Don’t Miss NAB NY 25 Recap – MultiDyne – Haivision – Live Video Production – Private 5G – Fiber Optics – Audio Monitoring

[Speaker 2] (0:01 – 0:19)

Hello everyone, I’m Jim Jachetta, a CTO of VidOvation. We are a proud partner and representative of Multidyne, an amazing fiber optic brand, but you guys do so much more than fiber. I’m here with Matt at NAB New York.

 

So what’s new here, Matt? What do you got new at the show?

 

[Speaker 1] (0:19 – 0:51)

Yes, so our NanoBricks product line of throw-down converters, we have a new look to most of them and some new models. So specifically what we’re showing here is we have a 12G to HDMI converter product with an optical option. It also does a 5.1 down mix. So there’s a 10 gig media converter, which you can also do over fiber, which can also do PoE++ to get power.

 

[Speaker 2] (0:53 – 0:58)

So it can feed power to other devices upstream? Correct. Or downstream?

 

Correct. Oh, very cool.

 

[Speaker 1] (0:58 – 1:17)

And then this is an upgrade to the fiber converter. It was 12G in a different style enclosure, but we kind of have a new rugged look. And soon to come, which was also part of the updates to the line, was a new frame that you can have for redundant power and rack mounts.

 

[Speaker 2] (1:18 – 1:33)

So you can mount your little throw-downs, your little NanoBricks into a common chassis with… Does that have redundant power, like dual power? That’s correct.

 

Oh, very cool, very cool. That’s cool.

 

[Speaker 1] (1:33 – 2:35)

So that’s the NanoBricks. Okay. I’ll come around this way.

 

Next, I’ll show you we have a product line called the Versabricks. It’s called a VB series, and this is a line of highly customizable signal transport over fiber. Highly configurable, meaning you could tell us what signal you need combination, and we can mix that, and it’ll all come out over a single mode fiber.

 

We have different box sizes, so we have a two card slot that’s not shown here, a four card, six cards, and this one will do ten cards. And again, the combination of signals, whatever your application calls for, we can put that together, and it’ll all come out over one fiber, ST, LC. We also have options for Neutrik Opticalcon or LEMO, where we can actually power the unit remotely, and then even give, if it’s going to a camera or an accessory, we can give power to that as well via PoE or 12 volt like DTAP or like a 2.5 millimeter connection.

 

[Speaker 2] (2:35 – 2:48)

If I recall, you guys have a really cool wizard on your website, right? So you pick the size of frame you want, and then you can decide the little individual cards, right? They’re plug-in cards?

 

Correct.

 

[Speaker 1] (2:48 – 2:57)

It’s not pluggable in the field in this platform, however, the configurator allows you to build the system you need. It’ll show you a manufacturer.

 

[Speaker 2] (2:58 – 2:58)

Correct.

 

[Speaker 1] (2:58 – 3:12)

So it’s pluggable in the manufacturing sense. And one part number then for the units, so that ordering is easy. Oh, so you give it a unique SKU, so when I need to order it again, it’ll always be that part number.

 

[Speaker 2] (3:12 – 3:12)

It’s always saved.

 

[Speaker 1] (3:12 – 4:31)

It’s easier for you to track if you ever need to send it in for a repair or anything, you’ll have just one part number to simplify that. Very cool. That also would include a button to push if you want to get pricing.

 

It’ll go to the appropriate regional salesperson. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So we’re kind of moving into another product.

 

This is called the Versaframe or the VF9000. Similar concept, but it’s a frame that has the optics actually external, so the power there is gives you the ability to change signal directionality or how your fiber count works. So for example, today you could do 36 channels over two fibers.

 

Tomorrow you could do 20 send, 18 receive over 36 fibers. And that’s just as simply as using, swapping the SFPs, the transmits with the receives on the opposite side. And then as far as the fiber count goes, you can either plug in fibers directly if you want to do like a video per fiber, or you can get a model where there’s either one or two 18 channel multiplexers built inside.

