Ensemble Designs BrightEye 11 User Manual

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This user guide provides detailed information for using the BrightEye™11 SDI to Analog Converter module.

The information is organized into the following sections:

• Product Overview

• Functional Description

• Rear Connectors

• Operation

• Front Panel Controls and Indicators

• Using The BrightEye Control Application

• Warranty and Factory Service

• Specifications

• Glossary

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BrightEye 11

SDI to Analog Converter

User Guide

Revision 3.0 SW v1.0.4

ENSEMBLE

DESIGNS

BrightEye 11 SDI to Analog Converter

PRODUCT OVERVIEW

BrightEye™ 11 provides digital to analog conversion with the full range of analog output formats available: Beta, SMPTE, RGB, and Composite (with simultaneous S-Video Y/C outputs). 12 bit processing and conversion at 8x oversampling mean the best looking images possible.

Output format and gain are controlled from the front panel. The BrightEye Control application also provides remote control of the unit from a personal computer with USB support. A status display on the front panel indicates input presence.

BrightEye 11 is the perfect choice to feed monitors, VTRs, or video projectors.

A glossary of commonly used video terms is provided at the end of this user guide.

FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION

As shown in the functional block diagram below, serial digital video is fed to the converter on a single BNC connector.

The SDI input is routed directly to the SDI Out BNC and the reclocking and deserializing circuitry before entering the D to A converter.

The converted analog signal is then encoded to the desired output format as chosen on the front panel or with BrightEye PC or Mac. During this stage, gain can be adjusted for the correct output levels.

BrightEye 11 is powered by a 12 volt DC universal power supply. This power supply can accept an input voltage between 90 and 230 volts, at 50 or 60 Hertz. It uses a standard IEC line cord and can be used anywhere in the world. It is normal for the converter to be quite warm to the touch when operating.

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BrightEye 11 Functional Block Diagram

SDI Out

Cpst, Y, G Out

12-bit

SDI In

D to A

Reclocker

Front Panel Controls

Deserializer

Gain Adjust

Converter

Video

Encoder

and

C, Pr, R Out

Y, Pb, B Out

APPLICATIONS

The versatility of BrightEye 11 can be utilized in a number of different applications where conversion of SDI to analog video is required. Some examples of using BrightEye 11 are given below.

Electrical Conversion with Analog Monitoring

This application, shown in the illustration below, utilizes the full functionality of BrightEye 11 by using the SDI output to feed a destination such as a video router while monitoring the signal on an RGB monitor at the same time.

Analog Monitoring of an SDI Signal

This application performs conversion of an SDI signal from a production switcher to the Composite/S-Video Y/C format for feeding an S-VHS tape machine while monitoring the signal on a composite analog monitor as shown below.

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SDI Feeding Router with Analog Monitoring

Analog Monitoring of an SDI Signal

BrightEye 11

SDI In

SDI Out

R G B

BrightEye 11

Router

Monitor

G B

Production

Switcher

BrightEye 11

SDI In

Composite

Monitor

Cmpst

Out

Y C

S-VHS

BrightEye 11 SDI to Analog Converter

Driving an RGB Projector

BrightEye 11 is an ideal solution for converting SDI to analog for driving an RGB projector similar to the example shown below.

SDI Input to Component VTR

BrightEye 11 can provide a converted video output from an SDI input to feed any type of component VTR format as shown in the example below.

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Application for Driving an RGB Projector

SDI Input to Component VTR Application

BrightEye 11

SDI In

BrightEye 11

RGB

Projector

R G B

SDI In

Beta Tape Deck

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REAR CONNECTORS

All connections to the BrightEye 11 converter are made on the rear of the unit. Refer to the illustration below.

Power Connection

Connect a modular power supply to the 12 volt DC power input connection on the far left of the unit. Use the locking ring to secure it.

USB Connector

The USB connector is used to provide more comprehensive control, diagnostics, and upgrades to the unit from a PC or Mac. Use the BrightEye Control application included on CD-ROM to make adjustments as described in the OPERATION section of this user guide.

Input/Output BNCS

There are five rear BNC connectors which are used as inputs and outputs as follows:

SDI In

This BNC input accepts a SMPTE 259M serial digital component signal, 525 or 625 line standard.

SDI Out

The Serial Digital Component signal from the reclocking circuitry is presented on this connector. This output conforms to the ITU-R 601 standard for serial digital video, with SMPTE 259M serialization at 270 Mb/s.

