentation (8x8x8), at mixing representation of 30 bits (10x10x10) is used, i.e. if the input signal was a 10-bit one, it will remain such at output after mixing.

The memory used for graphics buffer, and also data throughput of PCI bus of modern computers allow to refresh entirely its content in real time without loss of pictures, transmitting uncompressed image (32 bit/pixel) together with the sound component.

Video card Stream ALPHA SDI besides the digital serial input is also equipped with analog inputs - YUV/RGB, S-Video and a composite input. It also may generate analog signals YUV/RGB regardless of input used at the output simultaneously with SDI signal.

For generation of signals at analog outputs 10-bit digital to analog converter with fourfold oversampling is used. It allows obtaining of their HF noise total filtration without additional reduction of channel signal output brightness bandwidth.

8- and 10-bit serial video component SDI signal, full compliance with CCIR656 and SMPTE259m recommendations.

Two options in video signal synchronization: the analog Black Burst or SDI video.

Output SDI and analog key-signal to support external video mixer equipped by DSK input.

Automatic pass-through mode.

Live mode video mixer and display on RGB monitor, composition of source video signal and computer graphics, animation and text data without pre-processing.

Analog YUV/RGB, S-Video, and Composite video inputs and outputs.

Features

TELE Info is a robust content playout and on-air text and graphics design server.

TELE Info software provides TV-studio broadcasting automation by scheduling the programs output, inserting regional advertisement into central channel broadcasting line-up, adding titles, overlaying stills and logos, generating clocks display and much, much more.

With vast possibilities for text and graphics design of played out video material and pass-through signal, much more extensive than those of TELE, TELE Info helps to organize a <> or RAI-24 style information channel. The design of these channels is distinguished by high informational and graphic intensity - simultaneous output of several crawls, animated logos, and information fields with constant content update.

TELE Info application will also help to organize a personal music channel - fully automated clip rotation (by vote) with titles (song name, artist, etc.) in combination with SMS-chat and internet voting.
The application does not require any additional equipment (synchronizers, mixers, transcoders, nonlinear editing systems, etc.) and allows to execute graphic information, video and audio overlay directly over the pass through signal.

Key features:

- Automatic, scheduled video material on-air playback in round-the-clock, 24/7/365 mode non-stop.

- Graphics and text on-air design affixed to schedule or controlled manually.

- Broadcasting text and multimedia (graphic) messages (SMS). Moderating incoming messages.

- Voting with results scale display and connecting equipment for telephone vote option.

- Automatic clip rotation by vote. Clip playback starts when it collects the majority of votes.

- Automatic blocks output from RSS sources.

- Titling "on-the-fly" during news block output or organization of live broadcasts in the studio.

- Picture-in-Picture mode with video clips and incoming digital streams.

- Built-in module for programming and employment of personal applications written in Visual Basic. This helps to adapt the system for broadcasting in mixed mode (on-air broadcasting together with already prepared schedule playout).

- Flexible triggering of every schedule element (at the end of the previous element playback, according to specified time, manually from external GPI or keyboard (hot keys)).

- Support for personal applications and scripts written in different programming languages, including Visual Basic and VBScript in HTML-pages.

- Subtitling movies (clips) displayed by the system using ready SRT-files.

- Using the following elements in same schedule in any combination:
o Video clips of different format, resolution and frame rate (can be joined into blocks): MPEG-2 (MPG, M2V, VOB), MPEG-1, MPEG-4 (DivX), MJPEG, DV (Type I or II - Matrox, Pinnacle, Canopus), Windows Media (ASF, WMV), Quick Time (MOV, DV), etc.;
o Video blocks;
o Streams coming from various video signal capturing devices. The source of digital stream can be a controller with IEEE-1394 DV capture interface, "multipurpose TV Tuner" (different cards and USB-devices for video signal capture), or a web-camera. All digital streams can be scaled, colour corrected and sound adjusted, can be displayed in full-screen or picture-in-picture mode.
o Animation files (sequence of graphic files (TGA) with alpha-channel);
o Titles output scripts (prepared in Alpha Pro application) with audio (*.WAV format);
o Text blocks (crawls) with audio (*.WAV).

- Editing schedule and its elements:
o Combine initial video files of various formats into video blocks while applying simple editing techniques (cutting, straight splice);
o Clip trimming, brightness, contrast, saturation, gamma, audio level, field order, etc. (the initial file is left intact);
o Define text attributes of the video clip (band name, artist name, song name, etc.) for automatic overlay in the beginning and at the end of the clip;
o Cyclic clip playback option;
o Prompt transition to any chosen schedule element output;
o Custom colour assignment for identification of each clip in the schedule;
o Video file verification function and automatic substitution in case of file access failure;
o Audio track selection option for DVD-movies.

- Editing current schedule on-the-fly, during schedule playback, at the last moment, or editing a different day schedule.

- Creating a schedule for unlimited number of days ahead.

