Ross Video is delighted to announce the launch of the new Ultrix IP platform at NAB 2018. Ultrix was launched in 2016 and, although positioned as a router, it quickly became clear that the product is a Swiss army knife for infrastructure given its versatility and powerful feature set. Ultrix was initially available in either 1RU or 2RU configurations, and the 5RU 144×144 version was launched in January of this year at the CABSAT show in Dubai.
Ultrix is a highly disruptive routing/AV processing platform. It’s also software-enabled, so customers only need to buy the one piece of hardware and can then access the many additional features available as software licenses. The Ultrix-FR5 may only be 5RU in size but it can replace up to 5 full racks of traditional infrastructure, providing significant savings in cost, energy, cabling and labour. Ultrix’s feature set is extremely impressive; the product offers SD, HD and 3G routing (with 12G 4K UHD software licensable), 3072×3072 audio (2048×2048 embedded audio I/O, 1024×1024 MADI option), embedded audio processing, clean/quiet switching, patented internal gearboxing to integrate Quadlink/4K signals into a native 12G workflow and up to 24 independent MultiViewer heads in 5RU, each head supporting up to 100 unique PiPs.
According to David Ross, CEO of Ross Video, IP is a whole different ball game from a routing perspective. “In moving to an IP fabric, some things that are easy in SDI become a challenge in IP. The switch fabric doesn’t have any processing or knowledge of the video signal – it simply routes packets. With IP, it’s like the early days when routers just routed and didn’t have internal processing. We therefore need to add those capabilities back into the system to make these switches work for video, as well as adding in IP protocol conversion, such as going from 2022 to 2110”.
Bringing IP I/O to Ultrix opens up a number of different applications and uses for the product, such as a mid-size IPor hybrid core facility router, an IP to SDI processing gateway, an IP frame sync Farm, as IP connected MultiViewers, an IP clean switcher, IP audio processing engine or IP-SDI bridge. And, because it supports both 2022 and 2110, it’s an IP encapsulation converter as well.