BrightEye 11 Rear Connectors

BrightEye 11

BrightEye 11 SDI to Analog Converter

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C, Pr, R Out

The function of this connector varies according to the selected output format as follows:

• C – S-Video C output (use Y /C S-Video adapter) NTSC or PAL

•Pr– SMPTE/Beta analog component color difference R-Y channel output

•R– RGB Red output

Y, Pb, B Out

The function of this connector varies according to the selected output format as follows:

•Y– S-Video Y output (use Y /C S-Video adapter) NTSC or PAL

•Pb– SMPTE/Beta analog component color difference B-Y channel output

•B– RGB Blue output

Cpst, Y, G Out

The function of this connector varies according to the selected output format as follows:

• Cpst – NTSC or PAL composite output

•Y– SMPTE/Beta analog component Y (luminance) output

• G – RGB G output

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OPERATION

Control and operation of the BrightEye 11 converter is performed from the front panel or with the BrightEye Control application.

Some control settings are only available with BrightEye PC or Mac. These parameters cannot be monitored or controlled with the front panel.

Front Panel Controls and Indicators

The front panel of the converter, shown in the figure below, provides status indicators and control over output selection and gain.

Status Indicators

The following status indicators are provided on the front panel:

Illuminates green when an input for the currently selected video format is detected on the input connector.

Output

The currently selected output format (Cpst, Beta, SMPTE, or RGB) will illumi- nate green.

Gain

Illuminates green when output gain is set to its nominal or unity value. Illuminates red when gain is set higher or lower than nominal setting.

Pwr (Power)

Illuminates green when power is applied to the converter and the internal voltage regulator is functioning correctly.

BrightEye 11 Front Panel

NOTE:

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BrightEye 11 SDI to Analog Converter

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ADJUSTING PARAMETERS FROM THE FRONT PANEL

Use the Mode, Right Arrow, and Left Arrow buttons to select and adjust parameters from the front panel.

Pressing the Mode button activates the front panel for editing and tabs between each section of editable parameters.

Pressing the Right Arrow or Left Arrow advances the selection within a given section of parameters, or increases (Right Arrow) or decreases (Left Arrow) the value of a selected parameter.

The LED of an edited parameter will blink for 15 seconds, after which time its value is stored in memory. If power is interrupted before this 15 second timeout period has elapsed, the edited state will not be not saved.

The controls and their indicators are described below:

Output

This control selects the video output with the following choices:

Beta – Component Video in Beta format

SMPTE – Component Video in SMPTE format

RGB – Component Video in RGB format

Cpst/S-Video – NTSC or PAL Analog Composite Video with simultaneous

S-Video Y/C (use a standard BNC-to S-Video adapter on the two inputs)

The selected output will be indicated by a green indicator.

Gain

This control adjusts the gain of the analog video signals in the Digital-to-Analog converter and encoder circuitry of the converter. The right arrow will increase the gain, the left arrow will decrease it. The Gain indicator will illuminate green when the gain is set to its nominal or unity setting.

This is the setting which will produce correct analog output levels from a digital input source which itself is at proper level. The Gain indicator will illuminate red whenever the control is adjusted either higher or lower than the nominal setting. The gain can be reset to nominal (green) by pressing both arrows simultaneously.

NOTE:

USING THE BRIGHTEYE CONTROL APPLICATION

The BrightEye PC and BrightEye Mac applications included on CD-ROM are designed to allow you to configure and control the BrightEye 11 from a personal computer. Installation and instructions for using this software application are given in the PDF manual on disk.

If the BrightEye 11 is connected to a computer running this software, the following menu is available for controlling and monitoring the unit.

Control Menu

• Input Pres – gives read-only status indication of input presence..

• Output – select the type of output signal from the unit from the Output pulldown as Composite (S-Video), Beta, SMPTE, or RGB.

• Gain – adjusts the gain of the analog video signals in the Digital-to-Analog

converter and encoder circuitry of the converter. The front panel indicator will light green when the gain is set to its nominal or unity setting.

This is the setting which will produce correct analog output levels from a digital input source which itself is at proper level. The indicator will light red whenever the control is adjusted either higher or lower than the nominal setting. The gain can be reset to nominal by selecting the Default button.

• Chroma – adjust the amount of chroma on the output signal in percent as required. This control is only available on BrightEye PC or Mac. There is no front panel control or indication of this setting.

