Cris Garcia:
All right guys. Thanks. My name is Cris. And in today’s presentation, I’ll be discussing our latest product that we call the 9905-MPx. This product is a relatively new product, that sort of has embraced a lot of the technology that we have within Cobalt’s, with all the other legacy products. Then now, it’s sort of became the new multiprocessing platform with all of the benefits and features set that we normally included with the legacy products.
But now with this more dense, more capable product that has multiple inputs, multiple outputs that also share the same license sort of combinations. And this is just a quick blog diagram of what it looks like, what you would get within this product. For example, you’ve seen those small blocks of processing. We can do anywhere from, being able to manage your audios, your color. Now, this card has become our 3D LUT centric heart. We can also do our Up/Down/Cross conversion from SD through a 1080p, but we also have an option that we’re working on to be able to convert this card, to do a 4k at some point, but for now it is limited to 1080p, you also get the frame sync and audio alpha routing. So let me discuss all those different features in different slides. And then if you have any questions, please do ask and we can expand a little more.
So first and foremost with this product, one of the key sort of feature sets of this is to be able to utilize the input ports for AES and MADI, along with the embedded audio is to be able to embed and de-embed any type of audios. So what this allows you to use this card for is to be able to map large groups of audios and basically be able to route them and use them in any of the four dedicated input paths for SDI. So you can extract audio from those or insert, inject audio into those different video signals to give you that flexibility, which you also get with this is real-time audio metering. So you can look at the input audio meters, and also the output audio meters, which is a pretty cool feature of this. And then as we discuss in your segment, if you were to create a custom panel view of this, a dashboard layout, you can also create those meters and have a little more graphical representation of this audios.
And then also on the output, we have individual controls. You can control each of those paths where the audio is, or you can de-bulk control for all the different audios. So, that’s one of the starting functions of this card. The other thing, as we see here in, I just started to mention these sub-meters are very flexible. So depending on what’s present in the inbound stream, you have all these different meters and parameters that you can visualize at any given time. So with this, you have, as I mentioned, you have your view meters, you can mute, inverts and also adjust the gain of all the inputs for the card. So again, this is a standard feature. It’s not an option. So if you have AES or MADI, that’s coming into the card, this allows you to basically manage and make adjustments as you would with any other audio device or appliance.
One of the nice things with this card, the 9905-MPx is that this will give you a pretty wide and broad spectrum of controls and adjustments that you can do. For example, you can create up to 16 custom mixes. So using those different adjustment parameter controls that I showed in the previous slide, you can customize these different 16 mixes with those controls and adjust some, depending on the workflow requirement, we can also combine and use any of the different sources, whether it’s embedded SDI, audio signals, or AES or MADI you can combine different sources into your mix, which is a pretty nice function of this card. The other thing is that in terms of gain adjustment, you can increase, decrease your volumes depending on the source. And you can make that adjustment particular to one of those different mixes or your different combinations of that you may want to control.
Now, this illustration here that we have in the screen is this is just an example of what we can have in terms of an example mix, right? So you can have, if I have two or different sources at any given time connected to my card, I can select whatever I want to have a stereo or create a flag by one or whatever, I can mix and match different audio sources and create my different mixes. And these are all going to be saved in the card as a preset that I can recall back at any given time. So this is a very flexible, very powerful function of the card. Another nice thing about this card is that I can take those dance custom mixes, or let’s say I have flag by one and I want to create a stereo.
I can also create another mix for that, a done mix in this case. So that’s another great function of this card that allows me now to use this to function as a very powerful audio control system within the card. So for example, I can do center mix ratio, which essentially allows me to control the attenuation of the center channel into the left and the right. I can also control my surround sound mix. So that also allows me to control left and right plus center and other channels that I may have in via in the mix. So again, this just keeps adding more flexibility to the abilities of this card. So now one very interesting thing with this card is that in the past we had a very, I want to say powerful, a sort of openGear card, that address MADI applications very well.
So many of our customers were asking us, what else do you guys have that can address my MADI needs? So this card, because we were already on the path to add more flexibility, more functionality, we decided that it would make a lot of sense to add MADI support to this platform. So this platform essentially now allows any existing user or any user that wants to use MADI to use this in combination with your embedded SDI, audios, and also AES. But what’s very unique about this is that now I can utilize this card to be a MADI sort of gateway between any other broadcasts or production tool into my production console. So now this can be a bi-directional conduit or gateway that can talk to different devices outside of the console and back into the console. So again, I can bring some of those mixes into the console, or I can output any of those back out into the production whether it’s a truck, broadcast facility or whatever. So this is again, one of those very unique functions and tools that we now offer as a standard feature within this card.
I know the great thing with this platform is that similar to all the other products that we have within Cobalt’s, this now as a default feature we offer the frame sync capability. So we have four individual channels that I can process either as the 720 or 1080, from any of those, I can basically also generate a frame sync output. So let’s just say, if I’m in a facility where I’m locked into, let’s say an encoder or any other downstream device, I can utilize this particular card to be able to provide that SAV and EAV code to constantly keep those devices or appliances in sync. So this is again, one of those very unique products that not only works well with all the audio stuff that I just mentioned, but it can also keep any system in sync and on there at any given time. So this is a very good tool for that, especially because it has four independent channels that I can utilize and purpose, as I wish within any broadcast facility or a remote production environment.
So adding more flexibility and performance to this card, this similar to other products that we have also offers the ability to do Up/Down/Cross conversion. And it’s basic default form. This will give you the ability to do Up/Down/Cross conversion from SD two 1080p back the other way around plus it’ll do a full aspect ratio control and noise and sharpness controls. And it’ll automatically auto sense any of the inputs. So you can basically just worry about the output formats, but however, if you do want to have, let’s say this card recondition or massage your signals, this will detect your inputs and you can utilize the different controls in the card to make those adjustments and then send it out. So this is another great tool for doing that. And for when you do that, you can simply just automatically select to match the input source so that the output will be exactly to whatever came in, which is another great function of this card.
Now, speaking on the format conversion, we also have, it’s going to be a license that’s coming down the road where you can easily take this card and make it into a 4k platform. We do have customers that are constantly working back and forth with multiple formats. Maybe they have limited space maybe for an HD 1080p environment. They can utilize some multiple cards. And maybe that makes sense, but in this case, the density performance of one card, and then also the ability to convert this to a 4k platform, it’s just, it’s amazing. And it just adds so much more value to anybody’s production.
In above all, when it say the budget, because in this case, you don’t need to acquire new pieces of hardware or any other system because it’s already there. And all you need to do is just the license set up to make it a 4k as an input or output sort of converting device. So this is something that’s coming down, it’s not ready yet, but we will have this ready at some point. And I think it’s going to be a big deal for customers that are buying into this particular platform.
Another great thing with this platform is that similar to the frame sync, if you have four independent channels that you’re processing and you need to display or send logos or graphics to your downstream appliances or devices, this particular one can give you that, you can do it as based on conditions that you can set in the card, or you can drive this through GPI triggers. So it’s very easy to adjust and to set up for those environments. And because we have four individual outputs out of the card that are independent from each other, I can essentially have four different graphics or I can have up to four graphics per path. So that gives you that much more density that you can output to any given display or device.
And then also one very unique thing about this is that with the onboard storage, I can also have up to 32 graphics stored locally that I can then just pick and choose depending on what condition or what the application is. I can just go and grab them and just I’ll put in some of them out of through the SDI path. So this is a very flexible tool that we added to this, because again, we’re listening and we’re trying to replicate some of those used cases that our customers are bringing back to us. And we feel that this is going to allow customers to have that much more flexibility with all these different graphic storage options and ways to control it.
So now one very unique thing about this card is that this out of discussions we had with a number of users and just what we’re seeing in the market today is that a lot of customers that are onset are primarily DATs or people that are managing LUTs for different scenarios. We noticed that they’re using these little external boxes or a little throw it down, setting some cases need to be controlled independently, and they need to be powered independently. And then also just adds damage more, just noise to external sort of connectivity and the cleanness of the setup. So what we did is that, because now this offers four inputs that are independent from one another, and it has density, and it’s an openGear. Again, we discussed how a dashboard can sort of work to control these different devices.
Well, just imagine if we have show that’s a multi-cam and you have a card like this, that’s a multi-input card with the ability to be able to control your 3D LUTs, either working with LiveGrade or WonderLook. Now you have this density and this particular card in the past, we did offer the LUT option as a licensable option. And this particular version, we are given this as a standard feature to anybody that purchases this product. And the purpose of this is really to give users that much more flexibility and not have to compromise budgets, or just the ease of using this product or getting to use this product on set or with different applications that require the LUT management, whether it’s on set or if it’s a delivery production environment. So again, depending on what system you’re working with, whether it’s LiveGrade or WonderLook, this particular platform would talk to it and it’ll make that whole effort that much more easy to work with and just flexible to manage.
So again, this is our standard now 3D LUT of device or card that would talk to any of these third party in this case, LiveGrade and WonderLook. And it’s becoming popular because as anybody knows, when you have a limited space, flight pack, this just makes life a lot easier when you need to just manage one card for different signal sources. So again, this is the 3D LUT function for this card. And as we add on more to the 3D LUTs, or in this case, now the BBC LUTs one at the other functional or feature optional licenses, is that we can enable a BBC LUTs in this card. So depending on how you want to use this we have cc of that screen shot here of a dashboard by selecting that BBC LUT, it’ll give you access to being able to grab any of those different LUT files and generate those for your applications or requirements.
In this particular scenario we’re supporting the BBC LUT 1.4, 1.5 is coming out soon. So for any of our customers that currently have the BBC LUT 1.4 we’ll have the option to just simply upgrade without any costs to support via the 1.5. So again, this is again what we have within the LUTs management and capability of this card. It’s a simple just a drop down that allows you to easily select a variety of LUTs. I have it here from over 50 different options that you can generate.
Another great thing with this particular platform is that since we are basically allowing this to be our SDI to SDI processing platform, it also has an HDMI output. So this output is not just for a quick reference and it doesn’t support any of their higher res on this particular one can take any of those inputs, and you can select your output and be able to monitor and see your color space. If it’s a 2020 or 709, your Bit depth legal full range, you can also look at HDR InfoFrames. So if you’re in that HDR environment, you should be able to monitor that and see if your output is okay. You can also be able to make adjustments. So again, this is not just, it’s a pass through, it doesn’t have any dynamic controls this within the card.
If you look in the card, it has all those different controls that you can set up like predefined those controls, or you can just let those controls be a bypass and just let them go on the output. So again, but these are our controls that I can manage in the card, or I can set them as automatic, so they can just be whatever the input and I’ll be seeing the output. So again, that’s one of the nice features of this particular product that not only has all the professionalized SDI inputs and outputs, but you also have, I guess we can say consumer, prosumer and now even professional level controls for HDMI.
Another great thing with this particular platform is that it carries again on the tradition of other products that we have licensed for color correction. So again, taking advantage of the color processing engine that we now have with the 3D LUTs, BBC LUTs, we are also able to offer the ability for users to have full control of their colorimetry, right?
So whether you want to correct your RGB levels, if you want to limit your colors, your saturation, or just to be able to control your input and outputs on this card with the license allows you to do that. And what’s really great about this is that as we discussed earlier with the dashboard, you can do all those different controls and make all those changes dynamically through dashboard. But we also offer this cool a control panel that you see here at the bottom of the screen that allows us to basically have a real physical controls that are dedicated for my RGB levels. That can also give me controls for my gain gamma and black, and just make those adjustments and create profiles that I can quickly load depending on what the production environment is. So this is a very good system for doing that.
And as I just mentioned with the 3D LUTs and the BBC LUTs, this sort of creates a nice ecosystem for doing all that in delivering the picture and it’s the best form without having to compromise performance and reliability, which is one thing that we try to emphasize with these products, especially when you add more density to a product like this, they have four independent channels that you can select and utilize the conjunction as if there were four cards. Now you have added benefits and functionality of the product like this that allows you to have that much more control with that much more flexibility without having to make any compromises. Then another thing that continue on the color correction on used case, for example, we’ve seen onset and different scenarios where it’s not always that the operator or engineering has control of different lighting conditions.