 

So then you just easily route the fibers from the SFPs into the multiplexer and they come out on one or two common fibers.

 

[Speaker 2] (4:32 – 4:47)

I think you were telling me earlier, like so the SFPs, everyone thinks of optical SFPs, so you could do like a dual transmit SFP, a dual receive, transmit, receive, or they make copper. They even make copper. Mini SDIs, right?

 

[Speaker 1] (4:47 – 4:48)

Absolutely, yeah.

 

[Speaker 2] (4:49 – 4:56)

So you don’t have to go back to Multidyn to customize it. You just buy the different flavors of SFPs.

 

[Speaker 1] (4:57 – 5:34)

Yeah, nothing proprietary about our optics. So yeah, as long as it’s, you know, SMPTE compliant. The other thing I should mention too is all of the copper IOs on the back, but it’s not just SDI.

 

Even though we do do 12G and 3G, we also have HDMI. We can do sync. We can do CBBS analog, and very soon 10G ethernet, 1G ethernet, PoE++, and very soon we’ll be able to do audio as well as serial data.

 

Cards that are about to be released.

 

[Speaker 2] (5:34 – 5:49)

Yeah, as a systems integrator, we kind of bridge the broadcast and the ProAV world. So having HDMI and SDI on the same chassis, I’m thinking of applications already, and you kind of bridge both of those worlds as well.

 

[Speaker 1] (5:49 – 6:43)

We do, we do. We’ve been very fortunate. There’s been, in the last several years, a convergence of the broadcast workflows into ProAV projects, and we’ve seen a lot of that in the last year.

 

We’ve had a very good past year, our best in company history actually, and a big part of that is a lot of projects that we’ve done with some very cool companies, some I can’t really name, but a lot of big tech companies, a lot of major house of worship applications. Enterprise. Yeah, we call it Enterprise Broadcast, or Broadcast AV, or the buzzwords, but yeah, absolutely.

 

It’s been very cool to see how our functionalities and requirements are appearing in these types of projects nowadays.

 

[Speaker 2] (6:44 – 7:04)

Yeah, and then I think that’s a great segue, you know, some of our viewers may not know this, but you know, large sensor cameras, cinematic cameras, bringing those into a live workflow, they weren’t really designed for that. Correct. So that’s a great segue into your whole product category.

 

[Speaker 1] (7:04 – 7:54)

So we live in live worlds, that’s our bread and butter, and this is the Silverback, and the Silverback is a product that can take your cinematic camera and for, you know, multi-cam applications, essentially turn your student’s cinematic camera into a broadcast workflow. So, you know, those cameras aren’t equipped with things like Tally, you know, different broadcast workflow things that are needed, you know, for live, but don’t exist in that camera. What this does is it mounts to the back of that camera’s battery plate and passes the power, so you have SMPTE power, much like a studio camera would, and gives you that additional signal functionality into the system.

 

[Speaker 2] (7:54 – 8:06)

Yeah, and a cinematic camera typically would not have a SMPTE or an optical con, you know, air quotes broadcast optical or hybrid connector, so you’re the adapter.

 

[Speaker 1] (8:07 – 8:11)

We’re enhancing that functionality so that you can have kind of the best of both worlds.

 

[Speaker 2] (8:12 – 8:25)

Yeah, I mean, you call it the Silverback, but it is a fiber-optic camera back. Correct. And there’s different versions, I mean, you do go on broadcast style camera as well, but cinematic is really the wheelhouse where you really need it.

 

[Speaker 1] (8:25 – 9:18)

The history was really in, like, EMG cameras, which was really when we first, probably, let’s see, at least 10 years, maybe 15 years now, we’ve been shipping the Silverback, and it was initially for EMG applications, but as luck would have it, it’s evolved, and yet primarily in, I would say, all cinema and house of worship applications, primarily. Awesome, awesome. So this is cool, this is a version that has a smaller base station, the Versabricks I mentioned before, it has a smaller base, because when we first debuted the product, and we still sell a lot of, there’s a 2RU base station that supports two cameras, it has two slots for open gear cards, a lot of bells and whistles, which a lot of our customers need.