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BrightEye 11

BrightEye 11 SDI to Analog Converter

• Setup – check the box to add setup to the output signal (525 mode). Leave the box unchecked for no setup. This control is only available on BrightEye PC. There is no front panel control or indication of this setting.Setup will be grayed out when a SMPTE, RGB, or 625 input signal is present.

• Vert Blanking – select the blanking width with this pulldown from Wide (PAL Lines 1-22, NTSC Lines 1-20) or Narrow (PAL Lines 1-6, NTSC Lines 1-9). This control is only available on BrightEye PC. There is no front panel control or indication of this setting.

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WARRANTY AND FACTORY SERVICE

Warranty

Ensemble Designs, Inc. warrants this product to be free from defect in material and workmanship for a period of five years from the date of delivery. During this two year warranty period, Ensemble Designs, Inc. will repair any defective units at Ensemble’s expense if the unit should be determined to be defective after consultation with a factory technician.

This warranty is not transferable. Any implied warranties expire at the expiration date of this warranty.

This warranty does not cover a defect that has resulted from improper or unreasonable use or maintenance as determined by us. This warranty is void if there is any attempt to disassemble or adjust factory set presets without factory authorization.

Factory Service

If you require service (under warranty or not), please contact Ensemble Designs and ask for Customer Service before you return the unit. This will allow the service technician to provide any other suggestions for identifying the problem and recommend possible solutions.

You may also refer to the technical support section of the Ensemble web site for the latest information on your equipment at the URL below:

http://www

.ensembledesigns.com/support

If you return equipment for repair, please get a Return Material Authorization Number (RMA) from the factory first.

Ship the product and a written description of the problem to:

Ensemble Designs, Inc. Attention: Customer Service RMA ##### 870 Gold Flat Rd. Nevada City, CA 95959 USA (530) 478-1830 Fax: (530) 478-1832 service@ensembledesigns.com http://www.ensembledesigns.com Be sure to put your RMA number on the outside of the box.

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BrightEye 11

BrightEye 11 SDI to Analog Converter

SPECIFICATIONS

Serial Digital Input:

Number: One Signal Type: 270 Mb/s SD Serial Digital

(SMPTE 259M) Impedance: 75 Ω Return Loss: > 15 dB Max Cable Length 300 meters

Analog Output:

Number: One component or

one composite andk one Y/C Type: Beta/SMPTE, Y, Pr, Pb

RGB

NTSC. PAL Composite

NTSC, PAL S-Video Return Loss: > 40 dB Output DC: None (AC coupled)

Serial Digital Output:

Type: SMPTE 259M Impedance: 75 Ω Return Loss: > 15 dB Output DC: < 50 mV

SDI to Analog Performance:

Bit Resolution: 12 bit output reconstruction

8 X oversampling Signal to Noise: > 65 dB Frequency Response: ± 0.1 dB , 0 to 5.5 MHz K Factors: < 1% ScH Phase Error: < ± 2 degrees Differential Phase: < 1 degree Differential Gain: < 1%

General Specifications:

Size: 5.625” W x 0.8 “ H x 5.5” D

(143 mm x 20 mm x 140 mm)

including connectors Power: 12 volts, 7 watts Temperature Range: 0 to 40 degrees C ambient Relative Humidity: 0 to 95% noncondensing

Due to ongoing product development, all specifications are subject to change.

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BRIGHTEYE POWER SUPPLY INFORMATION

Below is a list of power supplies and optional items that may have come with your BrightEye:

BEPS

BrightEye Individual Power Supply.

BEPS6

Spider Power Supply. This powers 6 single high BrightEyes or 3 double high BrightEyes (BrightEye 90 family).

BEPS6-RP

Redundant Power Supply for Spider.

BERKMT

BrightEye Rack Mount. This holds 6 single high BrightEyes or 3 double high BrightEyes (BrightEye 90 family) or a combination.

BEBP

BrightEye Blank Panel. Single high, for empty slots in Rack Mount.

BEAC

Analog Audio Breakout Cable.

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BrightEye 11

BrightEye 11 SDI to Analog Converter

GLOSSARY

This is a brief glossary of commonly used terms associated with this product.

AES/EBU

The digital audio standard defined as a joint effort of the Audio Engineering Society and the European Broadcast Union. AES/EBU or AES3 describes a serial bitstream that carries two audio channels, thus an AES stream is a stereo pair. The AES/EBU standard covers a wide range of sample rates and quantizations (bit depths.) In television systems, these will generally be 48 kHz and either 20 or 24 bits.

