NBC selects Snell & Wilcox for Athens Games

NBC Olympics will rely exclusively on Snell & Wilcox Alchemist Platinum Ph.C and Mach1 platforms for SD standards conversion in its broadcasts of the Athens Olympic Games, taking place August 13-29.
"We were very pleased with the performance of Alchemist during NBC's coverage of the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, so it was a natural choice for our broadcasts from Athens," said David Mazza, senior vice president of engineering for NBC Olympics. "Our goal is to bring the highest quality pictures to our viewing audience and that means using standards conversion technology from Snell & Wilcox."
Snell & Wilcox is supplying NBC Olympics with 22 motion-compensated converters, including six Alchemist Platinum Ph.C converters and 16 Kudos Plus Mach1 M.Sc standards converters. The Alchemist Platinum Ph.C units will reside at the Olympics' International Broadcast Center (IBC) to convert outgoing signals and some incoming feeds between 625 and 525 standard-definition formats as required.
The Mach1 converters will convert backup outgoing signals at the IBC and will be housed in edit rooms and at various Olympic venues for conversion of source material shot in 525.
"Alchemist Platinum Ph.C's phase-correlated, motion-compensated conversion technology ensures that fast-moving action loses none of its clarity in the conversion process, giving us the cleanest, clearest pictures we can possibly obtain for our control room output," Mazza added. "The Mach1 serves our needs as a more compact unit that allows us to install standards converters in areas that previously were without converters. Since we don't need to travel from the venues and edit rooms back to the International Broadcasting Center for conversion of source material, the Mach1 greatly increases our production flexibility."
The Alchemist Platinum Ph.C uses Snell & Wilcox's proprietary Ph.C (phase correlation) motion compensation technology to ensure the most precise motion processing possible. The latest of six generations of Ph.C converters developed by Snell & Wilcox, the Alchemist Platinum Ph.C represents the culmination of 15 years of continuous R&D efforts and improvements in motion-compensated conversion. The Mach1 offers motion-compensated algorithms in a compact, lower-priced unit that also offers superior- performance standards conversion.
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