 

[Speaker 2] (9:18 – 9:22)

But I’m not doing two cameras in my little van, you know, or what, so it’s overkill.

 

[Speaker 1] (9:23 – 10:41)

And you need to be able to, you know, run and gun a bit, this gives you the ability to, you know, simplify that production. So that’s one option, but what’s really cool is, with a lot of our products, we have cross-compatibility, and we are open gear partners, we’re premier leader partners, I think we were the ninth partner in open gear, and all of our products, to some degree, are made to be able to speak to open gear. So you can have open gear in your frame, with one of our cards, speaking to a throwdown with your Versabricks, with your PTZ, you could have it working with your Versaframe, with our Nanobricks, and a couple other products I hadn’t mentioned yet, like our Honey Badger.

 

So Honey Badger, I love that name, it sounds so badass, it absolutely is. It doesn’t care what the application is. So the Honey Badger is kind of like a VB of steroids, with mic preamps, and two to four wire converters for two wire intercom.

 

But primarily stadium and venue applications.

 

[Speaker 2] (10:42 – 10:47)

So it has the Versabricks, plus some more intercom hooks.

 

[Speaker 1] (10:48 – 11:04)

It’s just that signal flexibility in a small form factor. For years, we would come out with new products, and we might have like, this product can do this config, this one can do that, and now you got six boxes to achieve everything you need.

 

[Speaker 2] (11:04 – 11:07)

So the Badger is an integration of all those solutions together.

 

[Speaker 1] (11:08 – 11:08)

Exactly.

 

[Speaker 2] (11:08 – 11:32)

I think you were telling me earlier, a great application with the truck bay at a stadium, right? Yeah. So you’d have one of these in the interface panel where the trucks are, and then you could have open gear carts in the press box or in the control room.

 

Correct. You know, upstairs in the stadium. Exactly.

 

Or if they want a Honey Badger in the rack room, you could match them up.

 

[Speaker 1] (11:32 – 11:53)

You could have Honey Badger to Honey Badger, but when space is a premium in the rack, having open gear to be able to, you know, to have a higher density, higher density, higher density, and you might already have that frame. You’re using it for something else there. And oh, by the way, with your system, now we just need to occupy a couple of those slots, and we can connect your Honey Badger there.

 

[Speaker 2] (11:53 – 12:19)

Yeah, I mean, innovation as a systems integrator, I love the open gear frame. So, you know, obviously, if I’m doing fiber, I’m going to put a bunch of multi-line cards in there. If I’m doing encoders, I might throw a couple of Cobalt encoders in there, get cards from Ross, and, you know, not to be an infomercial for open gear, but you wouldn’t be part of it if you didn’t believe in the whole interoperability and whatnot.

 

[Speaker 1] (12:19 – 12:33)

We see the power, it’s growing, you know, and something that where the frame already exists somewhere is so powerful that they don’t have to invest in that, you know, frame, just knowing that they have to add a couple of our cards because they’ve already got it is very powerful.

 

[Speaker 2] (12:33 – 12:44)

Yeah, I mean, clients will be like, oh, I got a great brand for you, so oh, so I have another interoperable, a rack that’s not interoperable, I got to throw in my rack, I don’t have any more real estate, particularly in a truck, right?

 

[Speaker 1] (12:45 – 12:47)

Real estate is very tight. Absolutely.

 

[Speaker 2] (12:47 – 12:58)

And then you were saying that the bigger silver back, camera back, a base station, it has one or two open gear compatible slots?

