Flexible Matrix Router

See It

Now you can look at your source before you do a take. The exclusive live thumbnail display in the Avenue Router panel shows you the source before you take it to air.

Take It

It’s the best of both worlds, a router and a clean switch all in one. The clean switch gives you full frame synchronization that locks to your house reference so it can even switch cleanly between asynchronous sources. Flawless audio sample rate conversion makes this router truly Clean and Silent.

Choose Your Size

Then Choose Again. And Again.

Highly flexible matrix sizing lets you decide on your own configuration. The basic size is 8×2. Add user configurable input or output ports all the way up to 28×2 (or 8×22) and any size in between. Need a 12×5 or a 15×15? You choose.

A Router Revolution

The Avenue modular digital video router is the most flexible, technologically advanced small router available today. It’s ideal for QC monitoring, master control bypass switching, ENG trucks, edit suites, and a host of other applications. Ease of expansion, user-definable input/output port geometry, exclusive video thumbnails, built-in test signal generation, and optional clean and quiet switching on multiple outputs make it perfect for your next project or upgrade.

Highly Flexible Matrix

The new, flexible matrix design allows you to configure the router to the perfect size for your facility. The basic size is 8×2. You can add user-configurable input or output ports all the way up to 28×2 (or 8×22) and any size in between. The design is future-proof, allowing the router to be easily reconfigured to a different matrix size at any time.

Exclusive Live Thumbnail Display

Realtime video thumbnails travel over Ethernet to the Router Control Panel where they are displayed on a compact, high resolution display. Video thumbnail generation is an exclusive feature of the Avenue router. This enables the operator to visually verify source content before performing any switching operations. Use the panel at your facility or use it remotely, thousands of miles away.

The Avenue router allows the user to define both source and destination names as part of the configuration process and store them in the router itself. Names are displayed on both the hardware and software control panels along with the video thumbnails.

Clean and Quiet Switching – Done Right

The optional Clean Switch provides full frame synchronization so it can even switch cleanly between asynchronous SDI sources. Use the control system to assign the clean switch to any input or output. Additional ports can be assigned to follow the clean switch, making it appear simultaneously on multiple outputs.

Built-in Signal Diagnostics

Circuitry on the 9430 module detects and measures key parameters associated with each video source. Synchronicity and timing, line and frame rate, embedded audio presence/absence, closed caption information, and time code data are displayed on the Avenue router hardware and software panels. Control panels provide the option of displaying abbreviated information as a thumbnail overlay, or more detailed information as a dedicated screen.

Routing and Signal Processing in the Same Frame

The Avenue product line is comprised of dozens of modules that perform a wide variety of signal generation, processing, and conversion functions. The 3RU Avenue frame accepts up to 10 modules with redundant power and full remote control and monitoring capabilities.

A basic 8×2 Avenue router requires only a single slot in the Avenue frame, or the equivalent of 3/10 of a RU of space. A fully expanded router requires only three slots in the Avenue frame, leaving plenty of room for additional modules. The Avenue router is an excellent choice where space is at a premium and other signal processing and conversion functions are required.

Architecture

The Avenue router occupies from one to three slots in any Avenue 3RU frame. The router is comprised of three different modules: the 9430 8×2 router module, the 9435 clean switch sub module, and the 9440 ten port expansion module. Power (redundant option available), video reference, and an interface to the Avenue control system is provided by the frame.

While the dimensions of the base 9430 router module are fixed at 8 inputs by 2 outputs, the 9440 module provides ten additional ports, each of which is individually user configurable as either an input or an output. Up to two 9440 expansion modules may be added to the base 9430 module. A 9430 plus a single 9440 supports a total of 11 different configurations ranging in size from 18×2 to 8×12. A 9430 plus two 9440 modules supports a total of 21 different configurations from 28×2 to 8×22.

Unparalleled Flexibility

Most small routers have a fixed number of input and output ports. Often, they are not expandable, and if they are, a fixed block of inputs and outputs have to be added. This makes it very difficult to match the size of the router to the application at hand.

The unique architecture of the Avenue router makes it possible for the user to custom tailor the input/output dimensions of the router to more closely match the requirements of a particular application. Symmetrical (square) as well as asymmetrical (rectangular) configurations are supported.

Multiviewer

Add Multiviewer functionality to your router with the 9480 sub module option. Sources are sized perfectly with Ensemble’s proprietary scaling algorithms, ensuring a beautiful picture, no matter what size you choose. You’ll see stunning detail in every position, even when the same source appears multiple times. Configuration is super simple with the click-to-fill function, snap-to grids and intuitive menus. Labels, borders, audio meters and tally are configured with a web browser on your computer or iPad. It’s easy to save and apply configurations to multiple cells.

Clean Switch Option

Add a 9435 or 9435-4CS sub module to the system for clean and quiet switching. The 9435 provides clean and quiet switching for up to two independent destinations while the 9435-4CS provides for four destinations. A single sub module may be added to the base 9430 8×2 router module. A second sub module may be added to expanded systems, providing clean and quiet switching for up to eight independent destinations. 
The Avenue router utilizes video frame synchronizers rather than line delays to ensure perfect alignment of mis-timed and completely non-synchronous SDI sources. In addition, the unit’s frame synchronizers continue to output black if the input signal goes away. This ensures continuity of the router’s video output signal, a significant benefit if the router is feeding an MPEG encoder. 
Glitch-free, quiet switching of embedded audio signals requires synchronization and alignment of audio sources at the input to the switcher. With the Avenue router’s clean and quiet option, digital audio is de-embedded, and if it is linear PCM, sample rate converted, switched, and re-embedded. Encoded audio streams such as Dolby™ E are de-embedded and re-embedded but not processed in any way. h4. Internal Generators for Easy QC

Bars/tone and black/silence are sources that are needed in many applications. Internal generation of these sources is another unique capability of the Avenue router. The bar generator includes a user programmable graphics overlay to allow the user to visually identify the source of the bars. This eliminates the need for additional external signal generation equipment, an important factor in many mobile and portable applications. Internal black and bars appear as sources without consuming a connector.

Applications

The Avenue router is ideally suited to a wide range of applications, including mobile and portable systems, QC stations, graphics and post-production islands, ingest, production switcher pre-select, master control bypass, driving on-set monitors, and general utility switching. The flexibility of the system makes it possible to tailor the input/output dimensions to a wide range of requirements. VITCcaptured from the reference input can drive time-scheduled switching.