Bandwidth

Strictly speaking, this refers to the range of frequencies (i.e. the width of the band of frequency) used by a signal, or carried by a transmission channel. Generally, wider bandwidth will carry and reproduce a signal with greater fidelity and accuracy.

Beta

Sony Beta SP video tape machines use an analog component format that is similar to SMPTE, but differs in the amplitude of the color difference signals. It may also carry setup on the luminance channel.

Blanking

The Horizontal and Vertical blanking intervals of a television signal refer to the time periods between lines and between fields. No picture information is transmitted during these times, which are required in CRT displays to allow the electron beam to be repositioned for the start of the next line or field. They are also used to carry synchronizing pulses which are used in transmission and recovery of the image. Although some of these needs are disappearing, the intervals themselves are retained for compatibility purposes. They have turned out to be very useful for the transmission of additional content, such as teletext and embedded audio.

CAV

Component Analog Video. This is a convenient shorthand form, but it is subject to confusion. It is sometimes used to mean ONLY color difference component formats (SMPTE or Beta), and other times to include RGB format. In any case, a CAV signal will always require 3 connectors – either Y/R-Y/B-Y, or R/G/B.

Checkfield

A Checkfield signal is a special test signal that stresses particular aspects of serial digital transmission. The performance of the Phase Locked-Loops (PLLs) in an SDI receiver must be able to tolerate long runs of 0’s and 1’s. Under normal conditions, only very short runs of these are produced due to a scrambling algorithm that is used. The Checkfield, also referred to as the Pathological test signal, will “undo” the scrambling and cause extremely long runs to occur. This test signal is very useful for testing transmission paths.

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BrightEye 11

Chroma

The color or chroma content of a signal, consisting of the hue and saturation of the image. See also Color Difference.

Component

In a component video system, the totality of the image is carried by three separate but related components. This method provides the best image fidelity with the fewest artifacts, but it requires three independent transmission paths (cables). The commonly used component formats are Luminance and Color Difference (Y/Pr/Pb), and RGB. It was far too unwieldy in the early days of color television to even consider component transmission.

Composite

Composite television dates back to the early days of color transmission. This scheme encodes the color difference information onto a color subcarrier. The instantaneous phase of the subcarrier is the color’s hue, and the amplitude is the color’s saturation or intensity. This subcarrier is then added onto the existing luminance video signal. This trick works because the subcarrier is set at a high enough frequency to leave spectrum for the luminance information. But it is not a seamless matter to pull the signal apart again at the destination in order to display it or process it. The resultant artifacts of dot crawl (also referred to as chroma crawl) are only the most obvious result. Composite television is the most commonly used format throughout the world, either as PAL or NTSC. It is also referred to as Encoded video.

Color Difference

Color Difference systems take advantage of the details of human vision. We have more acuity in our black and white vision than we do in color. This means that we need only the luminance information to be carried at full bandwidth, we can scrimp on the color channels. In order to do this, RGB information is converted to carry all of the luminance (Y is the black and white of the scene) in a single channel. The other two channels are used to carry the “color difference”. Noted as B-Y and R-Y, these two signals describe how a particular pixel “differs” from being purely black and white. These channels typically have only half the bandwidth of the luminance.

Decibel (dB)

The decibel is a unit of measure used to express the ratio in the amplitude or power of two signals. A difference of 20 dB corresponds to a 10:1 ratio between two signals, 6 dB is approximately a 2:1 ration. Decibels add while the ratios multiply, so 26 dB is a 20:1 ratio, and 14 dB is a 5:1 ratio. There are several special cases of the dB scale, where the reference is implied. Thus, dBm refers to power relative to 1 milliwatt, and dBu refers to voltage relative to .775V RMS. The original unit of measure was the Bel (10 times bigger), named after Alexander Graham Bell.

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BrightEye 11 SDI to Analog Converter

dBFS

In Digital Audio systems, the largest numerical value that can be represented is referred to as Full Scale. No values or audio levels greater than FS can be reproduced because they would be clipped. The nominal operating point (roughly corresponding to 0 VU) must be set below FS in order to have headroom for audio peaks. This operating point is described relative to FS, so a digital reference level of -20 dBFS has 20 dB of headroom before hitting the FS clipping point.

