Converters and Scalers
High performance live production solutions
Converters are used to convert a signal from one format to another and are required as different products from professional video manufacturers default to different video interfaces, including low-latency digital to analogue, HDMI-SDI, SDI-DVI, Optical-SDI, DVI-VGA converters and many more. Additionally, scalers are used when the resolution of a video source needs to be changed to a different one - these use complex algorithms to scale the video as accurately as possible.
Converters
When considering a converter you need to make sure it will connect to the sources you want to convert - whether this be from SDI to HDMI or from analogue to digital, knowing what connection you need is critical.
Scalers
Standards converters or scalers, are slightly different to normal converters as while some of them will convert from one physical connection to another, their primary function is to convert the image being sent over the physical connection. There are two types of standards conversion you need to be aware of, scaling and cross conversion.
Distributors
Whilst distribution amplifiers do not usually convert, they are often considered in the same product family as converters as they take in your signal and then replicate it across multiple outputs. These devices are a great and cheap way to feed the same video to multiple destinations.