Barco ImagePRO 4K

from TPi December 2018 - #232

by Mondiale Media

Production Futures 2018

GEAR HEADS

BARCO IMAGEPRO-4K

Abbe Westerlundh, Senior Product Specialist, ImagePROcessing talks to TPi about the ImagePRO-4K...

How long did the R&D process take in order to complete the Barco ImagePRO-4K? With LED tiles, year after year, the trend has been toward ever tighter pixel pitches and we realised large-scale events would be moving towards using more pixels than ever. To create a product that did this well - within the events production industry - we would have to adopt more devices capable of utilising the latest 4K60p signals. Early on in 2016, we began to look at developing a successor to the ImagePRO-II.

Around the same time, we were very deep in development for the Event Master platform, so we needed to find a solution that fit our development schedule. R&D started looking at the design and how to support 4K60p. During the design phase of our second-generation Event Master input and output cards, that would need to support 4K60p on a single connector.

Our Director of Technology, and the R&D team, came up with the idea of the Tri-Combo cards. The cards would be designed to use the latest standards (HDMI 2.0, DP1.2, and 12G SDI) and they would provide a ‘Swiss Army Knife’ approach to digital video connections. This began our development of the Event Master 4K60p Tri-Combo input and output cards, and what would be the heart of the ImagePRO-4K.

Concurrently, we were also in the middle of a new low-profile stage box, one of our customers had asked of us, as a solution to use with the E2 and S3. This new chassis came to be called the EX, which is a box that both expands the capacity of an E2 or S3 signals to the stage. This new processor allowed the system to expand input or output capacity without adding another E2 or S3 processor. Using our system linking connectors, we were able to qualify a fiber extension solution as well that allowed for the stage box to be placed up to 100m away from the main processor. Realising the power and versatility of this new box, the EX became the perfect platform to start the ImagePRO-4K. We continued development of the Tri-Combo cards and the EX, putting the ImagePRO plans in the drawer until we had all the components ready. We began shipping the Tri-combo input card

in October, 2017 and the output card in February, 2018. The factory preconfigured Tri-combo variants of E2, S3 and EX are now our most popular selling configurations.

With all the major components now in place, we pulled the ImagePRO- 4K plans back out of the drawer in January of 2018 and began the rest of the design and development work in earnest. The plan sounded simple - take new cards and put them in a new chassis, rework the mother board, and add a front panel. If only it were as fast and easy as it sounds! Not only were we working with the latest tech, but also wanted to modernise the look and feel of the ImagePRO. The first thing we did was change the readout display type from the old VFD (the green fluorescent display) to a daylight viewable colour LCD display, giving us the ability to show modern looking menus, and live video. This brought its own integration challenges with mechanics, viewing angles, and software to drive the new display.

The new ImagePRO-4K was previewed to select customers at InfoComm 2018. After collecting customer feedback, we went through a few more 3D prints and software revisions to make sure we were keeping the ImagePRO look and even more importantly, the feel.

In October 2018, we held our final quality review, confirming we are ready for release, and started shipping soon after. It’s was a huge team effort!

Where does it sit in the Barco family of products? The ImagePRO-4K is the latest product added to our very successful line of ImagePRO products, and it is also now part of the Event Master family. These are two big reputations to protect. The ImagePRO-4K has a brilliant scaler, converter, sync generator, and is an all-around video problem solver. We see the Event Master heritage when you open up the Event Master Toolset, our control software. It is here one can really open up the power of the ImagePRO-4K and use it as more powerful switcher, or even as a multiformat scaling matrix router with up to six inputs and outputs.

BARCO IMAGEPRO-4K

We see use cases in most markets, but especially the live event market where extremely low latency and image quality are top priorities. In the Rental and Staging world, the flexibility of the ImagePRO-4K is key. It is a real inventory solution as you can use the same product as a break out room switcher one day, and a pre-scaler for an LED wall the next.

And in the marketplace as a whole - is it a higher end unit? When you look at our product offerings, the ImagePRO is not our most expensive box by far, but its performance is definitely high end. With the ImagePRO family, we can reach down to some pretty basic HD applications with the ImagePRO-II Jr at a very reasonable price point, or all the way up to some very complex 4K applications with the ImagePRO- 4K. The ImagePRO family is not considered low end scaling by any means. No matter what format you work in, you can be sure it will be scaled and converted accurately as the signals are always processed with 12-bit accuracy, creating better scaling and conversion making it incredibly easy to get sensational results. If you need very low latency with great image quality, we think we are providing a very good value in the ImagePRO family of products and especially with the ImagePRO-4K.

This video switcher is multi-functional and is aimed at both the live events sector and fixed install industry. What are the key features which will appeal to the touring / festival end user for a tough life on the road? ImagePRO has been utilised in the touring market for almost as long as it has been in existence (since 2004). Most of the time, on tours, it’s used as a pre-scaler for LED walls. We have been told by many LED technicians that they won’t take a wall out on tour without an ImagePRO in front of their pixel driver. The ImagePRO-4K brings the ability to not only take in any resolution source and make it fit to the obscure resolutions of LED, but it also has enough capacity to manage back up signals and even a still store should the

need arise.

Mostly, the ImagePRO-4K will give the market very low latency and highquality images. The lowest latency in the live market is king. If you’re at a concert, you wouldn’t want to see live video of the drummer hit the cymbal after you’ve already heard it. With the new ImagePRO-4K we also expect to see the matrix functionality used extensively. When processing HD signals, typical for lower resolution walls in large venues, the ImagePRO-4K is the equivalent of six ImagePRO HD processors. That’s a lot of rack space to save!

Did you work closely with visual designers and engineers in order to finalise the end result? Our customers and beta testers really drive our roadmap, products and design. We are not designing the products for what we want; we’re not the end user, we focus on what the customer wants and needs to do a better job.

Long before we start designing a product, we are out talking with our customers, attending their shows, and generally, listening for ‘pain points’. We tend to gravitate more towards the engineers and technicians that will ultimately be hands on with our products, but we also want to have perspective from the owners and end users. We can build the best thing ever, but if it does not provide enough return on their investment or a better total cost of ownership for our customers it won’t improve their workflow.

Has there been any key inventory intakes from video rental companies? We have many early adopters of the ImagePRO-4K. Right now, our largest commitments have come from AED, Lang, Rentex, Satis&Fy and VER. Most of the wholesale rental partners have placed orders as well. The ImagePRO-4K is also in high demand in the Japanese and Korean markets. TPi www.barco.com/imagepro4K