EDH

Error Detection and Handling is a method to verify proper reception of an SDI or HD-SDI signal at the destination. The originating device inserts a data packet in the vertical interval of the SDI signal and every line of the HD signal which contains a checksum of the entire video frame. This checksum is formed by adding up the numerical values of all of the samples in the frame, using a complex formula. At the destination this same formula is applied to the incoming video and the resulting value is compared to the one included in the transmission. If they match, then the content has all arrived with no errors. If they don’t, then an error has occurred.

Embedded Audio

Digital Audio can be carried along in the same bitstream as an SDI or HD-SDI signal by taking advantage of the gaps in the transmission which correspond to the horizontal and vertical intervals of the television waveform. This technique an be very cost effective in transmission and routing, but can also add complexity to signal handling issues because the audio content can no longer be treated independently of the video.

Frame Sync

A Frame Synchronizer is used to synchronize the timing of a video signal to coincide with a timing reference (usually a color black signal that is distributed throughout a facility). The synchronizer accomplishes this by writing the incoming video into a frame buffer memory under the timing direction of the sync information contained in that video. Simultaneously the memory is being read back by a timing system that is genlocked to a house reference. As a result, the timing or alignment of the video frame can be adjusted so that the scan of the upper left corner of the image is happening simultaneously on all sources. This is a requirement for both analog and digital systems in order to perform video effects or switch glitch-free in a router. Frame synchronization can only be performed within a single television line standard. A synchronizer will not convert an NTSC signal to a PAL signal, it takes a standards converter to do that.

Frequency Response

A measurement of the accuracy of a system to carry or reproduce a range of signal frequencies. Similar to Bandwidth.

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BrightEye 11

IEC

The International Electrotechnical Commission provides a wide range of worldwide standards. They have provided standardization of the AC power connection to products by means of an IEC line cord. The connection point uses three flat contact blades in a triangular arrangement, set in a rectangular connector. The IEC specification does not dictate line voltage or frequency. Therefore, the user must take care to verify that a device either has a universal input (capable of 90 to 230 volts, either 50 or 60 Hz), or that a line voltage switch, if present, is set correctly.

Interlace

Human vision can be fooled to see motion by presenting a series of images, each with a small change relative to the previous image. In order to eliminate the flicker, our eyes need to see more than 30 images per second. This is accomplished in television systems by dividing the lines that make up each video frame (which run at 25 or 30 frames per second) into two fields. All of the odd-numbered lines are transmitted in the first field, the even-numbered lines are in the second field. In this way, the repetition rate is 50 or 60 Hz, without using more bandwidth. This trick has worked well for years, bit it introduces other temporal artifacts. Motion pictures use a slightly different technique to raise the repetition rate from the original 24 frames that make up each second of film—they just project each one twice.

IRE

Video level is measured on the IRE scale, where 0 IRE is black, and 100 IRE is full white. The actual voltages that these levels correspond to can vary between formats.

ITU-R 601

This is the principal standard for standard definition component digital video. It defines the luminance and color difference coding system that is also referred to as 4:2:2. The standard applies to both PAL and NTSC derived signals. They both will result in an image that contains 720 pixels horizontally, with 486 vertical pixels in NTSC, and 576 vertically in PAL. Both systems use a sample clock rate of 27 Mhz, and are serialized at 270 Mb/s.

Jitter

Serial digital signals (either video or audio) are subject to the effects of jitter. This refers to the instantaneous error that can occur from one bit to the next in the exact position each digital transition. Although the signal may be at the correct frequency on average, in the interim it varies. Some bits come slightly early, other come slightly late. The measurement of this jitter is given either as the amount of time uncertainty or as the fraction of a bit width. For 270 Mb/s video, the allowable jitter is 740 picoseconds, or 0.2 UI (Unit Interval – one bit width).

Luminance

The “black & white” content of the image. Human vision had more acuity in luminance, so television systems generally devote more bandwidth to the luminance content. In component systems, the luminance is referred to as Y.

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BrightEye 11 SDI to Analog Converter

Multi-mode

Multi-mode fibers have a larger diameter core (either 50 or 62.5 microns), and a correspondingly larger aperture. It is much easier to couple light energy into a multi-mode fiber, but internal reflections will cause multiple “modes” of the signal to propagate down the fiber. This will degrade the ability of the fiber to be used over long distances.

Ensemble Designs BrightEye 11 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual