Facility House Broadcast Newest HD OBVan Relies on Draco major

OBV5, a new flagship, 12-camera HD outside broadcast vehicle was recently added to their fleet of 20 ENG kits, 31 edit suites and 2 existing outside broadcast vehicles. This truck was built in-house by Facilities House’s own team of specialists in response to the high demand for the company’s services that produces over 500 outside broadcast programmes annually.

The integration team required a highly reliable, high quality KVM matrix switch to route and manage the multitude of PC-based, graphics, video, data and stored content to several workstation terminals in the vision and audio mixing areas of the vehicle. The solution chosen was the Draco major modular KVM/video matrix switch. The chassis of the Draco major was fully populated with 32 input ports and 16 output ports to support full HD content up to 1920 x 1200 DVI-D resolution. Cat X cabling was used throughout the vehicle. The Draco major’s option of fiber ports will allow for future changes to provide additional support or long distance connectivity at a later date without needing to replace the whole system. At each workstation terminal the operator has full instantaneous interactive control of the host PC including USB HID, USB 2.0 connection. RS232 controls and audio feeds are also accommodated providing greater flexibility and ensuring that all features are included in the overall system.

The Draco major is controlled by the integrated control system on the OB vehicle to provide switching and monitoring of signals. User-defined and stored switch configurations allow individual setups to be prepared prior to arrival on site and permit reselections of favourite routes as desired by individual broadcast teams.

Jan de Pijper, Facility House‘s MD, says:. „The truck is highly versatile but at the same time features powerful technology and delivers a high level of quality. One of the major considerations in designing an OB truck is in limiting the space and weight requirement for individual systems. With the Draco major we can perform all routing and switching tasks, including multi-screen replication in a single compact unit.“

About IHSE
IHSE GmbH Germany stands for 25 years of experience when it comes to reliable and cost-effective high tech products, specialising in KVM/Video matrix switches, extenders and converters. As a global supplier of future-proof and market-oriented solutions, their continuous innovation and product development set IHSE apart - a view supported by many blue chip clients world wide in the area of TV & Broadcast, post production, control rooms and industry as a whole.

A good example of the outstanding IHSE technology is the Draco family of  KVM/Video matrix switches which is the only multi-format switch on the market, capable of mixing both Cat X and fiber optic connections between source and target stations.

First introduced in 2010, the Draco tera KVM/Video matrix switch has quickly become the only intelligent choice for enterprise-level high definition HD-KVM matrix switching. Equipped with a unique Flex-Port technology, the Draco tera offers total flexibility of input and output ports. Any conceivable combination of I/O port configurations are achievable within the maximum number of available ports (48, 80, 160 and 288 port options are available). By using intelligent video encoding, video and data signals are optimised for maximum bandwidth usage to provide the most outstanding visual display available. When there is a need to deliver full motion video, the Draco tera can distribute full screen moving video up to 1080 p60, in real time, without artifacts and near zero latency. The modular structure offers the freedom to scale your switch ports as your needs evolve and the frame can easily be mixed with Cat X or fiber optics.

Another significant feature of the Draco tera system is instant switching between different CPUs. The Draco tera technology responds to switching commands in milliseconds which eliminates the annoying delay and image re-sync problems found in IP-based switching solutions.

It is also possible to connect Draco Cat X extender devices as input devices and re-transmit signals over fibre optics using Draco’s new long distance XV fiber extenders. Operation of the connected Draco extenders simply requires the device to be powered and connected to the matrix switch. As soon as the Draco extender is connected to the matrix switch it is registered in the CPU with a clearly defined identification number (ID). Depending on whether the physical device is a console or CPU extender module, the device‘s ID number is remembered. This powerful feature allows the Draco extender module to be moved to any other port without affecting setup and configuration between sources and display devices.

Each Draco tera system containsan internal CPU that allows users to control functions via an on screen display (OSD), a software user interface (GUI), or an RS-232 serial interface. Additionally, the Draco tera can easily be configured through any third party control system such as Crestron or AMX.

Our products are designed for longtime applications which is shown by a MTBF of more than 400.000 POH (power on hours). The reliability is proven in military applications like NATO.