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Integrated Circles unveils their solid-state 1080p High Definition VideoStore
At the Museums and Heritage Show, Integrated Circles are set to unveil the latest addition to their range of solid state audio visual devices, their “VideoStore Solo HD”.
Designed for use in museum displays and visitor attractions. This solid-state video player is full 1080p high definition compatible, and capable of looped or on demand playback, and to simplify installation, features a built in stereo audio amplifier, for direct connection to loudspeakers, and comes with Integrated Circles usual ten-year repair or replace warranty.
Technical Director, Simon Beer, who for the past thirty years has been responsible for designing Integrated Circles products, explains why solid state is regarded as the holy grail of reliability. “In a museum or any environment where video or audio is being replayed seven days a week, mechanical devices will take a pounding. Bearings wear, belts break, fan blades and air filters get blocked with dirt, optical drives tarnish and and tapes wear out. With our solid state players, there are no moving parts to mechanically fail or degrade with use, and indeed it matters little if they are run constantly or intermittently, they wont wear out any quicker.”
Integrated Circles were early adopters of solid-state technology for galley audio visual replay, having produced back in in 1979, their first solid-state SoundStore for audio replay in a museum. So why did it take so long for video to follow this route?
“Video signals are far more complex than audio, so the shear quantity of information that has to be stored, accessed and processed is enormous. Thirty years ago, it required tape to replay video, which was notoriously unreliable. Twenty years ago, we were using Video Laser Discs, which were more reliable, but the disc pressing costs were very high. Ten years ago, we introduced our first VideoStore which brought great flexibility, but required a hard drive to store the Video information. Just over five years ago we were able to introduce our solid-state VideoStore for standard definition video, and from today we can offer this same reliability and flexibility for High Definition too” said Beer.
But it seems that not all solid state devices are necessarily built the same. “power supplies are another weak point in designs. Many devices we see in the market use small, plug in the wall, switching power supplies, which are almost certain to be the cause of failure within three to five years of use. We warrant our produced for ten-years, so to be able to do this, we have to take greater care when designing our power supplies ” he said.
Integrated Circles Rob Smith thinks the timing of the high definition VideoStores arrival is spot on too. “Customers always want better quality images particularly when they are being viewed at close range. Right now there are a host of large LCD and Plasma screens with 1080p native resolution arriving on the market and Panasonic are launching their single chip 1080p projectors, which will be ideal for use in museums. Most new video footage is being shoot in hi-def, while archive material can be up- scaled or presented as picture in picture within a final production.” he said.
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