Miranda Licenses RealD Format for 3D Signal Processor

Miranda Technologies has licensed the stereoscopic RealD Format, from RealD Inc., to broaden the conversion capabilities of its Densité 3DX-3901 stereoscopic 3D signal processor module.

“By adding RealD Format conversion to our 3DX-3901, the processor now offers the full breadth of stereoscopic 3D conversion capabilities”, says Jean-Marc d’Anjou, VP Infrastructure at Miranda. “It can now interface between all the common 3D formats, and thereby simplify the transition to 3DTV playout using an existing HD infrastructure”.

The Densité 3DX-3901 provides high quality conversion of multiple 3D formats, including Dual Link 3Gbps/1.5Gbps and Single Link 3Gbps/1.5Gbps, with RealD encoding. It features a single 3Gbps/HD input and dual 3Gbps/HD outputs; this allows previewing of conversion effects, as well as 3D/2D simulcasting.

The processor also offers horizontal and vertical flip, interaxial adjustment, and Horizontal Image Translation for adjustments to depth positioning, and for simulating a 3D landscape from a 2D scene. The monitoring output offers anaglyph, Difference-Disparity, and left/right eye display.

The RealD Format is a patented version of a side-by-side 3D formatting technology.  It utilizes a unique set of filters and other technology to multiplex left eye and right eye 3D image streams into a single channel for delivery of HD progressive or interlaced 3D video using today’s HD infrastructure, including existing HD set-top boxes and DVRs, to any 3D-enabled display type. The side-by-side format was recently named in HDMI Specification Version 1.4a as a mandatory format for the transmission of 3D content between devices.

Miranda Now Shipping NVISION 8500 Hybrid Audio Routers

In other Miranda Technologies news, the company has begun shipping its NVISION 8500 Hybrid embedded audio routers with integrated audio processing.

“The NVISION 8500 routers are redefining the role of a router in a television facility”, says Michel Proulx, CTO at Miranda. “By combining video routing with high performance audio processing and routing in a single, ultra-resilient chassis, they streamline signal management and deliver ultra-low latency to prevent lip-sync problems. They represent a new generation of routing technology, essentially ‘super-routers’ with built-in, advanced processing to minimize the device count in facilities. This approach to routing is gaining real traction in the market, especially in Europe.”

Miranda’s NVISION 8500 Hybrid router (3D/3Gbps/HD) integrates de-embedding, shuffling, break-away and re-embedding in a single frame. As a result, everyday signal processing tasks, like swapping program audio tracks, can now be handled simply within the router frame.

The savings in rack space, cabling, power and costs are substantial. In a typical installation, multiple racks of routing, de-embedders and embedders can now be replaced with a single NVISION 8500 router. This audio processing functionality is available across the entire NVISION 8500 router range, from 144×144 to 1152×1152.

To minimize costs, the advanced Hybrid router cards with audio processing functionality can be mixed with regular input, crosspoint, and output cards within a router frame. With Dynamic Hybrid Path-finding, the router is fully aware of the card types in the frame, and can intelligently route signals from the standard cards to the Hybrid cards for processing, and thereby make the audio processing available across all the inputs.

The NVISION 8500 Hybrid routers perform audio processing in a typical production studio environment with an inconsequential delay of just one or two lines. In contrast, a traditional infrastructure, with a router and separate embedders/de-embedders for feeding a mixer and audio console, can introduce milliseconds of delay, and this can create lip-sync problems.

All these audio processing capabilities of the NVISION 8500 Hybrid router can be readily controlled from any NVISION control panel, using familiar commands for channel shuffling and break-away.