 

[Speaker 1] (12:58 – 13:52)

Correct. So it has two slots, which can be used for basically anything that you could want to use, a multi-viewer, some customers put DAs in there, but the primary reason that we actually put it in there is because we came out with a 2110 gateway card. So if you want to then take all of your signal functionality from your silver back and put it onto your network, we have a open gear card for 2110, we also have one for JPEG access, and different, depending on your signal counts, different combinations for 10 gig and 25 gig networks, that can be in increments like 4×4, it could be 3×3, 1×1, 2-channel, 1-direction, in different combinations, and those are for either a 10 gig or 25 gig network.

 

[Speaker 2] (13:53 – 14:17)

So I have my cinematic camera, put the Multidyne silver back on it to get me my live workflow, hybrid optical con or SMPTE cable to my base station, but now my truck or my infrastructure SMPTE 2110, I put this card in the base station, now I’m IP, now I’m 2110 compatible.

 

[Speaker 1] (14:17 – 14:38)

Exactly. Pretty cool, pretty cool. Absolutely, absolutely.

 

So that’s a very powerful story for our continuing to add to open gear and our eventual path into our future of 2110, as we do plan to start introducing more and more products that will have IP ready.

 

[Speaker 2] (14:39 – 14:56)

You touched on it briefly, we were talking about it earlier, this particular year in question, you were saying there’s some special, this was your best year ever, right? Yes, yes. 49 years?

 

I said 45, I should know this. Yes.

 

[Speaker 1] (14:56 – 15:23)

It’s 49 years. It is 49 years. Wow.

 

Next year is the big 5.0. So yeah, it’s very exciting. I mean Multidyne has seen a lot of growth in the last few years. As a matter of fact, every year we’ve kind of been topping the year before, so it’s been a really good ride, but this year in particular is really, really blown up.

 

I mean, we were already having our best year and we still have a couple months to go and a few more projects to go.

 

[Speaker 2] (15:23 – 15:25)

If the year ended today, you’d still be your best year.

 

[Speaker 1] (15:25 – 15:25)

We’d still be happy.

 

[Speaker 2] (15:25 – 15:54)

That’s a pretty good position heading into Q4. Absolutely. To be in.

 

Absolutely. Yeah, and then, you know, some people were like, well, everything is IP now, but where the camera is, you may not have a IP connection, or what code am I going to use? So do you think it’s here to stay that you guys are covering converting the IP at the base station, you’re still going to need a fiber cable, a robust cable?

 

[Speaker 1] (15:55 – 16:26)

Yeah, I think where we live very much on the edge, you know, we’re still very much in a bit of a hybrid world. So, you know, SDI, you know, we’re still seeing plenty of customers that need that address. So, you know, we’re feeling good about that.

 

But, you know, smart enough to realize that, you know, things are heading in a different direction in some ways. So, you know, we’ll continue to service our customers with our current solutions. But, you know, the more we grow, the more we’re expanding in our offerings.

 

[Speaker 2] (16:26 – 16:34)

Well, I mean, what do they say? Follow the money, the proof is in the money. There’s still a place for this.

 

[Speaker 1] (16:34 – 16:53)

We try not to wag the dog, you know, we like to look and see where things are headed. And, you know, sometimes things are, you know, trends and fads and, you know, who knows. But, you know, with what we’re seeing, you know, I think we’re confident that we’re headed in the right direction for, you know, things that are here to stay.

 

[Speaker 2] (16:53 – 17:08)

So, well, Vitovation, we’re proud to represent the Multidyne products. We’re an extension of the team. Absolutely.

 

So, how’s the show been for you guys?

 

[Speaker 1] (17:08 – 17:10)

You guys have been busy. It’s been very busy here today.

 

[Speaker 2] (17:10 – 17:24)

I had trouble finding, it’s a little bit of a lull right now, so I grabbed Matt to shoot this video. So, yes, thank you so much. And, oh, yeah, you’re now our sales guy.

 

[Speaker 1] (17:24 – 17:37)

Yes, so I am the director of sales operations in Western US sales. So, if you’re seeing this and you’re a Vitovation customer, please know I’m your guy, can answer any questions.

