NAB 2025: Cobalt expands line of IPMX-compliant products

Cobalt has announced plans to bring more IPMX-compliant solutions to NAB 2025. The company’s Sapphire mini converters and Pacific encoders will both be shown enhanced with support for IPMX and enriched with an array of new functionalities. Additionally, Cobalt’s UltraBlue IP-MV multiviewer will be shown with new tools, and Aria audio monitors will be added to the Aria line.

The Sapphire BBG series of mini converters deliver high-quality design, function, and reliability in a small package. The units are suitable for directly displaying incoming IPMX content on HDMI monitors, including content originating from a WAN connection, or for converting from HDMI to compressed or baseband IPMX streams.

The converters are available in single, dual, and quad-channel configurations, with some models capable of simultaneously transmitting and receiving. They feature dual SFP cages with support for 10G and 25G Ethernet ports, audio sample rate conversion, and the receiving units can mix-and-match audio channels without time base synchronisation with the video.  

The Cobalt Pacific 9992-ENC is a flexible MPEG-2/AVC/HEVC encoder, capable of handling up to four signals up to 1080p60, or one 4K signal.  New for NAB 2025, Pacific now offers full support for ST 2110-20 (baseband) and an ST 2110-22 option for JPEG-XS video. Each of the four channels can be individually selected between SDI and ST 2110. In addition, support is included for full asynchronous operation (IPMX-compatible) or IPMX operation in the Indigo 2110-DC-02 factory-installed option for SMPTE ST 2110.

Pacific now offers support for up to two essences of ST 2110-30 (audio); each essence can have up to 16 channels of audio, and the product offers the ability to mix and match channels. Support for asynchronous audio/video operation has been added as has support for ST 2110-40 (ancillary data). Dual SFP cages for ST 2022-7 seamless switching, supporting both 10Gb/s and 25Gb/s interfaces.

The combination of the Pacific 9992-ENC with the ST 2110 input interface option creates an integrated solution that can be directly deployed in an IPMX 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, ST 2110 and IPMX feeds in the same device provides even greater flexibility.

The new ultra-flexible Cobalt Aria AUD-MON audio monitor supports a wide range of inputs including: 2xSDI up to 12G or MADI, 2 SFP for SDI over fibre, AES, balanced analogue audio, and GPI for automation. Features include a live video thumbnail, SDI output for monitoring, individual channel volume controls for mixing, and is configurable from the front panel with a touch display or through a web interface.

The 4in deep, 4lb monitor fits in 1RU and can be powered from the control Ethernet port (PoE++), as well as external redundant power supplies.

Cobalt is also showcasing the Aria OG-AUD4-Dante bidirectional audio embedder/de-embedder router card with 12G, SDI, MADI, AES, and Dante inputs and outputs.

New features for the UltraBlue IP-MV multiviewer, a software-based multiviewer for compressed and baseband streams over IP that can also be available as a turn-key server, will also be on show. Features include support for receiving audio/video content over IP across a variety of protocols and formats with very flexible audio routing, bringing a multitude of options to suit every application.

The intuitive web interface incorporates support for compressed and baseband (ST 2110 and/or SDI) inputs and multiple outputs allowing the multiviewer to grow alongside customers’ needs.

Mosaic configurations are simplified with arbitrary sizes and orientations, graphic overlays, ancillary data, tallies, UMDs and IDs. PIPs can also be arbitrarily placed and rotated, PIP configurations can be easily copied, and setups can be saved and restored.  UltraBlue IP-MV will drive multiple HDMI displays in any orientation (landscape or portrait, selectable per-display).

The Cobalt UltraBlue IP-MV incorporates support for the most common types of ancillary data, including various types of closed-captioning display.  The multiviewer features full audio support, with flexible output audio routing and fully configurable audio bars.