Traditional category runs are cheap, easy to use, and can provide Power over Ethernet (PoE) up to 100 Watts. While copper has always been reliable cabling, it suffers from signal interference as well as length and bandwidth limitations. To keep things short, 4K and 8K video signals carry massive amounts of bandwidth, and copper can only carry these signals short distances, even heavily compressed.

Now, more than ever, it makes sense to run fiber alongside traditional category runs. Fear not! Many advancements in fiber production technology have made fiber optic cable safer, more resilient, and more cost-effective. Although currently unable to carry power, fiber optics don’t suffer from EMI or RFI signal interference. Running duplex OM3, allows for 40Gbps Video Signal and 100Gigbit Ethernet up to 100 meters. Traditional 10.2Gbps Video Signals and 10Gigabit Ethernet can be extended further at over 300 meters.

​This article is apart of a continuing year long series that highlights the people and experience of those that have worked closely with the Imaging Science Foundation for years. If you missed the last opening article from last month start here.

We have accomplished much over the years, and I have personally been recognized, awarded and written about for years - that is certainly not the whole story.  The untold story is the years of hard work of many other ISF instructors who have made this possible. I have not done this alone, and it is time many of them have been given a voice. This is the first of a year long series where you will here from some of the top calibrators working alongside ISF, we hope you enjoy.   -ISF Founder, Joel Silver

This month we will hear from Hartmut Berberich...

I first became aware of Murideo products during an ISF Level II Training class several years ago. That was where I was first introduced to the Murideo SIX G Signal/Pattern Generator - and its companion - the Murideo SIX A Signal Analyzer. I quickly learned that if I wanted to calibrate a display device accurately and efficiently or effectively troubleshoot a problematic 18Gbps connection chain, the Murideo SIX G and SIX A tandem was the preeminent and indispensable tools to have on hand.

To this day, I still use both regularly for performing a variety of test-and-measurement procedures, including signal integrity/verification, troubleshooting - and of course - display calibration.

However, I recently started using a new and extraordinarily powerful test-and-measurement tool; and as the saying goes: “There’s a new sheriff in town.”

​Working closely and in conjunction with major format originators, A/V manufacturers, and standards associations - the SEVEN Generator represents the culmination of intense R&D and unparalleled design excellence.  The SEVEN is a formidable, quantum-leap behemoth that packs an amazing array of tools and capabilities. These tools and features warp the SEVEN G into an entirely new universe of A/V Test and Measurement. It literally creates a new market category, and it accomplishes it all without breaking the bank, your bank.

The SEVEN Generator is the A/V Test & Measurement Appliance that everyone has been clamoring for, so let’s take a closer look. Below is just a sample of the tools and tests available. ALL IN ONE BOX!

The Murideo SEVEN G is truly GROUNDBREAKING. Whether you are an A/V equipment manufacturer, an OEM, an electrical engineer, a professional calibrator, or an integrator/installer/dealer, you will discover a plethora of features and functions that will:

1. Dramatically improve testing profiles, processes, and efficiencies.
2. Identify and correct audio latency issues.
3. Provide state of the art video calibrations.
4. Enhance picture quality evaluations, including timing, color, contrast, and HDR signals.

Finally, the SEVEN G is designed to be FUTURE RESISTANT (it already supports HDMI 2.1 standards and requirements), and it’s not stopping there. This marvel will ultimately play a key role in creating a better future for the A/V industry with vastly improved and more capable and stable products rolling off the assembly line.

I hope you will take a closer look at this impressive and powerful A/V Test & Measurement machine and pick one up for yourself!

For more in-depth information regarding the capabilities for the SEVEN G, please download the User Manual at www.murideo.com/SEVEN-G.

Tech Tips are written directly by the Murideo's Tech Support Team. With years of experience seeing every HDMI signal available and working with hundreds of different products, the support team picks up helpful knowledge talking to Integrators, calibrators and electronics manufacturers around the world. This series is aimed to share that knowledge. Here is this month tech tip:

Uncompressed Video distribution can be hard; Passive Copper HDMI cables falter with distance and HDMI extension methods suffer from bandwidth limitations. The Answer? Active Optical Cables of course!

