Pro-Bel Cygnus router on display at NAB

Not only does NAB 2007 see Pro-Bel celebrate its 30th anniversary but it is also the first opportunity for customers to experience the company’s brand new router range – Cygnus. Pro-Bel is globally renowned for its routing expertise and Cygnus is the culmination of decades of technical development in combination with close listening to customer requirements.

Cygnus is 1080p 3Gbit/s native with 3G cards available from launch. In line with Pro-Bel’s philosophy of ‘HD for free’, there is only one card set, which is SD, HD and 3G capable from the outset, and is competitively priced against existing SD products. All cards are hot-swappable on a card-by-card basis; the expansion of systems is simply a case of inserting a card.

The Cygnus family – which caters for larger scale requirements – consists of three different frame configurations: 576 x 576 in 26U (including PSUs); 288 x 576 in 19U and; 288 x 288 with redundant crosspoints in 19U. Different formats are configurable in any combination of 12-channel input and 24-channel output blocks, up to 576 x 576 in one frame. Further expansion is possible by combining frames. Four monitoring outputs allow simultaneous monitoring of both inputs (i.e. before the primary crosspoint cards) and outputs.

The Cygnus router range offers the highest density routing available using industry standard BNC connections. These are essential for the low loss coaxial cables needed for long cable runs associated with routers of this size. Of course, Pro-Bel’s usual robustness and exemplary reliability comes as standard.

Cygnus is fully integrated with the latest version of Pro-Bel’s emerging enterprise wide management application Morpheus Control and Monitoring. This provides enhanced command-and-control capabilities across content production and delivery infrastructure.

“Routing is one of the most fundamental requirements of our industry and Cygnus takes large scale routing to the next level. It combines a compact form with the latest routing technology in a cost-effective package. It is the complete expression of Pro-Bel’s groundbreaking expertise,” concludes Adrian Scott, CMO, Pro-Bel.