Audio Balancing Act
Winnov officially states that its intention is to "Lead through innovation in providing appliance-based solutions for the emerging audio- and video-over-IP markets." Such progressive statements are heartwarming, but many broadcasters need hard disk capture right now, done the old fashioned way – within a PC and fully tweakable. Fortunately, Winnov’s new Videum II Broadcaster capture solution ($899 list) is designed to please them.
The Broadcaster package consists of a PCI board and a DVI-connected breakout box with four balanced audio inputs (two XLR and two 0.25-inch TSR), two balanced audio outputs, and four BNC inputs that can be used for four different composite signals or can be allocated in pairs to provide S-video inputs. Because all of the audio I/O is balanced, you’ll either need professional equipment or transformers to convert unbalanced audio. (See sidebar for a description of balanced versus unbalanced audio.) The product also uses professional locking BNC connectors for video as opposed to the more common F-Type connectors delivered on most home equipment.
| Unbalanced audio is used in TVs, VCRs, boom boxes, and all consumer/gaming audio boards ...
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Though I tested with a single board, up to four of the Videum II Broadcaster boards can be used in a single system, connecting to four breakout boxes, which can be put together as a single 19-inch rack-mountable unit. However, to actually encode multiple sources at once (one per board only), you’ll need some serious dedicated processing power. Winnov recommends a dual-Pentium III 800MHz system, with 256MB or more of RAM, for those who wish to use the Broadcaster to encode multiple simultaneous streams on a single computer. And that’s a minimum for two streams. If you want to do three or four streams simultaneously, look into system requirements beforehand.
The Setup
Hardware installation was cake, though driver setup on the Windows 2000 workstation was a little trying at first. After installing the very latest Winnov drivers, and eventually reinstalling the Sound Blaster drivers on our test machine, I had both the Broadcaster and Sound Blaster Live living happily together in the same system, and they continued to operate without problems throughout the rest of the testing.
Though most of Winnov’s products are nicely documented, documentation for the Broadcaster was scattered about and lacking in some areas. For instance, a detailed explanation of the on-board processing would be helpful. In spite of that, there was enough information for me to get everything working without contacting Winnov.However, after I’d tested for a while and had a list of specific tech questions, I called tech support and was unable to get through to a person. I did get my questions answered quickly and accurately when I sent an e-mail, but since I identified myself as a reviewer, I don’t know if that’s the normal treatment. Winnov’s PR staff claimed that a single comprehensive set of Videum II Broadcaster documentation will be available in a couple of weeks. Too late for my deadline, but it should be on their Web site by the time you read this.