What are Active Optical Cables (AOC)?
AOC HDMI Cables are uncompressed HDMI Cables capable of running 100 Meters due to 4 Strands of Fiber over the TMDS Lanes which carry Audio and Video signals. BUT not all AOC cables are made the same, just like anything some manufactures will take short cuts in the engineering and development areas. Many AOC cables require external power or worse, use Plastic Optical Fiber used in TosLink cables, a known poor quality fiber type not ready for high bandwidth signaling. These lower quality products will take up space with extra power supplies and often are unable to reach 18Gbps bandwidths, which is need for HDR and high frame rate video. 

The Solution!
The Bullet Train 10K AOC HDMI Ultra High Speed Cable is capable of uncompressed 48Gbps signaling and requires no external power supply. Bullet Train 10K AOC cables use Cleerline SSF OM2 Glass Fiber, and high quality fiber that is safe to terminate in the field. This means if we ever move past HDMI as a delivery method you can always cut off the heads of the cable and easily terminate the 4 individual fiber runs located inside the cable shielding. Not only future proofing your runs but allowing them to serve multiple distribution purposes.

This article is apart of a continuing year long series that highlights the people and experience of those that have worked closely with the Imaging Science Foundation for years. If you missed the last opening article from last month start here.

We have accomplished much over the years, and I have personally been recognized, awarded and written about for years - that is certainly not the whole story.  The untold story is the years of hard work of many other ISF instructors who have made this possible. I have not done this alone, and it is time many of them have been given a voice. This is the first of a year long series where you will here from some of the top calibrators working alongside ISF, we hope you enjoy.   -ISF Founder, Joel Silver

This month we will hear from Julien Berry...

When asked to write up my experiences and memories with ISF, two things came up, one humorous and then something I consider very important, let’s explore both.
​
First Humorous
During the very first ISF class I gave in Paris back in 2006, one of my journalist friends noticed that I often wear black clothes. Now this has nothing to do with the fact that Joel always wears black clothes as well. I have always been this way since I was a teenager. I replied that day and still do ever since that it is a very convenient way to ensure a good contrast ratio and black level for the systems I am dealing with. No interferences. It is also a way to advocate dark environment to improve the viewing experience.

AVPro Academy consists of 2 days day of learning the fundamentals of Audio and Video in residential and commercial environments. During day 1 we cover everything from system design to troubleshooting. We dissect HDMI and learn how to troubleshoot small to large distributed A/V systems. Day 2 is all about display calibration and learning the core fundamentals on how to make a display look it’s best. My favorite part of AVPro Academy is always the hands-on activities. The students in this class learned how to use the Murideo tools to test the bandwidth on various HDMI cables, test devices for HDCP compliance, read and emulate EDID, and some valuable troubleshooting skills. Steve from Cleerline stopped by and gave a great demo on fiber optics. The class learned about the great benefits of using fiber as the A/V backbone, and by the end of the class some of the students themselves were terminating fiber in less than a minute. For the rest of the hands on activities we had some great tools and displays to practice with, including LG and Sony OLEDs, a Sony Z9 LED/LCD, JVC projector, a 2x2 video wall, and light meters from Xrite, Klein, Portrait Displays, and Jeti, and of course AVPro Edge distribution and Murideo HDMI testing products.
 
This particular AVPro Academy class had a wide variety of students…some who were brand new to the A/V industry, and some with as much as 30 years experience. We even had a Home Theater enthusiast who wanted to learn about calibrating his displays at his own home. It is not uncommon to meet students in class with all kinds of different backgrounds. Broadcasters, manufacturers, post production, colorists, writers, and TV reviewers are just some examples.
 
