CUSTOM RANGE
BCD Audio was always more interested in product development and the requirements of Broadcast installations than pure sales of standard products. The black box range is an exception to this rule, but even here the requirements originated in customer demand for a particular product.
By creating a range of standard building blocks, manufacture of custom products and projects were possible.
Generally, BCD Audio are approached by a systems integration company, or directly by an end-user.
We have collected here examples from previous projects.
AES3 to Fibre conversion – Originating from a requirement in 2004, and still current. AES3 on cable is good for about 100m, and equipment existed to multiplex channels together to be passed over longer distances over fibre, but were complex.
2:1 dual redundant switching – This is were two programme paths are used across a distance, and circuitry decides which path to use, switching over to the other path on failure. The decision is generally based on signal level, but is then complicated by mono/stereo and signal status if AES3. Sometimes a reserve path is required should both main paths fail.
RMOS system, OB trucks and PAM – The RMOS ( Ringmain and outside source ) system originated in 1997, where there was a requirement for Analogue Stereo Program switchers of sizes to 64×32 coupled with a reverse Cue switcher of about 16×8 for Radio Stations. A compact Balanced analogue switcher Eurocard of size 16×8 was designed, and many could be controlled with two common wires from a processor card. This became known as B2C ( Board to computer! )
Parliament audio video systems and webcast – Our involvement with this goes back to 1999, when we designed control panels to go with the Committee room audio controllers in the House of Lords, and the newly built Portcullis house.