Ahead of duties at the London Olympic Games, 4HM’s SAM64 SDI-to-Madi and AES interface has been making its mark at the World Swimming Championships and Grand Slam Tennis events.

Leading broadcast dry hire and systems rental specialist, Presteigne Charter has been using the SAM64s in broadcast feeds for Far East broadcasters WOWOW and TV Asahi, and will be using them for Australian broadcasters Foxtel and Channel 9 on the Olympic Games.

‘One of the key attractions is that the units are extremely quiet, which helps as we need to locate the units in the operational area,’ says Presteigne Charter’s Steve Kilsby. ‘The SRCs (Sample Rate Converters) on the AES outputs are also great for the Yamaha mixers we use on our Asian projects, as they can be sensitive to clocking issues.’

The SAM64 can extract 16 audio channels from each of four SDI inputs to provide a total of 64 audio channels in both Madi and AES3 formats. All SDI inputs independently auto-sense between 3G, HD and SD standards and are provided with loop-through connectivity for downstream equipment. The unit also provides a comprehensive range of synchronising options and switchable sample rate converters. All SAM64 units come as standard with a redundant power supply.

‘For Presteigne Charter’s coming Olympic work for Channel Nine and Foxtel, we will use the full features of the SAM64’s Madi output, using this interface to supply our main studio mixer in 5.1 – in this case a Lawo mc² 66 – and use the AES outputs to feed the emergency mixer,’ Kilsby explains.

‘The ability to de-embed four HD/SDI signals in 1U keeps the equipment count to a minimum, essential for fly-away work,’ he adds. ‘The SAM64’s word clock generator comes in handy, and my colleagues like the LEDs on the input and output BNCs; very useful when plugging up in the back of the rack.’

4HM recently launched complementary products to join the SAM64: the MA64 Madi-to-Multi-format AES converter; a general purpose 32-way (16 AES pairs) AES/EBU breakout box – the BOB/O-32, and a 32-way (16 AES pairs) matching input interface unit – the BOB/I-32.

See also:
4HM SAM64 SDI-to-AES/Madi interface
4HM BOB/O-32 and BOB/I-32 breakout boxes
4HM MA64 Madi-to-AES audio converter

More: www.4hmbroadcast.com
More: www.presteignecharter.com