Most of the students stayed for the second day to learn about display calibration. This is a service very near and dear to my heart as I am a videophile who is always chasing the perfect picture. Learning this skill as an integrator is valuable and can set you apart from your competitors. Consumers want to maximize the potential of their system, and learning this skill will help with that. Integrators use the skills they learn to sell better systems and to maximize customer service, which in turn maximizes profits. Everyone who attends day 2 of class gets to learn the basics of ISF calibration, including an introduction to different display technologies, hands on with the tools that are used for calibration, and a temporary CalMAN license so they can go home and practice calibrating. Everyone who attends class and takes the ISF Level 1 exam earns a certificate and is listed on the ISF website as a certified dealer (imagingscience.com/dealers). CEDIA and AVIXA members are also awarded CEUs for attending AVPro Academy.
 
One class down and several more to go in 2020! If you would like more information on class dates and locations, feel free to give us a call at 605.274.6055 or you can always visit our training site at avpro.training. Thanks and I hope to see you in 2020!

Find more information at https://www.avpro.training/avpro-academy.html
AVPro Academy is an AVIXA and CEDIA certified course, earning you credit hours. 

I started the ISF with a simple but radical idea at the time. I wanted to build a network of professionals that would adjust home TVs to accurately display the intent of creative artists and film directors.
​
The initial focus was high-end residential integrators. Our success in that market was the result of meeting business owners with wonderful relationships with affluent clients. They were driven to install systems that would sound better and look better than anything their clients had ever seen before. We met most early ISF dealers through CEDIA and found many like-minded supporters there. Their clients saw vastly superior TV pictures and had the ability to afford them, and we were launched.

We soon discovered volumes of manufacturer’s technical staff that understood what we were doing and would support our efforts. With them we were able to design TVs that could be easily calibrated in the field. That brought ISF features to millions of mainstream TVs. I never thought that could be possible for a radical idea.
​
​​Studios were using consumer TVs as “client monitors”, and I soon found volumes of content creation professionals becoming ISF calibrators. That brought the concept full circle. There are now many thousands of professionals whose everyday work is faithful to the intent of artists and directors.

-Joel Silver, Founder of the Imaging Science Foundation

If you want to be a consumer electronics professional, where is your sphere of influence? Let’s explore the entire process. You will see where you fit in and how critical to the industry your role has become.

The entire artistic process is a series of optical and electronic “Transfer Functions”. Think of a digital signal coming into your TV, and then light comes out. That’s one kind of transfer function.  Let’s follow the steps that deliver the intent of the director to viewers.

1. A very common first transfer function in this creative process is when light enters the lens of a digital camera deployed by artists and an electronic signal comes out. That kind of transfer function begins with optics (called OETF, optical electronic transfer function).
2. That electronic signal from the camera is then plugged into a studio monitor. A second transfer function happens when the electronic signal enters the monitor and light comes out. (That transfer function begins with electronics - it is called EOTF). Those monitors must all be calibrated so they can be reliably used by artists in multiple locations at multiple time slots to edit and create content. Calibrating the monitor is science. Using the monitor to create content is of course an art.
3. That creative content is completed by artists and colorists in post-production using calibrated monitors, and then sent as an electronic signal to multiple markets. It might be shown theatrically, streamed, downloaded, on disc or broadcasted.
4. To be experienced as intended in every market, every display in every market must be calibrated to the same standard as the content was created in.
   ​
   

​If seen in homes, that is where our consumer electronics ISF professionals come in. They insure the very last transfer function (EOTF) is done properly. The electronic signal only becomes the light the artists and directors intended if home TVs are calibrated! TVs out of the box are not designed to do this accurately – successfully completing the entire creative process in homes is your sphere of influence!

We have accomplished much over the years, and I have personally been recognized, awarded and written about for years - that is certainly not the whole story.  The untold story is the years of hard work of many other ISF instructors who have made this possible. I have not done this alone, and it is time many of them have been given a voice. This is the first of a year long series where you will here from some of the top calibrators working alongside ISF, we hope you enjoy.

This month we will hear from Kevin Miller...

I was involved in the creation of the ISF with Joel Silver dating back to the spring of 1993 when working at The Perfect Vision as the Publisher and CEO. The idea that Joel so eloquently described was spawned over cocktails one evening at an InfoComm show in New Orleans. A little over a year later, in February of 1994, Joel launched his company with the first ever ISF seminar at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City. I was at that seminar as a student with my Philips color analyzer in hand.

