Really? ON THE FRONT??

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Tom_Bassford

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Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostSun Feb 04, 2018 10:26 am

Just watched most of the BMD presentation. It was the most painful one yet. Grant really doesn't seem comfortable talking about live production and seems to be unfamiliar with how standard things in live broadcast work. His demo of the new panel was frankly awful, probably because it doesn't really have many "new" features (nothing actually wrong with that, the old panels are excellent)

The new products look good, the camera system is what i've been hoping they would make right from the start. But the billion dollar question has to be..

WHY IS THE SMPTE CONNECTOR ON THE FRONT OF THE CCU??
I mean seriously, these things live in racks, having connectors on both ends of it is really amazingly stupid. You'll need to have a SMPTE patch panel to feed the fibre back to the rear of the rack. These are expensive (I just paid £1500 for a 4 channel SMPTE panel with 1m cables).

The rest of the functionality and design looks great, I can't wait to see it in the flesh.
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Andrew Martin

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostSun Feb 04, 2018 10:42 am

Right off the bat, I'll say I know little in regards this workflow. Other than knowing of it.

If this unit were mounted in the rear of a truck facing out. The idea of walking upto the rear doors of a truck connecting up the fibre and checking the confidence monitor for the presence of ur feed would be a good idea. Leaving all the SDI etc connections at the 'rear, ie facing into the truck' for connection onwards. Or am I being too simplistic ?
Last edited by Andrew Martin on Sun Feb 04, 2018 10:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Tom_Bassford

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostSun Feb 04, 2018 10:53 am

In a truck the tailgate panel doesn't have any equipment mounted directly on it. The connectors are all on a panel which is exposed to the air during operation and so mounting something which doesn't want to get rained on directly on panel is a very bad idea.

In a rack you could mount the CCU backwards and have the fibre connector directly on the back of the rack, however what happens if there is a problem and you need to access the SDI connectors? Every other CCU ever has all the connectors on one side, which allows easy access to everything.

It's a real shame as the idea is a good one (and one i've been suggesting is the way forward for BMD for a number of years) but as ever the devil is in the details.

If you want my prediction for the future we will see in a couple of years that they change this design, probably by introducing a multicamera CCU which controls 4 cameras, this version of the product will have all the connectors on one side.
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Andrew Martin

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostSun Feb 04, 2018 11:09 am

I was thinking mounting more inside the truck, than sat outside on a tailgate.. :D . as said never worked this workflow.
And wasn't really thinking studio environment either thinking more sports, arenas, concerts, venues etc. More in line of what we do personally.
So having the connector face outward with a monitor would be more accessible to the camera side and not require a visit inside the van to check signal... But yeah I can definatly see it in what ur saying regards placement in a rack as you described. And yeah let's look forward to the redesigned all in one 4camera CCU unit
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MambaFiber.com

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostSun Feb 04, 2018 4:06 pm

Hahaha, I've been waiting since Thursday for you to post this Tom...I thought the same thing :D
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Sander Vreuls

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostSun Feb 04, 2018 7:19 pm

We were watching the streams with some colleagues and we said the same thing.

Then we immediatly thought about drilling a hole in the rear and just moving it.. Bit ugly, but that's what we'd do.. Blank plate in the front and you're done :)
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Baz

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostSun Feb 04, 2018 10:55 pm

These things are designed to mount on the side of the truck where all the other cables are connected.
The fact that they have monitoring give it the illusion that it is at the front. These 'monitors' are very inexpensive and are added as a cheap way to get 'confidence connection'.
So having said that, image an 8 camera truck with 8 of these mounted on the side. The rig crew rock up with the SMPTE cables and you have to connect up. You know Cam 1 has to be high W/S, Cam 2 high C/U, cam 3 sideline centre, cam 4 sideline left, cam 5 sideline right, cam 6 handheld I/V's, cam 7 behind goal left and cam 8 behold goal right; how easy would that be to connect all camera's correctly 1st time instead of climbing those damn stairs everytime! My poor old knees would not survive!

Back in the '90's I had a 20 camera Triax truck and on the side of the truck I had 5 x Sony 4way monitors to do exactly that (replaced later with a single monitor and a 16 way splitter.

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Felix Huerlimann

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostSun Feb 04, 2018 11:51 pm

It was probably easier to design the CCU with a front connector. Now BMD say, this is a great feature. ;)
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Kingsley Foreman

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostMon Feb 05, 2018 2:28 am

Ignoring all the flaws for rackmounting, at least you can see when the camera is working when you plug in :)

But yer everything should be on the back, and airflow should be front to back also, not side to side (like many other products.
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Matt Certa

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostMon Feb 05, 2018 8:10 pm

I was so excited until I saw that detail as well. I assume they chose to ignore standard protocol of every other manufacturer and value a small footprint over putting it in the rear. From a user that does touring or corporate shows with these cameras its very goofy to have these in the front where when all the other cables are in the back.
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Zack Pittman

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostTue Feb 13, 2018 4:16 am

For the broadcast truck/OB crowd, I wish they would have provided room to move the connector to the back (they are offering replacement connectors as he mentioned in the video, so it would be easy to move if there was a hole)

But for the non truck industry, like live corporate broadcast... I think this is brilliant. Back of the rack, mounted within a swing door frame, so you can easily open and get to SDI connectors... I like this.
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Xtreemtec

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostThu Feb 15, 2018 4:38 pm

Normally you have 8 channels in 2 or 3 RU.. on a panel in the backside of the truck.. Now for those 8 channels you need 8RU on the backside.. :o Yes the monitor is nice to see if the connection is up.. But it does not come up straight away when you plug it in.. More like 20/30 seconds after that.. And that is if the camera is in ON mode.. ;)

What Tom said is correct. You normally don't want electronics on the backend of your truck except 1 confidence monitor on the top and a intercom panel / router control panel.. Even if the truck is nice and warm inside.. The backside can get very cold outside and condense.. Might get some issues..
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Tony Marone

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Re: Really? ON THE FRONT??

PostTue Feb 20, 2018 8:02 am

Hi,

I think the best solution would be to take the SMPTE connector off the front panel and make a cover plate with Front Panel Express to cover the hole with LC fiber connections and Molex for the power and signal wires. Then you have your SMPTE connector for your panel on the side of the truck. The wiring bundle from all the cameras could slip through a 1RU space into the back of your rack.

Would be much simpler if it were made properly to begin with, but it would require a SMPTE to SMPTE jumper which ain't cheap.

Thoughts?

Tony

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