The power of innovation, technology to power change

From the moment you first power up the PHABRIX PHQX01, you will appreciate the attention to detail in a platform created to meet the increasing demands required for broadcast product development and infrastructure compliance testing. Designed to meet the challenges of the new hybrid broadcast environments, the PHQX01 is the first automatic SMPTE compliance verification instrument for UHDTV1/4K and UHDTV2/8K. It has a 96 Gbps backbone to future-proof the product as UHDTV standards evolve.

Effortless control is provided by a radical new 'app' style interface with instant response. Intuitive mouse control with context driven drop down menus hides the complication of UHDTV T&M delivering an uncluttered selection of instruments.

Analyzer and generator - simultaneous operation

The PHQX01 offers a combined analyzer and generator as standard. Noise floors are required to be much lower in a 12G-SDI world and accurate meaningful measurements need to be taken. The PHABRIX PHQX01 technology has previously unheard of low noise figures within its oscillators and measurement circuits. By eliminating crosstalk during simultaneous analysis and generation operation, the PHQX01 enables closed-loop testing of standards and formats. Complete with HD-SDI, 3G-SDI, 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI testing formats as standard, the PHABRIX PHQX-01 represents the first of a new breed of high band-width solutions for engineers.

The PHQX01 has importantly 4 separate multi-rate inputs and 4 separate multi-rate outputs each capable of supporting 12 Gbps with payloads up to 48 Gbps allowing the PHQX01 to provide comprehensive UHDTV1/4K and UHDTV2/8K generation and analysis for all three phases of UHDTV development.

Compliance - it's what test and measurement is all about ... isn't it?

Developing products or commissioning the latest equipment is more than just implementation - equipment has to be tested against SMPTE standards for it to be passed. With its trade marked RTE 'real-time eye' multi-rate physical layer display providing automated SMPTE compliant measurements, the PHQX01 offers a one instrument solution for test.

With over 30 GHz of Analog bandwidth (5th harmonic of the 6GHz fundamental for 12G-SDI) on its front end, the PHQX01 can deal with the demands of qualifying 12G interfaces accurately - more bandwidth than any other currently available broadcast T&M manufacturer. Subtleties of PCB layout and SDI driver design can thus be explored with the PHQX01 eye pattern display.

In addition, the latest crop of 12G-SDI chip-sets have a new parameter to be adjusted: pre-emphasis. This typically boosts the high frequency energy of SDI outputs, adjustment of this control can only be understood in combination with an accurate eye diagram coupled with overshoot and undershoot measurement.

Simplicity - an interface that puts you in control

So often the equipment designed to assist you with your work is difficult to use. Not so with the PHQX01. Its interface is a radical change to traditional systems. Based on a layered implementation, the PHQX01 interface is icon driven with additional drop down menus. The combination of this methodology enables the complex selection of UHDTV formats to be easily configured. Instruments can be resized, the system auto presenting more information as the screen area permits. All instruments have context driven tooltip with information about the item being hovered over.

The PHQX 01 can also save down complex instrument presets for instant recall at any time. It can link instruments into groups and all instruments can be resized flexibly, overlapped, stacked and border colour identified where required. The user interface can be displayed on both HDMI and SDI monitors at full HD with 8 channels of embedded audio.

Interfaces - the new hybrid connection

The use of both the generator and the analyzer at the same time with differring physical interfaces further requires the UI to clearly provide set up information. The new PHABRIX PHQX01 hardware platform supports the next generation of both copper and fibre uncompressed SDI interfaces. The instrument also features dual 12 Gbps SFP cage support and separate output to 4K via SDI with instrumention output via HDMI 1.4. SMPTE ST 2022-6 is supported (option) over 10 GbE for IP based infrastructures however the PHQX01 is built to support additional IP formats. PHABRIX is a member of the ASPEN alliance and other development organisations which it works with closely to support as standards change. Future client/server based operation of the PHQX01's developing technology allows for true high performance operation where required.

Data, data, data

With the complexity of UHDTV formats comes the additional requirement to interpret both video and audio data. SMPTE have usefully colour coded the data sets to enable clear analysis of the variants of 4K and 8K and here the PHQX01 excels providing a tabular 'data view' instrument along with clear VANC/ANC representation. All data sets are continually logged for later analysis. In addition the SMPTE 352 identifier is displayed with its associated Link 1-4.

Technology for engineers

PHABRIX’s continuous development and life-time upgrade support is based upon its FPGA development. At any time the PHQX01's software and firmware can be upgraded via USB or network.

With a 96 Gbps backbone, the PHQX01 is future-poofed for developments as they appear.