Blackmagic Design Announces New Mini Converter Optical Fiber

NAB 2009, Las Vegas, NV, USA - April 20, 2009 - Blackmagic Design Inc. today announced the new Mini Converter Optical Fiber that lowers the cost of using optical fiber SDI cabling by simultaneously converting from SDI to Optical Fiber and Optical Fiber to SDI in the one compact low cost design. Mini Converter Optical Fiber instantly switches between all SD, HD and 3 Gb/s SDI video formats and allows cable lengths up to 45 km or 147,000 feet in length. Now for the first time, affordable optical fiber technology is available to all television facilities, no matter how big or small.

All Mini Converters are on display at NAB 2009 at the Blackmagic Design booth SL10820.

Blackmagic Design believes that optical fiber technology allows benefits not possible with conventional copper SDI cabling used today. Optical fiber cable has advantages because it's commonly available and used in computer networking plus it can be installed by electricians. It also has the benefit of much longer cable lengths, plus when video quality increases in the future and SDI data speeds increase, optical fiber cables will not need to be upgraded as existing cables will easily handle much higher speeds.

In the past the high cost of using optical fiber was related to the cost of the conversion from SDI to optical fiber. These converters often cost well over $1000 and this has restricted its use to high end broadcasters only. Now with the new Mini Converter Optical Fiber at only US$495, more people than ever can take advantage of optical fiber cabling in their facility.

The newest Blackmagic Design products, DeckLink Optical Fiber, HDLink Optical Fiber, Blackmagic UltraScope and Mini Converter Optical Fiber, all have optical fiber SDI built in so customers who use these products can finally eliminate the cost of converting to optical fiber. For the first time it's easy to build a native optical fiber studio at an affordable cost.

Mini Converter Optical Fiber uses a SMPTE standard 1310 nm optical fiber laser driver using standard LC type connectors. When using single mode optical fiber cable, Mini Converter Optical Fiber passes the SMPTE SDI pathological test up to 25 km or 82000 feet at 3 Gb/s SDI, and up to 45 km or 147000 feet in SD. Optical fiber SDI switches between SD, HD and 2K, as it has an identical bit-stream to conventional SDI, with the added advantages of long distances, cost, and future proof data speed capabilities.

"We designed the new Mini Converter Optical Fiber for many of our customers who wanted to build large facilities and needed a way to lower the install cost of cabling plus were tired of replacing cables every time a new video standard was introduced that required higher SDI data speeds. Optical fiber technology can solve this problem which, until now, was way too expensive for most people to consider using," said Grant Petty, CEO, Blackmagic Design. "We think for the first time, many people will be able to look at optical fiber technology and obtain the same great advantages which previously only the largest broadcasters could afford."

About Blackmagic Design Mini Converters

Unlike other converters on the market today, the Mini Converter family is designed to be easy to understand. There's a single great model for each type of conversion so all models have the maximum features possible, and customers get a dramatically increased simplicity in the model range. This eliminates the dozens of confusing models that products of this type typically suffer from.

There are now 8 models of Mini Converters: SDI to Analog, Analog to SDI, SDI to HDMI, HDMI to SDI for video conversion, and SDI to Audio, and Audio to SDI for audio conversion and Mini Converter Optical Fiber. All these models are priced at US$495. Mini Converter Sync Generator is a black burst and tri-sync generator model priced at US$295.

Availability

Mini Converters are shipping now from all Blackmagic Design authorized resellers worldwide.

Press Photography

Product photos of the new Mini Converters, Broadcast Converter, and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagic-design.com/press/images.

About Blackmagic Design Inc.

Blackmagic Design Inc. manufactures the world's highest quality video editing products, converters and routers for the post-production and television broadcast industries. The Multibridge, DeckLink and Intensity family of products have revolutionized the post production industry and made HDTV and film editing more affordable. Founded by the world's leading editors and engineers from the post production industry, this knowledge is constantly fed back into our products. Blackmagic Design has operations in the USA, United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagic-design.com.