Telecast introduces new BBX field audio acquisition system at IBC

Telecast Fiber Systems introduced its new BBX field audio acquisition system at IBC 2004 in Amsterdam.
Currently undergoing field testing, the BBX ‘Baker Box’ will facilitate high-quality audio acquisition on common CAT-5 copper cabling.
"After listening to complaints about poor audio quality on golf broadcasts, we were asked to come up with a better solution," said Telecast Vice President and CTO Eugene Baker. Currently, audio acquisition on golf events requires using battery-powered mic-line amplifiers and twisted-pair ‘dry-lines’ to get the tee and green microphone sources to a camera tower.
From there, the signals can be transmitted back to the truck on existing fibre or via a mic circuit in the camera head. Neither of these scenarios is ideal due to the grounding and noise problems inherent in the audio cables and interfaces. The BBX overcomes these issues by immediately converting two analogue audio sources into a digital AES data stream. In this way, the noise floor for the system is established at the microphone. Up to four BBX-TX field boxes can be accommodated by a single standard CAT-5 cable for a total of four AES signals over a distance of 500 meters.
The need for batteries is eliminated by powering each field box back through the same CAT-5 cable. The BBX system is composed of the small green portable field TX boxes and a 1-RU base RX box that services two individual CAT-5 cable runs. The system can support daisy-chain or ‘star’ configurations, or may serve as a simple stand-alone analogue-to-digital converter. The AES outputs are compatible with the Mamba AES media converters for long-haul transport over fibre.
"We are committed to developing new technologies that improve the way broadcasters work both within and outside of the studio," said Telecast Fiber Systems President Richard A. Cerny. "Our new Baker Box system provides a better way for remote broadcasters to get analogue audio signals into their digital consoles while they are in the field."
(GB)