SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 2010: To maintain its leadership of online content delivery, the Yahoo! sports broadcast facility, which produces original webcasts, including Sunday’s popular “Fantasy Football Live,” recently upgraded its video equipment to high-definition (HD). Top systems integrator, Snader and Associates (San Rafael, California) performed the original upgrade and recently returned and installed two of Symetrix’ new cost-effective ‘zero learning curve’ processors to conquer unforeseen delays in the video signal.
Internet giant Yahoo! continues to define the next generation of online content with a customizable and immersively interactive sports channel commanding the loyalty of millions. Yahoo! coverage of the 2010 Olympics proved even more popular than NBC’s! After the analog sunset switch to HD, latencies in the new system led to unacceptable delays in the video signal relative to the audio signal. The Symetrix Jupiter processors, not only vanquished
the delays, but provided Yahoo! with processing power to spare for future upgrades.
Snader and Associates helped assemble Yahoo!’s sports broadcast facility back in 2000, and was called back to swap out existing equipment for an HD path and a new switcher. Nevertheless, some of the facility’s standard definition workflow had to remain in place. “We were all aware that there would be some delay issues with up- and down-conversion,” said Snader engineer, Nicholas Smith, “but these were worse than we expected and, perhaps more importantly, the delay times were inconsistent and depended on which combination of cameras and devices were used for a particular broadcast. That meant we couldn’t simply slap a fixed delay on the audio and call it done. The situation called for more nuance.”
He continued: “The broadcast world is rife with single- or dual-channel delays. Here, we could have filled a rack with them, but adjusting them would have been cumbersome and they would never aspire to anything else… they’d just be a bunch of delays sitting there. I was aware of Symetrix’ new Jupiter line, which contains high-end processing capabilities within a remarkably easy to manipulate interface at a cost that was actually less than a rack full of broadcast delays. Jupiter was an elegant solution – the users could easily adjust the delays to meet the needs of a particular broadcast, it didn’t cost much, and yet it contained all kinds of potential to meet future needs.”
The Symetrix Jupiter series is inspired, in part, by smartphone technology. Users download an “app” that meets the requirements of their sound system from the Symetrix website, and the Jupiter hardware is immediately and appropriately configured. If needed, users can tweak setting from an intuitive programming interface. For Yahoo!, Smith used the Sound Reinforcement 2 app, which allowed the client to route audio sources through the Jupiter and adjust the delay to match the video. The two Jupiter 8 units (each with eight inputs and eight outputs) stand between the facility’s audio router and its soundboard. A dedicated laptop allows operators to dial in the appropriate delay with speed and precision.
ABOUT SYMETRIX Sound professionals rely upon the performance, value and reliability of audio mixing, routing and processing products from Symetrix. For more information on Symetrix professional audio products, please visit www.symetrix.co or call +1.425.778.7728.
ABOUT SNADER AND ASSOCIATES, INC. Snader and Associates, Inc. is a California-based independent reseller and systems integrator serving the broadcast/film production, post-production and audio-visual presentation markets. With over 35 years of experience and long-term relationships with 500+ manufacturers, Snader is a one-stop-shop for multiple A/V solutions. www.snader.com
