PESA's UCI2000 Enables Grass Valley Products to Interface With PESA Routing Systems

PESA Switching Systems, a leading provider of analog and digitalvideo and audio equipment, announced today that its award-winningUCI2000 Universal Control Interface is now available for Thomson GrassValley's Encore control system and Series 7000 routing systems. PESA's1-RU protocol translator is designed to handle a wide range of protocolconversion applications, and with its easy-to-configure package, it isone of the most versatile third-party interfaces on the market.

"The increasing complexity of audio and video signal management hasled broadcasters and A/V specialists to demand a fluid means ofcommunication between routing switcher control systems from differentmanufacturers," says Dave Montgomery, vice president internationalsales at PESA. "Such equipment is commonly different in botharchitecture and protocol. PESA's UCI2000 control system protocoltranslator addresses this problem, providing a practical solution forinterconnection of mixed router systems and facilitating communicationbetween incompatible control systems."

The UCI2000 Universal Control Interface is a flexible series ofrouting switcher protocol changeover units that provide a compact andcost-competitive interface between PESA products and other routermanufactures. The 1 RU single UCI2000 utilizes protocols that arecompatible with such manufacturers as Sony, Di-Tech, and now ThomsonGrass Valley. Other models are planned for introduction in 2004.

When implemented with the Thomson Grass Valley Encore system, PESA'sUCI2000 plugs into one of the general purpose serial ports used by theEncore to control or be controlled by external devices. Connectionsbetween the UCI2000 and the Series 7000 system allow the UCI2000 to usethe Series 7000 native protocol to manage any type of router that canbe controlled by the Series 7000 controller.

"Because it can be configured to operate using a variety ofprotocols, the UCI2000 enables a facility to build on its initialhardware investment while extending its control functionality andavailable formats or levels," adds Montgomery. "The result is adefinite cost advantage for both new and existing operations."

In addition to providing support for other manufacturers' routingswitchers running under the PESA 3500PRO control system, each UCI2000model can be configured to operate in a slave mode. The slave modeallows PESA products to be interfaced into existing facilityapplications without disrupting the established control system. Anadditional gateway mode is available for Sony and Thomson Grass Valleysystems. The gateway mode allows third-party production or mastercontrol switchers to control and status crosspoints in a PESA routerusing the names defined in the PESA database. Both crosspoint sourceand destination names used in the PESA system are transferred to theswitcher by the UCI2000 and are available directly on the switcher'scontrol panel.

The UCI2000 Universal Control Interface will be on display alongwith other PESA products at the IBC2003 exhibition, Stand 2.241, Sept.12-16 at the Amsterdam RAI.