Quartz Xenon and Topaz Routers perfect fit for 24-hour-a-day HD facilities company

Quartz has provided the routing equipment for an expansion to Sumners, the only 24-hour facilities house in the UK outside of London.
A multi-format Xenon Router, configured 32x32 High Definition and 64x64 Serial Digital Video and two 32x32 Analogue Topaz Routers will feed five new Avid edit suites, a new graphics area, DaVinci HD grading suite and a Pro-Tools Dolby-E Surround Sound Dubbing Theatre. The kit also feeds to and from the existing facilities and studios.
Brian Hardman, General Manager at Sumners, said: “Continuity of operation was a major factor and the dual SD/HD operation and ease of reconfiguring the Xenon frame were very important as we move forward in the HD world. The price performance of both Xenon for the finishing area and Topaz for the transfer on/offline areas were also very well suited to our requirements.”
Operational from early October, the new equipment is supplied through Mitcorp UK Limited, one of Europe’s largest dealers in broadcast professional products, and installed by UK systems integrators, Pure AV.
Richard Lister, Technical Director at Pure AV, said: “The Quartz routers sit at the heart of the system and the multi-format Xenon allows a seamless transition between standard and high definition signals.”
Sumners have been using Quartz equipment for the past eight years. Hardman said: “We’ve been very happy with performance of the Quartz range from both an operational and technical angle.”
Xenon can house optional plug-in Signal Processing Technology (SPT) modules that add powerful sophisticated features within the frame, saving space and cost on discrete products, such as multi-viewers, audio shuffling and channel branding.
(GB)