Polatis, a supplier of optical switch products, has released a new series of products for routing signals in the growing high definition video industry — the Trinity family of optical video routing switches is a specialised product for operators in the video transport, broadcast, intelligence and video post production industries.
Through its all-optical nature, Trinity expands the capabilities of broadcast infrastructure to meet the needs of existing and future broadcast standards.
While the vast majority of audio and video transport signals are carried over copper today, distances are limited to only 50-100 metres for transporting new high definition standards such as 1080p. Transport by optical fibre permits far greater distances without amplifying and re-clocking. All-optical switching enables the signal to be routed with universal interfaces capable of handling virtually any audio and video signal, whether analogue or digital.
The Trinity series is designed specifically for the video transport and broadcast market. It supports virtually all protocols and feed rates – AES, SMPTE-276M, 259M, and 292M, ASI/DVB, NTSC, PAL, QAM, and others. Under-pinning the Trinity design is Polatis’ beam-steering technology. Unlike other photonic solutions, Trinity can establish and maintain connection routes without a signal present, in a pre-provisioned ‘ready and waiting state’.
“We believe the timing is right for this product, as optical interfaces on video routers become more commonplace, and the bandwidth for contribution-quality high definition signals naturally drives the infrastructure towards fibre,” commented Aaron Bent, Polatis VP of marketing. “Optical switching can simply be viewed as a logical and flexible extension to the existing protocol layers in video routing. To ease implementation, we’ve designed Trinity to integrate with the existing routing infrastructure. It supports the popular SMS-7000 Native Protocol for control, and even supports familiar strategies like global tie-line management.”