In some cases, there’s no CCU to control either the lens, the camera, the input, and then just overall image quality. So for these scenarios, this color correction option just makes life a lot easier. It just makes it just a breeze to be able to make those corrections at the last minute. And it’s just an overall, a great feature to have on the card, because you never know what’s going to come at you and this certainly will help you sort of make those last minute adjustments and give you that flexibility. The other thing is that oftentimes we see that there’s a lot of monitors in any given set or production. They may not be calibrated. So again, if you don’t have the ability to paint those, the telling for example, or not paints, or make those adjustments to the CCU, this will give you that ability to make those last minutes adjustments. For example, the range, or just making sure that those monitors are at least somewhat matching. And then the output looks okay.
One thing that I also want to mention now, we’re sort of deviating from the 9905-MPx, but we have this a nice little BBG-1300-FR. We can say this is our contribution from Cobalt to the openGear ecosystem. This is a full blown openGear frame, but it’s 1RU basically you can put three of these side by side in a 19 inch Rackspace. This now allows us to bring that 9905-MPx into this platform. And now you have a nice portable standalone, fully functional system that you can utilize independent from anything else that you may have running. You can certainly control it through the front panel, as we can see here, it has a lot of controls and features that you normally find in a standard openGear frame.
For example, you have SNMP support, you have a lot of advanced network and capability on this. We can talk to this through dashboard using the network port in the back, and then we have redundant power. So if anybody wants to sort of use this in conjunction to anything else, any facility, this adds much more value, but what’s very unique about this is that if you have a card like the 9905, and it’s a four channel card that are four independent channels that can be processed and configure independent from each other, this now allows you to have a very flexible portable system that allows you to take it anywhere you can take into the field. You can take it into flight pack and your production truck. You can drop it into your facility. Let’s say you run out of Rackspace, so you can put it somewhere behind the racks. Anywhere and now you have that much more density. You can still talk to it through dashboard and have all of the different controls and protection that you would get with any standard openGear.
So this is again, our BBG-1300 that can be made or match with the nine zero five to give you that much more flexibility. And that is all I have for today. If anybody has any questions, I’ll be happy to answer or address anything.
Cindy Zuelsdorf:
Thank you, Cris. And we do have questions. We’ll have tons of questions. And so if your question doesn’t get answered in the next five minutes or so, don’t worry, we will circle back with you. Cris will get back to you. So let’s see, questions include, what is the max size of the LUT on the 9905?
Cris Garcia:
Max size on the LUT? Meaning the BBC LUT or 3D LUT? What’s…
Cindy Zuelsdorf:
No, we didn’t get extra info on that. And we can see who answered, who asked that? So I will just let you guys circle back.
Cris Garcia:
Yeah. If we can get back to that, because we are, there are some details that we’re still addressing in that, but we can certainly get back to them on that question.
Cindy Zuelsdorf:
Okay, good. And another question is what types of logo files do you support on your 9905?
Cris Garcia:
So the logos at the moment are static. These are static logos that we can load. We have a special tool that allows us to convert that file to a specific file that our card wants to read. And typically they start as a PNG file that we convert. And then we started in the card to basically reduce the size of each file. As I mentioned in the presentation, we can sort 32 logos. So in order to do that, we’re converting those logos to that. And then, but it starts as a PNG file that gets converted.
Cindy Zuelsdorf:
We’ve got a question around comparing two of your products, wondering how to choose between the 9904 Up/Down/Cross and your new 9905-MPx and compare and contrast.
Cris Garcia:
So when you look at the products from the outside, they almost looked the same and the reason they almost look the same is because they’re based on the same piece of hardware. The only difference here is that the 9904 was the first product that we came out with. And that sort of came out to address the needs for quad link, 12G, HDR, all that advanced nice technology that was coming out a couple of years back. With this product, we decided that, okay, we’re going to take all the best attributes of that product, but we’re also adding more flexibility and more bandwidth, meaning to be able to have up to four channels. And part of that is that we do have some competitors out there that have traditional systems that are not openGear.
These products are just external boxes, sort of sit on the shelf in a rack, but not necessarily in a frame that can be monitored, that can be configure, and adjusted. So the difference between these two cards is that the 9905, if you want to do just four channels of all 1080p and do all the audio processing and graphics, then this is the way to go. If you want to just stay in the 12G 4k with HDR and all that stuff, then I would recommend to stay with the 9904. It made seem like there’s, it’s almost like the same product, but the thing is that with Cobalt, we’re always coming up with licenses that could almost be a product in itself. But it’s all living within all these different platforms like the 9905.
