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MillimeterThe Video Horizon
Sep 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Tom Patrick McAuliffe
NASA Television tracks America's space program with analog, digital, HD, and streaming video technologies.
The View from the International Space Station
DCP: Why are DVCAM cameras used on the Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS) versus HD cameras?
Rodney Grubbs, chair of the NASA DTV Working Group and based at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.: HD cameras are susceptible to radiation damage. Presumably, this is due in part to the density of HDTV CCDs. As for the act of shooting in space, on Earth, we're used to holding cameras on our shoulders or prop them with our hands and elbows and look through eyepieces pushed up against our eyes. In weightless space, astronauts find it awkward to hold a camera's eyepiece up to their eye, so they prefer having a large LCD to view what they're shooting. Focus and light balancing are challenging because HDTV is far less forgiving of errors than analog cameras were.
What does the future of HD and video at NASA look like?
I expect we'll slowly roll out a NASA HD channel starting this fall. Most centers are still unable to produce a live HD program, and NASA HQs, where prerecorded video content is programmed for playback on the various NASA TV channels, is not able to program a NASA HD channel full time. As for technology, solid-state recording offers significant improvements in a variety of applications. For example, currently we have to fly videotapes to and from the ISS. Thus we have to wait for another shuttle flight to bring videotape back that was shot on the ISS. Carting videotape to and from the ISS, maintaining VTRs on orbit, and keeping up with tapes would all go away if we could fly solid-state media and leave it on orbit. Files could be downlinked via existing laptops so video could be shared with the public more efficiently or reviewed by NASA program managers quickly. What is not known is whether current solid-state media being used by camera manufacturers can itself survive the radiation environment. Densities on small chips could prove to be a problem just as HD CCDs have a problem. We plan on testing the latest high-capacity hard-disk media soon.
— T.P.M
Online Resources
- NASA TV
www.nasa.gov/ntv - NASA TV for Educators
www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators - NASA DTV Working Group
dtv.msfc.nasa.gov
NASA TV HQ Equipment List
- Nvision 5600 SDI 128x128 routing switcher with frames for AES audio, SDI video, and four master control modules
- Two Evertz 80884 AD caption encoders
- 14 Wegener 4600 SDI IRDs with ASI inputs from WAN and SDI outputs to router, and composite outputs to LCD monitors
- Six Wegener iPumps
- 50 Harmonic MV50 encoders (40 for transmission, and 10 for backup)
- Two Harmonic MN20 multiplexers (one online and one backup)
- Two Harmonic BNG (broadcast network gateways) attached to WAN Cisco switch
- One Ventura frame with SDI with SDI to ASI cards for fiber transmission from Master Control to Goddard TV for uplink
- Marshall LCD monitors for preview, program, and viewing of all inbound and outbound signals
- Tektronix 601 signal analysis
- Multiple LCDs with Ethernet connections to hardware mounted in another room to afford control while minimizing equipment footprints
- Two DVCPro50 Mbps VTRs
- Four-channel “Play-to Air” Sundance automation system integrated to Leitch VR440 broadcast server with 4.6TB RAID array
- Three Sundance “Prep Stations” for content preparation
- One Sundance “Sat Recorder” for timed records.