I started my company, ISFTV, in February of 2001. Later that year, I co-instructed a seminar with Joel that followed the CEDIA show in Indianapolis. Day two of the seminar, as fate would have it, was on 9/11/2001. We had a very large group of nearly 60 students who were all quite shaken by the morning’s events. Our great friend Stu Kobak, who ran a DVD review web site of his own called Filmsondisc.com, got Joel on the phone and encouraged him to have us finish that seminar even in the face of the horrific events of that day. We did persevere and got the class to the finish line.

Following that 2001 seminar, I spent many years co-instructing ISF seminars with Joel all over North America, which was a great learning experience. Joel helped launch my company as he has done for many small businesses all over the world. I am proud to have been a part of the creation of the Imaging Science Foundation, and continue to work closely with Joel and a number of talented technicians all over the country, furthering the goal of delivering the artist’s (Director’s) intent to consumer’s television screens. I have also been heavily involved for many years on the professional side of our industry, now supporting over 60 Post Production facilities with my professional calibration services and technical consulting in the New York Tri-state area. I have also been providing technical and product development consulting to TV and video source manufacturers since 2003.

Kevin Miller
ISFTV
Email: kevin@isftv.com
Web site: www.isftv.com

​They say a craftsman is only as good as his tools, and that couldn't be more true when it comes to calibrating displays. The whole point of calibrating a display is to test it against a known standard with extreme precision and accuracy. In some cases (such as post-production) an inaccurate display can disrupt the workflow of the project. This ultimately costs time, money, and frustration amongst the people who are doing everything they can to finish the project on time.

Today there are hundreds and hundreds of test patterns available to set up and calibrate displays. The SEVEN Generator is packed full of test patterns from the best in the business. We included patterns from ISF, Digital Video Solutions, the Professional Video Alliance, Spears and Munsil, Bill Wetzel, and some of our own Murideo patterns as well. You will never run out of test patterns with the SEVEN! If you have custom test patterns, reference images, or videos that you like to use, feel free to upload custom material with our Uploader Software.

​Lip sync errors are painfully apparent in any A/V system. These issues have plagued integrators and calibrators for years, and until now, there has not been a calibration tool that allows you to measure lip sync. Now with the SEVEN Generator, you can not only calibrate the audio and the video but also easily measure for lip sync. These issues are hard to track down and are notorious for causing troubleshooting calls and truck rolls. Adding lip sync testing to your calibration ensures these issues don't show up after you leave the job site, and puts you ahead of your competitors.

​HFR (High Frame Rate) is right around the corner and will make video look smoother than we've ever seen before. Sports fans and gamers are very excited about this, and calibrators need to be able to set the display up correctly for this new, highly anticipated feature. The SEVEN comes stock with native 120fps video material, which makes testing for HFR a breeze.

HFR, along with other features, is part of the brand new HDMI 2.1 spec. There is a lot of talk about HDMI 2.1 right now, and we are seeing products coming with these new high bandwidth connections. Not only does bandwidth increase to 48Gbps with HDMI 2.1, but it also comes with some pretty cool features like eARC. eARC provides much more bandwidth for audio to travel from a display back to an audio source such as an AVR or soundbar. This will allow for fully uncompressed audio, including Dolby Atmos, over the eARC channel which is something the industry has not seen before. As a calibrator, it will be essential to test for these signals to ensure that your customer is getting the highest possible quality audio signal for their system. Easily use the Seven Generator to test for these signals and configure the audio in your customer's system the best way possible.

​Speaking of HDMI 2.1, the SEVEN was built with this new standard in mind. It will come stock with an HDMI 2.0 output, and once available, you will be able to send in your unit and Murideo can upgrade it to HDMI 2.1. Again, something that's the first of its kind and only available from Murideo.

This generator is packed full of features that will make a calibrator's life much easier. This highly advanced tool will ensure that your jobs are completed efficiently and at the highest possible level of quality. Increase customer satisfaction and outshine your competition! For more information visit murideo.com or give us a call at 605.330.8491.

