Broadcast Solution
In-house: uncompressed SDI over fiber. Out-of-house: H.265 over IP.
Built for 24/7 continuous playout
A playout chain needs two different links
One must be lossless and instant, the other must be cheap to move
Four problems we see in playout chains
- Studio to machine room exceeds 100 m: 3G-SDI coax starts to attenuate and jitter
- Mixed-vintage equipment: SDI, HDMI and DVI in the same rack
- After IP migration, latency becomes unpredictable and lip sync drifts
- Playout cannot stop, yet a single device failure takes the chain down
Our approach
- Fiber for in-house runs: optical conversion only, no codec in the path, latency is negligible
- Interface bridging: bidirectional HDMI to 3G/SD/HD-SDI conversion
- H.265 for long haul: roughly half the bitrate of H.264 at equal quality
- 1U card-frame chassis: 1-4 HDMI/SDI cards mixed, shared power, easy field replacement
Signal Chain
Fiber inside the building, IP outside
HDMI or SDI out
broadcast-grade converters
uncompressed, 20 km standard
RTSP / RTMP / UDP / HLS
monitor wall
Keep in-house runs on optical transceivers (uncompressed, negligible latency). Only introduce an encoder at step 4 when the signal has to cross buildings, cities or go to an IPTV/OTT headend.
Four Typical Setups
Pick by site conditions — or send us your point list and distances
| Scenario | Recommended | Interface / Resolution | Transport |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio to machine room over 100 m, zero latency |
ZY-3GSDI-1V-T/R 3G-SDI transceiver | 1 x 3G-SDI 1080p60 uncompressed |
Single-mode fiber, 20 km standard, up to 80 km custom |
| Multi-camera central encoding OB van, converged media center |
1U card-frame rack encoder | 1-4 HDMI / SDI cards, mixed | RTSP / RTMP / UDP / HLS |
| HDMI gear into an SDI plant cameras, PCs, switchers |
HC01 HDMI to SDI converter | HDMI to 3G/SD/HD-SDI | Broadcast-grade conversion |
| SDI onto an HDMI monitor low-cost monitoring |
SC01 SDI to HDMI converter | 3G/SD/HD-SDI to HDMI | 1080p monitoring |
| Multiview monitoring whole plant on one screen |
ZY-DM16 video platform or ZY-DS901 SDI decoder | 16-way multiview / single SDI | H.265 / H.264 decoding |
Recommended Products
Designed and manufactured in-house · OEM / ODM available · factory direct · 3-year warranty
ZY-3GSDI-1V-T/R 3G-SDI Transceiver
Uncompressed 1080p60 over single-mode fiber, 20 km standard and up to 80 km on request. The backbone of an in-house chain.
In-house backbone1U Card-Frame Rack Encoder
1-4 HDMI/SDI cards in one chassis with shared power and cooling, built for machine-room deployment.
Central encodingHC01 HDMI to SDI Converter
Feeds cameras, PCs and switchers into an SDI plant with 3G/SD/HD-SDI output.
Interface bridgingSC01 SDI to HDMI Converter
Puts SDI sources onto affordable HDMI monitors and projectors.
MonitoringZY-DS901 SDI Decoder
SDI decoder with an LCD panel, so status checks do not need a laptop.
Playout monitoringTypical Applications
TV studios
Fiber backbone from cameras to the playout room
OB vans
Field contribution and central multi-camera encoding
Converged media centers
Aggregate many sources, distribute to many platforms
IPTV and cable headends
H.265 ingest
Campus and corporate TV
A playout chain that fits the budget
Satellite receive and capture
Long uncompressed runs plus encoding for archive
FAQ
Does an optical transceiver add latency?
Essentially no. It performs electrical-to-optical conversion with no codec in the path, so latency is negligible. Latency comes from IP encoding (milliseconds). Keep in-house runs on fiber and reserve encoding for the segments that must travel over IP.
How far can 3G-SDI coax go?
About 100 m at 1080p60 before jitter and errors appear. Moving to a 3G-SDI optical transceiver gives 20 km on single-mode fiber as standard, up to 80 km custom, with no electromagnetic interference.
How do I build a 4K playout chain?
Use HDMI fiber for 4K baseband inside the building, and an H.265 4K encoder such as the ZY-EH1301 for network distribution. Our current optical transceivers are 3G-SDI (1080p60); tell us if you need 4K baseband.
Is there redundancy if something fails?
Critical paths should be designed with N+1 redundancy. The N+1 backup HDMI matrix in our rail transit line exists for exactly this. In the machine room, the 1U card-frame chassis lets you swap a card without a shutdown. Final redundancy design is project-specific.
Which streaming protocols are supported?
Encoders support RTSP / RTMP / RTMPS / RTP / UDP / ONVIF / HLS / TS, so they drop into mainstream playout platforms and CDNs. Decoders handle H.265 and H.264.
Tell us your playout chain and we will spec it and quote it
30-day free trial | 24/7 technical support | 3-year warranty
Get a quote 400-056-8185