EEVblog #598 - Sony DME7000 Video Multi Effects Processor

[Stonent]

The 15 pin D-Sub port on the back is an AUI Ethernet port.  ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attachment_Unit_Interface )
You need to plug a MAU into it to set your media type, be it twisted pair, coax or Fiber.

At the time when there were several media standards for Ethernet, the AUI port was more common.  The transceiver hardware was inside the MAU and not on the board.





And H and V are Horizontal and Vertical.

[station240]

I'm sure one of the (few) community TV stations in Australia would love this unit, if only it had the console unit.
Looks like Dave was being careful with it so it can find a new home with someone.
A quick search online shows it to be any PAL signal not just the Australian version.

The block diagrams for the custom chips are interesting, a lot of mathematical operations done in much the same way as Photoshop matrix stuff, eg OR, AND, XOR.
Just because it's video doesn't change how it works, does mean a lot of CPUs to serial control the chips to do fancy effects like wipes.
No wonder it has 40 MIPS of main CPU per card.

It's curious the DIP chips are only soldered on the underside.

[Bored@Work]

The CXD8060Q was rather obvious, wasn't it? Called Polar Coordinate and then processing two input signals, squaring them, adding them, and calculating the square root of the sum (all in the block diagram). Now, what would the result of these operations be

[positivenucleus]

Nice box you scored there!  This is really pretty good gear.

Is this device PAL or NTSC labeled somewhere?

I spent a part of my life in broadcast TV env, so regarding some terms:
* I think the D1/D2 stand for digital video stream, in D1 or D2 type, which basically is composite or component, I do not remember the exact numbers for the D's.
* A "key" video is a video you use to cut, think of it as a transparency mask, which can use only Y, or the chroma part (called chroma key then)

Sony in those days manufactured (maybe still today) a lot of video/audio handling chips, from ADC/DAC, conversion, mixing, etc.  Other manufacturers used them.  I have seen Sony ADC/DAC and composite/component conversion chips in Panasonic DVCPro devices.

Pretty interesting you found datasheets for the mixing elements like the the "component to composite digital converter" (CXD8063), "to channel video mixer" (8062), "polar coordinate" (8060).   

One interesting block I saw was the float integer one.

[SL4P]

Dave -

I love your video blog segments - and learn quite a bit about gear I'm unlikely to stumble across in daily life.
I'd like to offer an idea for you to consider in future videos.

In pure electronics - 'scopes, PSUs, T&M etc, or retail electronics - your teardowns are extremely entertaining and informative. In professional gear especially - there may be an opportunity to co-host with an industry specific technologist that can round-out the edges of your electronics experience with contextual knowledge of the DUT (Device Under Teardown!)

Sometimes it may be just simple terminology, and others I've seen have assumptions that are just wrong or incomplete.

With that second dimension of conversational input to the blog - no-one wants to be a know-it-all, it may help communicate some of the finer details of why & how a specific design or strategy was chosen and operates.

Cheers & thanks for the great series. (ex broadcast, engineering & operations)

[SL4P]

P.S1> on the control surface the trackball was a nice piece pf work, with the 2D manipulation on the actual ball, while the surrounding 'ring' could also be used to spin or manipulate the image in a third dimension.  Just 2c worth.

P.S2>  Oh and among other things - I was Tech Manager of Sony B&P (Broadcast & Professional) overseas for a while.

[alimirjamali]

Watched already till 20:00 of the teardown.

For those interested on Y, B-Y, R-Y (YUV) color space, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YPbPr. It was a trick to upgrade from Black and White to Color TV in the old days with backward compatibility. This allowed only two additional signals for color broadcast rather than 3 new signals (RGB). I wonder how much they saved by such stupid decision .

The Key-BNC inputs/outputs are for alpha channel (transparency) of the Video (Professional Chroma Key). This is the last 4 in 4:2:2:4 terminology. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_compositing for more information. This was excellent for Computer Generated Videos (such as Subs, Animated Logos) to be overlaid on the main video.

Digital Input/Outputs are in SDI format. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_digital_interface. These were replaced by HD-SDI in later versions. HDMI was considered low class consumer.

[EEVblog]

In pure electronics - 'scopes, PSUs, T&M etc, or retail electronics - your teardowns are extremely entertaining and informative. In professional gear especially - there may be an opportunity to co-host with an industry specific technologist that can round-out the edges of your electronics experience with contextual knowledge of the DUT (Device Under Teardown!)

I've done that before.
The problem is finding such people and then handling the logistics of getting them to contribute to the video (how do you do that unless they are onsite?). The amount of effort required for that will often outweigh the benefit of getting a bit more accuracy at the top level in this case. And unless they are the designer, they wouldn't have a clue about the internals, so they likely can't help there.

[VK3DRB]

Thanks for the excellent quality video, Dave. I felt like I was there.

Agreed, there is beauty is high quality professional gear you don't get with consumer crap. But it is disappointing if full circuit diagrams are not available, and the device has been designed for swap-out, rather than fixing. I hate that!

It reminded me of Japanese New Long paste screener for mass PCB assembly. This machine cost $800,000 to buy. It has about 12 large PCBs with a backplane, similar in size to the Sony boards. One day it developed a fault where the machine failed with an error. A mate and myself got the job of debugging it but there were no circuit diagrams available or rack mount extender cards for servicing. The only solution was to manually debug it with a CRO, by soldering on extension wires, powering it up and checking signals. After many hours of debugging whilst everyone else was at the IBM Christmas party, we found the fault  - a shorted collector to emitter in a small signal transistor. We replaced it with a shonky DS148 from home (Tricky Dicky's relabelled BC148) and voila! it worked a treat. The plant manager did not even grab us a beer for a job well done, let alone think to thank us. Even so, we got a lot of satisfaction fixing that problem and that was more than ample reward.

