Jupiter Announces Shipment of Its New PixelNet™ Technology, A Revolutionary New Way To Capture, Distribute, Control and Display Digital and Analog Video Sources
 

INFOCOMM, Las Vegas, NV - June 18, 2008 Jupiter Systems (Booth #N6063), the industry leader in display wall processing for command and control applications, today introduced PixelNet™ a revolutionary new way to capture, distribute, control and display digital and analog video sources for audio-visual applications. Based on technology previously used for data communication networks, PixelNet adopts Gigabit Ethernet and Ethernet switches for use with high resolution, real-time video. Using packet-switching technology any information source can be shown on any display, as a window on a single display, or as a window spanning multiple display devices in a display wall.  Any source can be shown at any size on any display or array of displays.

PixelNet uses sophisticated the high-bandwidth networking technology developed for data transfer in the computer world and applies it to video switching. But this is not a traditional video switcher.  This is “video switching on steroids”, switching entirely in the digital domain to preserve signal integrity and switching on a pixel-by-pixel basis with built-in up and down-scaling so any rectangle of pixels from any source can be sent to any destination rectangle on any display device.

Product Benefits

PixelNet is an all-digital system.  Input and output signals can be either digital or analog, to meet the interface requirements of the attached devices.  But inside the PixelNet domain signals are always digital and can be transmitted long distances without degradation.  All video processing is done in the digital domain including cropping, scaling, de-interlacing and noise reduction.

PixelNet is independent of any operating system or computer architecture.

It is a modular system, allowing ease of configuration, installation, expansion, and maintenance. PixelNet modules include input nodes to capture various kinds of video signals and output nodes to drive display devices.  PixelNet switches are used to interconnect the input and output nodes.

The new product uses unshielded twisted pair (UTP) cabling which is inexpensive to purchase and install.  The same familiar Cat6 cable that is universally used for Gigabit LAN installations is used by PixelNet.  The familiar RJ45 connectors used for Ethernet connections are used with PixelNet.

A PixelNet installation is also easy to expand by adding more input and output nodes and, if necessary, additional switching capacity.

PixelNet provides flexible display capability based on a fundamental paradigm that any rectangle of source pixels can be displayed at any rectangle of destination pixels regardless of size or “connectivity” obstacles.  Any source can be shown on any display device.  Any portion of a source can be treated as a source and shown anywhere.  Each source can be shown occupying an entire individual display, as one window on an individual display that is showing multiple sources, or can be shown as a window extending across multiple screens on a large display wall.

PixelNet provides implicit format conversion.  Signals captured as VGA, DVI, SDI, HD-SDI or HD component can be displayed on any DVI or VGA monitor or projector.

PixelNet’s simple yet powerful paradigm provides a broad foundation for a great deal of growth in new features and capabilities.

PixelNet Product Features

Consisting of input nodes and output nodes connected through a PixelNet switch via standard CAT6 cabling, PixelNet is a radical departure from traditional AV systems.  CAT6 cabling is ubiquitous, space-efficient and inexpensive, PixelNet systems can scale from very few nodes to many hundreds, and PixelNet systems are truly hot-pluggable, hot-swappable, and fault-tolerant.

The new system captures video signals at full resolution, frame-rate, and color-depth assuring exceptional visual performance. PixelNet can then display those signals on a display wall, discrete displays, even on displays installed across multiple rooms and buildings.
PixelNet’s output node, TeamMate™, can connect to a single display with a single source, a single display with multiple sources, or combine with additional output nodes to create a display wall of virtually any size. All TeamMate nodes in a PixelNet domain have access to all connected inputs.

PixelNet input and output nodes can be placed as far as 100m from a PixelSwitch™. A PixelNet network automatically configures in the field, every input node is visible to every output node and Fusion display wall processor the moment the node is plugged into PixelNet. All sources can be displayed on any connected output device: as a freely scalable window on a TeamMate node or a window on a display wall consisting of two or more TeamMate nodes. All of this power and flexibility is managed by Jupiter’s PixelNet Domain Controller™ software, which provides an intuitive, object-oriented, drag-and-drop interface to control and manage multiple inputs, outputs and display walls.

PixelNet can replace many features found in traditional AV systems, including:

• Interfaces: PixelNet DVI/RGB capture nodes include a loopback connector to eliminate the need for an interface when connecting to a computers’ display outputs.

• Distribution: PixelNet uses standard CAT6 cabling to extend the reach of the system up to 100m/300ft, and with coming support for fiber cabling, transmission distances of miles will be possible. Output nodes are small, making them perfect to pace close to source devices.

• Switching: Utilizing advanced network technologies such as “multicasting”, PixelNet can transmit signals to multiple destinations and  inputs can be multicast independent of one another, allowing a PixelNet system to be used like a traditional matrix switch, with all the additional benefits PixelNet offers in addition to matrix switching.

• Display: DVI, RGB, SDI, HD-SDI, and Analog HD sources can be displayed on DVI/RGB outputs with true flexibility: the PixelNet TeamMate output node can drive a single window on a single screen, multiple windows on a single screen r, or an entire display wall. Combinations of outputs can be employed to exactly match specific requirements. Applications that would traditionally require many separate vendors and a heterogeneous solution can be addressed with a single system of interconnected PixelNet nodes controlled through the PixelNet Domain Controller software.  Support for automation using an external control system interface is also provided.

PixelNet consists of four basic elements:

• A PixelSwitch which can accommodate either 24 or 48 ports allowing the user to select among the many input