Australia's TEN Standardises On Snell & Wilcox Alchemist Ph.C - HD For Conversion Of Overseas HD Content

Snell & Wilcox has announced that Australia's Network Ten (TEN) has installed a second Alchemist Ph.C-HD motion compensated frame-rate standards converter at its Sydney headquarters to support provision of popular HD content on its new TEN HD free-to-air HD service.
Supplied by Quinto Communications, the new Alchemist Ph.C - HD provides TEN with unparalleled image quality when converting between different HD video formats and frame rates.
Glenn Carrick, TEN engineer, said: "With the recent launch of TEN HD, which offers unique HD content to viewers of our free-to-air HD service, we required a way of converting overseas HD content to our 1080i50 HD broadcast standard while maintaining the highest possible quality.
"We had been dissatisfied with the quality of previous HD standards conversion solutions, but the Alchemist Ph.C - HD provides very transparent results, allowing us to deliver overseas HD content to our viewers with uncompromised quality."
TEN led Australian broadcasters in the adoption of the Alchemist Ph.C - HD, which is widely accepted as setting the standard for quality in the international HD programme exchange market. The all-in-one unit provides sychronisation, aspect ratio conversion and HD and SD frame-rate conversion for virtually any standard and format in an intuitive, easy-to-use design.
The Alchemist Ph.C - HD at TEN Network provides frame-rate standards conversion both for live feeds and for incoming feed recordings, thus ensuring the continued quality and value of all HD content originating from the United States.
In broadcasting its TEN HD 1080i50 HD digital service, the network typically converts overseas content from the North American 1080i59.94 and 720p59.94 HD broadcast standards to the Australian 1080i50 HD broadcast standard. TEN HD incorporates this content, primarily comprising sports, current affairs and entertainment shows and documentaries, into HD transmissions reaching all major Australian population centres.
Joe Zaller, Vice President, Corporate Development, at Snell & Wilcox, said: "As demand for HD content continued to grow, the HD broadcast market is becoming increasingly competitive. By providing outputs that are virtually indistinguishable from the input, the Alchemist Ph.C - HD enables networks to protect their investment in high-profile programming and to deliver the high-impact viewing experience that differentiates HD from other services."
The Snell & Wilcox Alchemist Ph.C - HD motion compensated frame-rate standards converter offers simultaneous SD and HD conversion in its compact 3-RU mainframe.
This one-box approach delivers HD frame-rate conversion between 50Hz and 60Hz HD standards for both 1080i and 720p formats, as well as SD frame-rate conversion between 50Hz and 60Hz material.
The Alchemist Ph.C - HD also provides motion compensated HDTV upconversion, downconversion and crossconversion, making it the most comprehensive conversion solution available in the market.
Alchemist Ph.C - HD also provides co-timed simultaneous SD/HD outputs, each with independent aspect ratio and colour space conversion - a huge benefit for broadcasters wanting to simulcast in both SD and HD. The seamless timecode conversion option drastically improves operational efficiency by eliminating the costly and time-consuming use of additional equipment and manual re-editing of timecode information on videotapes.
Further information is available at: www.snellwilcox.com.
(KMcA)