These days, you can forget about getting a schematic diagram with anything much. Companies are too bloody inept to consider those who are skilled enough to debug hardware. Even Tandy gave a schematic diagram with their $10 transistor radios years ago. THERE WAS A TIME WHEN EVERY TV SET HAD A DECENT CIRCUIT DIAGRAM IN THE BACK, SHOWING THE EXPECTED WAVEFORMS.

[Skimask]

What's the layer count on those boards?

[danijel]

The CXD8060Q was rather obvious, wasn't it? Called Polar Coordinate and then processing two input signals, squaring them, adding them, and calculating the square root of the sum (all in the block diagram). Now, what would the result of these operations be

The top part is obviously used to calculate the magnitude and bottom is for the phase. I'm guessing the ROM is simply a lookup table for the ctg function. But what is the ROT use for? Also, what do you think this would be used in? Would it be used for some Fourier calculations or is there some other, strictly video related use?

[bitwelder]

If each slot in the chassis is dedicated for a specific board, shouldn't be some keying present to avoid human error while inserting the boards?

[yvesdm3000]

The component part of this unit is mostly for backwards compatibility. Nowadays we use almost all digital... The digital signals are actually called "SDI" and some info is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_digital_interface

-Yves

[simontheu]

Absolutely brilliant as always. I work in OB vans and have access to the latest version of this device. Aswell as that, I have the maintenance manual, and with it block diagrams! What do you want to see?

Keep up the good work!

[SNGLinks]

Perhaps the white splodges on some boards were property markers using 'DNA' style tagging?

[Slothie]

The AUI nework interface was common in the late 80s/early 90s when thickwire ethernet was around because the MAU (Media Attachment Unit) had to be physically bolted onto the ethernet cable (a 12mm dia coax if I remember) and it pierced the cable to connect to the central conductor. There where some electronics in the MAU that converted the signals to two differential signals, and the AUI cable carried those signals and power for the MAU.

The interface was logically very similar to twisted pair, although twisted pair doesn't have dedicated power wires and the signal levels may be different. Logically speaking a twisted pair hub is like a group of MAU's attached to an virtual ethernet cable inside the hub.

[calexanian]

Wonder how much that thing cost when it was new, and how much it was when they discontinued it.

[Smokey]

OK.. I'll be the first one to check...

One DME7000 on ebay.  With the console thing...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sony-DME-7000-BKDM-3010-/251489277269?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8dedd555

only $4999 USD

[hikariuk]

The AUI nework interface was common in the late 80s/early 90s when thickwire ethernet was around because the MAU (Media Attachment Unit) had to be physically bolted onto the ethernet cable (a 12mm dia coax if I remember) and it pierced the cable to connect to the central conductor. There where some electronics in the MAU that converted the signals to two differential signals, and the AUI cable carried those signals and power for the MAU.

The interface was logically very similar to twisted pair, although twisted pair doesn't have dedicated power wires and the signal levels may be different. Logically speaking a twisted pair hub is like a group of MAU's attached to an virtual ethernet cable inside the hub.

I worked on a new build factory in the mid-90s, working on the SCADA, HMI, and PLC side of things.  The PLCs and SCADA stations were all connected to the network using 10Base2.  I still have a stash of AUI-to-BNC/Cat5 adapter dongles as a result.  And some old Cat5 hubs (yes, not switches) which had AUI connectors on so you could use them when a group of you were working together.  All the SCADA stations were running Windows 3.1 and Wonderware Intouch back then, I think using the Chameleon WinSock TCP/IP stack.

Last time I went back in the mid 2000s they'd switched to 100BASE-FX (at least for the SCADA stations; PLCs probably got done as well, but I honestly can't remember - they would have needed adapters because the ethernet units in them didn't do FX).  Might well have switched to 1000BASE-?X by now.

[NiHaoMike]

I'm sure one of the (few) community TV stations in Australia would love this unit, if only it had the console unit.
Looks like Dave was being careful with it so it can find a new home with someone.
A quick search online shows it to be any PAL signal not just the Australian version.

The block diagrams for the custom chips are interesting, a lot of mathematical operations done in much the same way as Photoshop matrix stuff, eg OR, AND, XOR.
Just because it's video doesn't change how it works, does mean a lot of CPUs to serial control the chips to do fancy effects like wipes.
No wonder it has 40 MIPS of main CPU per card.

Nowadays, it can all be done with a GPU. I wonder what's the oldest GPU with comparable performance to that rackmount unit...

[SubSonic]

Are TV stations still use such equipment or do they use ordinary off-the-shelf computer hardware to do this all in software nowadays (especially with everything beeing digital)?

[Mike Warren]

Are TV stations still use such equipment or do they use ordinary off-the-shelf computer hardware to do this all in software nowadays (especially with everything beeing digital)?

The hardware is easier to use, more reliable and needs less maintenance than a computer based system, so most large TV stations still use this sort of thing (especially if they already have it), but computers are becoming more common. Smaller TV stations and production houses use computers.

[cloudscapes]

Great teardown!

The "key" references probably have to do with chroma key channels/masks which have to do with compositing. You'd run news anchors filmed against greenscreens through that and swap it out with a weather or sports background. Among other things.

....rather than keyframes as Dave suggested.

[zimzom]

Ah if only you could see the software, I bet a lot of the algorithms got reimplemented in software for there later PC stuff. Can't imagine they would have just left all that know how and experience just rot away somewhere.

I like the high end tear downs, its great to see the differences in build quality, shielding, design.

[jeremybarker]

According to BroadcastStore.com the original list price was $24,500! They are offering used units at $18,078.30 or $579.95/mo on a 3-year lease deal.