- Remote schedule editing (optional).

- Importing schedule from different formats, including text files (optional).

- Transferring schedules and databases of clip parameters used in the schedules from one computer with TELE to another.

- Preview function for preliminary material viewing on computer screen or reference monitor.

- Rotation mechanism for automatic broadcast filling with text messages, graphic elements and video clips. No need to create a scrupulous playlist! It is sufficient to indicate the number of runs for every element and time range for their playback.

- Synchronously with the start of every schedule element it is possible to overlay an additional unlimited number of text and graphics elements (secondary events) over it:
o Graphics files (including those with alpha-channel);
o Animation files without limitations in real cumulative output area (sequence of graphic files (TGA) with alpha-channel);
o Titles (Windows fonts, Unicode coding supported). Can be rotated by 90 degrees;
o Crawls and Rolls.

Output one or more crawls or rolls not only over the pass-through signal, but also over clips and incoming digital signal (Stream), used in schedule element.
The moving text can contain static or animated logos. Crawls can have markers assigned to them for pause or speed changes.

It is possible to perform output and editing of the text in reverse direction, in conformity with selected national font. Crawls can run from left to right and from right to left.

o Screen Cap objects (displaying the computer screen window).
Capturing Windows Desktop display with all real-time changes (ex. In order to display flash-animation or a part of Internet Explorer window content). Can be inserted into pass-through video signal or over clip (digital stream) in a window with soft edges, scaling, colour correction and smoothing.
o Digital and full-screen analog clocks;
o Temperature sensor readings.

- Foreground composition elements and their contents can change from one schedule element to another, or when new values are transmitted during specified video clip frames display.

Clock display in TELE application consists of several layers:
o Clock dial layer (static picture or full-screen video);
o Dynamic layer of hour, minute and second pointers.

The application of "graphic frames" sequence for pointers display allows to create practically any possible clock appearance, imagination is the only limit!

- Generating a real statistics report of video clips and blocks broadcast.

- Remote TELE program control.

- External switching equipment support (Kramer, TELEVIEW DSC, ITM XDR, etc.).

- Professional equipment operation support via GPI.

- External DV devices control via 1394 interface. Allows to broadcast the material directly on-the-air via Stream ALPHA card without preliminary copying to computer.

- Detailed program manual.

TELE package includes Character Generation program Alpha Pro and SMS-Terminal application, which is designed for on-air process automation, and receiving calls and SMS-messages from mobile phones and external programs (particularly via Internet).

Supported video formats:

- DV type II (720x576), 4:2:0, 1:5 compression, audio 32/44/48 KHz stereo - AVI file without 4 GB limitation, created by most nonlinear editing cards that operate in DV format.

- MJPEG (720x576), 4:2:2, compression up to 1:3, audio 32/44/48 KHz stereo - format created by miroVideo DC30/DC50, Matrox DigiSuite/DigiSuite LE, Fast AVMaster cards.

- DivX, MPEG-4 (720x576), 4:2:0, stream up to 10 Mbit/sec, audio 32/44/48 KHz stereo - AVI file without 4 GB limitation, created with DivX codec or analog according to MPEG-4 specifications.

- MPEG-2 (720x576, 704x576, 512x576), 4:2:0, stream up to 10 Mbit/sec, audio 48 KHz stereo - MPEG-2 Main Profile file (compatible with DVB, DVD standards and most hardware MPEG-2 coding devices).

- MPEG 2 I-frame (720x576), 4:2:2, audio 32/44/48 KHz stereo, or in a separate WAV-file - AVI file without 4 GB limitation, created by Matrox series RT-xxxx cards.

- 422 type video files - no compression, highest D1 video quality (720 x 576 x 4:2:2), 48 KHz stereo sound format, no AVI-like 4 GB limitation.

- 444 type animation files - no sound, resolution 720x576x32-bit, unlimited length, serve to create animation logos, presentations and advertisement "banners", created by a converter from TGA 32-bit files sequence.
The support for all the formats listed above is embedded in the program. In addition, AVI files of random formats can be played when a relevant video codec for Windows is present, e.g. Indeo, Microsoft MP42 or Canopus ver. 2.8 (to play Canopus DVStorm, DVRaptor RT files), etc.

Specifications

Recommended computer configuration:

- Computer IBM PC on Intel processor: Pentium Core 2 DUO;
- Not less than 1 Gb of main memory;
- At least 100 Mb of free space on hard drive;
- Operating system Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003. Any graphical working mode in Windows environment with resolution 1024x768 pixels High Color (16 bit) and more.

We recommend to apply for Intel Pentium Core 2 DUO platform motherboards models by Asustek, for instance, of ASUS P5Lxxx or P5Bxxx series...

Downloads

In the Box

- Stream ALPHA SDI Board
- USB software protection dongle;
- CD-disk with software and demo;
- Software user manual in hard copy and on CD-disk in PDF-format.

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