Providing tools today for tomorrow’s broadcaster is the main theme at Cobalt Digital's NAB Booth. The designer and manufacturer of edge devices for live video production and master control, and a founding partner in the openGear initiative, is presenting enhanced openGear cards comprised of cutting-edge technology that will bring broadcasters a simple path to ATSC 3.0 and closer to an IP infrastructure. The Company is also showing an expanded family of high-density routers and control panels and other numerous non openGear form factor products on the booth.

Simplified Path to ATSC 3.0
High-density, efficient 9905-MPx openGear card brings HDR to ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV)
Cobalt Digital has simplified the path to ATSC 3.0 by offering an easy way to convert ATSC 1.0 to an ATSC 3.0 ready signal. This capability, being introduced at NAB 2024, is offered in Cobalt’s 9905-MPx fully featured, multi-function 3G/HD/SD Quad-Path Up/Down/Cross Converter/Frame Sync/Embed/De-Embed openGear audio processor. The 9905-MPx also includes the ability to convert four channels of 1080i SDR to 1080p HDR for ATSC 3.0 and support for 3D-LUTs as a standard feature for all paths with available color correction for downstream HDR systems. This way, stations can get started in ATSC 3.0 by automatically generating a 1080p HDR feed from their existing 1080i or 720p SDR feed, and later switch to a native HDR signal.

COBALT INDIGO 2110 – ST 2110 interface now available on multiple cards
Independent Processing Paths on a Single Unit
The new COBALT INDIGO OG-2110-BIDI4-GATEWAY is a bi-directional quad-channel native ST 2110 interface to SDI I/O available in the openGear form factor. The transmit and receive paths of the GATEWAY can operate simultaneously. The GATEWAY includes support for ST 2022-7 seamless redundancy switching, as well as IS 04/05 NMOS for automatic discovery and configuration. Cobalt also offers the SMPTE ST 2110 interface as an add-on to COBALT’S 9905-MPx or 9904-UDX-4K popular openGear processing cards with the simple addition of the INDIGO 2110-DC-01 daughter-card option.

For the first time, Cobalt will be showing a new factory-installed option for SMPTE ST 2110 input, the INDIGO 2110-DC-02, to its existing PACIFIC 9992-ENC openGear card. The option supports up to 4 inputs at 3G and lower resolutions, or one input at 4K resolution, with full NMOS support. Each encoder channel can be individually configured for SDI or ST 2110 operation.

The combination of the PACIFIC 9992-ENC with the ST 2110 input interface option creates a very powerful integrated solution that can be directly deployed in a ST 2110 facility for local encoding, low-latency transport over the Internet using RIST, or to drive a traditional ASI workflow, without having to deploy separate gateway devices. The ability to mix traditional SDI and ST 2110 feeds in the same device and support for IPMX provides even greater flexibility.

COBALT ARIA AUD-DANTE
DANTE openGear Cards
Brand new for NAB 2024, Cobalt is introducing the COBALT ARIA AUD2-DANTE and the COBALT ARIA AUD4-DANTE– DANTE cards in openGear form factor that offer dual and quad-channel units with up to 12G DANTE/AES/MADI/Embed and De-Embed functions with Frame Sync capabilities. The cards feature two gigabit Ethernet ports, a 32x32 or 64x64 configuration, and a full audio router mixer.

The DANTE capability can also be available on Cobalt’s 9904-UDX/9905-MPx processing cards for maximum functionality and flexibility.

COBALT WAVE 12G-SDI Routers and Control Panel - Flexible, Easy to Use and Integrate
Multi-Format COBALT WAVE Routers from SD to 4K
The COBALT WAVE family of routers are flexible, simple to use and easily integrated into any variety of applications with support for signals up to 12G-SDI. At NAB 2024, the recently released 32x32 crosspoint solution is being highlighted. The new unit fits into a 4U frame, same as the COBALT WAVE RTR-64x64. Both feature full-size BNC connectors, have a single 10/100/1000 Ethernet port for IP-based control, and offer RP-168 switching support. The web-based control allows full setup, salvos, monitoring, and preset management. This compact design is specifically optimized for 12G SDI operation but handles lower SDI rates with ease, as well as ASI and MADI. Cobalt routers feature an open modern control API for third party integration, as well as support for traditional control protocols.

Cobalt’s WAVE 9942-RTR 12x12 and 9942-RTR 24x24 routers in openGear form factor are at show as well.

COBALT WAVE Control Panels now Available in 4 Configurations
Control of the COBALT WAVE routers is accomplished by Cobalt’s growing line of control panels developed to accommodate the WAVE router family. At NAB the COBALT WAVE CP-44 and COBALT WAVE CP-42L are joining the existing 78 and 84L button panels. The COBALT WAVE CP-44 features 44 back-lit buttons while the COBALT WAVE CP-42L features 42 back-lit LCD dot matrix display buttons. The WAVE panels allow different setups to be stored and recalled from the browser to provide extremely flexible operations. After customizing the panel, simply upload the configuration to a different panel for rapid changes on the network. The control panels are easily customizable for almost any application using Lua scripts.