New from Murideo, the SEVEN Generator is unlike any other with extensive audio and video testing capabilities.

Sioux Falls, S.D. - Murideo is proud to present the SEVEN Generator, the next generation in HDMI test and measurement equipment. An approved test device for Dolby Audio™, the SEVEN hosts an unmatched suite of audio and video tests ideal for the video device, display, or repeater manufacturer as well as the consummate video professional. The SEVEN is shipping now with full 4K video capabilities that can be upgraded to 8K in the future (late 2020). This upgrade will include full 48 Gbps speeds, 5, 8, and 10K test patterns, FRL tools, and more. 

Murideo is responsible for the SIX-A Analyzer and DPL Labs certified SIX-G Generator Field Test Suite. Popular among the world’s top integrators and calibrators, the success of these products paved the way for the development of the Seven Generator. The SEVEN is the first low cost alternative HDMI test suite for pre-compliance testing of HDMI 2.x compatible products. A partial list of test tools included is listed below:
​

• Generator – Hardware to support all test functions and interface for microphone and photo diode. HDMI 2.1 Audio, HDMI 2.0 + Video (full 2.1 in 2020 w/upgrade option)
• Protocol Analyzer – PC Software for inline real-time analysis of all HDMI TX & RX traffic – 5V, CEC, HPD, eARC, SDA, SCL – allows parsing, offline file storage, list view and waveform views.
• Data Log – Use the real time clock to analyze historical activity of the device (Export/import)
• PC Software - for controlling the Seven via a PC
• WebOS - interface so tests can be controlled remotely
• Dolby Vision Support for video calibration with CalMAN
• Approved Test Device for Dolby Audio
• Audio Test suite – Audio Signal Generator (HDMI, ARC, eARC), A/V Sync (HDMI), Audio Latency (HDMI, ARC, eARC), Video Latency (HDMI, ARC, eARC) – includes pop-click latency test tools.
• HDR Test Tools – HDR, HDR 10, HDR 10+, HLG and more
• Over 1000 Native 10/12 bit video and BT.2020 color gamut test patterns – plus legacy format patterns
• Includes native patterns from Diversified Video Solutions, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Imaging Science Foundation, Professional Video Alliance, Spears & Munsil and more
• 120 fps video playback
• Upload your own content – Including test patterns, and videos in raw YUV data.  As well as audio streams. 
• High speed USB Interface – for fast file uploads
• Onboard 1.5 TB of available highspeed memory
• Compatible with CalMAN & Light Illusion video calibration packages

This device is the ideal solution for display calibration and evaluation. The test suite allows the user to construct a test signal with any video format and any audio format, then execute a test based on your own parameters and allows for reporting. 
 
The impeccable performance in video generation is just the beginning. The SEVEN was designed with advanced audio testing capabilities, including A/V Sync (Lip Sync), Audio Latency, and Dolby Audio. The Audio Suite of tests is available in HDMI Tx, ARC Tx, and eARC Tx. With additional features like tone generation, frequency sweeps, AV Sync measurements, audio latency measurements, this is an audio swiss army knife. The built-in photo-diode sensor and microphone allow you to get real-time sync and latency measurements from HDMI and ARC/eARC.

The SEVEN Generator is listed at $5,999.00 MSRP and includes a free update to HDMI 2.1 Video (hardware update) and DTS test tool suite (firmware update) later this year. To purchase, evaluate or receive more information, please email info@murideo.com, contact Murideo at 877-886-5112 or visit www.Murideo.com/Seven-G. 

About Murideo
Murideo, an AVPro Global Holdings brand, was created to satisfy the need for modern testing tools in the custom A/V market. Through a depth of knowledge brought on from years of experience in the electronics industry, the team at Murideo has brought cutting edge testing equipment to the world that were previously only available to the elite. The philosophy of Murideo is simple, focus on technology, focus on design, and focus on our users. For more information visit www.Murideo.com or call (877) 886-5112.

Press Contact: 605-782-2471
www.Murideo.com