Frank Jachetta of MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic Systems

Frank Jachetta – Senior VP of Sales and Operations
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems

Frank, can you first fill us in on your background?

I hold a Bachelors degree in computer science and started in the industry as a circuit board designer and firmware developer. I have transitioned into a sales and operations position, but still enjoy being involved in product development.

What is the history of MultiDyne?

My father Vincent started MultiDyne in 1977 by building the first portable colour bar generator. MultiDyne then went on to create the first hand held signal generator. Our signal distribution background started with long-haul, cable equalizing DAs and has now evolved into a full line of fibre optic transport products.

What are the main product lines of MultiDyne?

MultiDyne comes from a broadcast background, but as convergence becomes a reality, many of our products carry over or focus on pro-AV, high end surveillance, intelligent traffic systems, military, government and simulation.

Our focus is high quality, point to point fibre optic transport. We can transport virtually any signal over fibre optic cable including composite, component and HDSDI video, high resolution graphics such as DVI dual link and RGB, AES and analogue audio, and much more.  Another product line is the field rugged, fibre optic transport working in conjunction with our tactical cable assemblies. In fact, the LiGHTBoX 1150 won two awards at IBC in 2008.

Which applications represent the current “sweet spot”?

I would have to say the optical router (EOS-4000) in conjunction with the DVI/RGB Fibre Link (DVI-6000).   When these two are installed in concert, it is no longer just a point to point device, we can distribute from one point to many points, such as multiple screens with the same content. Or, with a touch of the remote control, different images can be displayed on each of those same screens. DVI, DVI-DL, NTSC, PAL, RGB or YPbPr can be transported over the same link, so regardless of the source and destination signal requirements, one device can carry any of these signals. Audio also comes along for the ride and soon, USB!

Fibre optics is clearly a main component, how has this evolved in recent years?

With the advent of HDSDI and its tremendous proliferation, fibre has moved from being a luxury to becoming a necessity. Depending on cable types, HDSDI can only travel a few hundred feet over copper. This removes the option of copper from even a large room, not to mention a building, campus or metro area.

Does fibre compete favourably with copper?

Until it became a necessity, copper was more favourable due to fibre’s higher cost and fibre frailty. Fibre also had a stigma of being too difficult to terminate. However, with the increasing cost of copper, rugged tactical fibre and field termination kits, fibre has become more favourable than copper. In fact I was onsite for a railroad installation, standing in a tent on a windy winter day while the technician there terminated ST connectors onto fibre in a matter of seconds!

What future do you see for 3G transport?

Of course one day 3G will go the way of the VCR and vinyl records, but for now, the future of 3G transport is bright. The higher resolution 3G or 1080p HDTV is supported by many consumer displays and has proliferated into broadcast productions. 3G can be used to transport dual link HDSDI by multiplexing two 1.5G HDSDI streams into one 3G stream for digital cinema.  3G or HDTV 1080P is also used in sports and television productions. The 3G HD signal format is often used as the transport format of choice. Various types of signals are converted to and from the 3G format. This holds true for our DVI/RGB fibre link which converts DVI to 3G for transport or cross conversion. This way the 3G can pass through other 3G devices and routers easily, before it is converted back to DVI or simply left in its new 3G form.

How has the current business climate affected you?

I feel as an industry, even outside of fibre, we are all very blessed by the explosive growth of high resolution video content and the need to distribute it. With the mandates of changing over to HD, all the new video services that consumers have available and are willing to purchase and the proliferation of multimedia into all aspects of life, I am cautiously optimistic that our industry will not just weather these difficult times, but thrive.

Would you like to make a few predictions about the future of the media industry once the financial crisis is behind us?

Although the word convergence has become a cliché, I feel this is our future. When a single broadband conduit is brought to the home it will not just bring voice data and video, but will bring on demand services of very specialized content as easily as accessing a web site. When you can access various HD camera views at will, while watching baseball; when you can shop interactively, or take a real-time virtual walk through the summerhouse you are about to rent 3000 miles away, this is the future.

Current on demand and fibre to the home are a glimpse of what’s to come, but as the economy improves and the infrastructure is expanded, these services will quickly become reality. Of course, the broadband conduit to the home will be fibre.

Edition 71

2nd quarter 2009

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High Resolution Graphics and Video Transmission for DVI

The quality and fidelity of a signal over short and long distances is difficult to maintain over copper.  As signals increase in bandwidth and bit rate, it becomes more and more difficult for systems to transport these high bandwidth signals even a short distance over copper.   This becomes very apparent when working with high resolution vided and graphics.

A computer generated RGB or UXGA signal at 1600 by 1200 pixels requires and analog bandwidth of close to 500 MHz.  If the signal is digitized, requires and data transport bit rate of 3 to 4 Gbps.  How do we transport these signals?  The answer is “Not very far over copper”.   There are many copper based products that will transport these signals but at a cost in performance and video quality.

High bandwidth signals such as RGB, DVI and HDMI all benefit by the use of fiber.  Systems like the one pictured below in figure 28, offer state-of-the-art fiber transport over one fiber for RGB/UXGA Video, Audio, Data and Ethernet.

Synchronous, Single Fiber, Digital, RGB and VGA Fiber Optic System

RGB-5000 RGB/UXGA Video, Audio, Data & Ethernet Fiber Optic Link, Figure 28

Many applications today require the same video or graphical signal to be displayed on a series of monitors.  An example may be an airport terminal where arrival and departure information is displayed every 100 feet.   This application requires a long daisy-chain of units that can drop and repeat the same signals to each monitor every 100 feet.

System are available with the drop and repeat or daisy-chain feature.  As shown in figure 29, one transmitter can send the video signal to the first receiver.   The first receiver decodes the optical signal and generates an output for the local monitor.  The receiver also repeats and re-generates the optical signal to send to the next receiver in the chain.  This technique saves on installation and equipment costs.  The alternative would be to run a fiber from each monitor back to the control room.  Instead, one fiber can feed many monitors.

Synchronous, Single Fiber, Digital, RGB and VGA Fiber Optic System with Daisy Chain

Daisy Chain or Drop and Repeat Video Fiber Transport, Figure 29

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The DVI-ONE, MultiDyne’s multimode DVI extender product, has been updated to provide a more stable, and robust platform that exhibits exceptional performance parameters. Our goal is to provide a cost-effective and stable DVI extender while maintaining operational endurance. The DVI-ONE is a DVI extender requiring multi-mode fiber,(customer supplied), and has SC connectors, a range of 1km, individual power source, and EDID programming capability. The enhanced DVI-ONE has a LIST PRICE of $1,595 for the pair including P/S’s. This is a commodity-type product that may compliment a bundled fiber transport package. It provides a good solution for an inexpensive, but reliable DVI extension in hard to manage cable trays, and raceways. See the specifications for this upgraded product on the MultiDyne Web site.

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