Telecast Fiber Systems Launches CopperHead™ Visa

"Growing numbers of ENG microwave and satellite trucks are outfitted with high-end systems that are rather like 'Swiss Army® Knives' — performing a wide range of video processing tasks such as audio embedding and de-embedding, up- and down-conversion, frame synchronization, and fiber transmitting and receiving," said Jim Hurwitz, director of product marketing and management for Telecast Fiber Systems. "The CopperHead Visa lets new operations get the most from their investment in these systems, enabling them to bring in the absolute highest-quality HD camera signals over a long-distance TAC2 fiber cable and then return HD video and IFB audio back to the camera."

Unlike other CopperHead transceivers, the patented CopperHead Visa requires no base station — instead, it provides a direct fiber optic link between the HD camera and the video processing unit installed in the truck. The CopperHead Visa takes the camera's video and embedded audio signals and transforms them into optical signals, where they are carried on fiber cable across a distance of more than 5,000 feet without any loss of signal quality. A video processing system like the Evertz PassPort in the truck then transforms the optical signals back into video and de-embeds the audio. That same processing device simultaneously sends a return video feed, with embedded IFB audio, back to the CopperHead Visa mounted on the camera, where up to two channels of IFB audio are de-embedded for crew communications.

Like the other members of the CopperHead line of camera-mounted transceivers, the CopperHead Visa mounts quickly and easily to any professional camera's battery interface system including Anton-Bauer®, "V"-Mount, or PAG. 

The CopperHead Visa will be among several Telecast Fiber Systems innovations for fiber optic transport on display at IBC2011 in the company's stand, 10.B39.