 

[Speaker 2] (17:38 – 17:57)

Yeah, yeah, because we’re based in Anaheim. Even if we’re doing a project in New York, it’s where the integrator or partner is based. So, yes, we’re happy to, I’m happy to have my brother, brother from another mother, Matt, work with.

 

I’m gonna miss Jesse. Yes. But, you know, maybe we’ll do some webinars with Jesse.

 

[Speaker 1] (17:57 – 18:25)

Oh, absolutely. You won’t cut me off from Jesse completely. No, absolutely not.

 

In fact, you know, in Jesse’s new role, it’s really an enhancement of what he’s really great at with products. So, you know, Jesse’s gonna still be out in the field a lot, if not more, than he already was, you know, kind of learning and talking, working very closely with customers. So, he’s still, you know, our go-to for, you know, very specific product presentations.

 

[Speaker 2] (18:26 – 18:26)

Yeah.

 

[Speaker 1] (18:26 – 18:28)

So, you’ll be seeing more of Jesse, if anything.

 

[Speaker 2] (18:29 – 18:44)

Clients really like that, too. I like that, too. It makes my job easier where clients that talk to their customers.

 

We want feedback. You know, how do we improve the product? How do we make, we have great customer service now.

 

How do we make it even better? Or what new services do you need? Exactly.

 

[Speaker 1] (18:44 – 18:44)

Yeah.

 

[Speaker 2] (18:44 – 18:54)

And you’ll never hear a bad thing about multi-line. People just, just love it. And has employee number one retired yet?

 

No.

 

[Speaker 1] (18:54 – 19:12)

Carmelo Basile still works at, employee number one. Employee number one. I, I like to embarrass Carmelo when I get the chance on calls.

 

And remind him that Carmelo started working at Multi-Dine the year I was born. Oh, wow. Yes.

 

Wow. I’ve been with Multi-Dine, it’ll be 18 years in January.

 

[Speaker 2] (19:13 – 19:22)

Well, so my, my joke with, with younger people is, my first car would be older than you are now. My first car was born when you were born.

 

[Speaker 1] (19:22 – 19:22)

Yes.

 

[Speaker 2] (19:23 – 19:23)

Wow.

 

[Speaker 1] (19:23 – 19:25)

Yeah, I had a 78 Trans Am.

 

[Speaker 2] (19:25 – 19:28)

Oh, you were born in 78? My car was born, my first car was born then.

 

[Speaker 1] (19:29 – 19:29)

Wow.

 

[Speaker 2] (19:29 – 19:39)

Wow. Well, cool. Well, great.

 

I’m glad to hear Multi-Dine’s doing well. You guys have been very busy here at the show. So, we’ll see you soon in, in, in Vegas, right?

 

You guys will be there.

 

[Speaker 1] (19:39 – 19:49)

At least in Vegas. But we’re, we’re, we’re everywhere. We’ll be traveling.

 

We have some new shows we’re doing. A lot more customer visits.

 

[Speaker 2] (19:50 – 19:55)

You guys are on LinkedIn all the time. Absolutely. To me, it seems like you guys are doing every show.

 

[Speaker 1] (19:55 – 19:56)

Globally. We’re trying.

 

[Speaker 2] (19:56 – 19:58)

We’re trying. Yes. I think it’s working.

 

[Speaker 1] (19:58 – 20:21)

If this is your best year, I think it’s working. I think so too. It’s been, it’s been really exciting to jump into areas that we weren’t before, both, you know, regionally and just, you know, different markets.

 

So we’re doing, we have plans for a lot more shows even in the coming year. So, so a lot more good stuff to come. Well, thanks so much, Matt.

 

It’s great to see you. Absolutely. Thank you.

 

Have a safe trip home. Thank you very much. Take care.

 

[Speaker 2] (20:21 – 20:21)

Bye.