Thatcham, UK – 6 December 2022: PHABRIX, a broadcast test & measurement innovator, has announced the sale of a QxL UHD-25G rasterizer to Q3 Media Training, a UK-based provider of broadcast training and consultancy services. The company – which was already using a PHABRIX Rx 500 rasterizer – has acquired the product in order to be able to deliver the full range of training in SDI and IP environments.
Q3 Media Training was established by technical director Ed Calverley in 2018, following more than two decades of working across a variety of roles in the broadcast industry. Providing a range of services including formal training sessions, operational support, and technical investigations and report writing, Q3 Media regularly works with leading companies in the broadcast and telco industries.
“Our business is primarily UK-focused, but we’ve run remote/online sessions for clients in Spain, Germany and India, as well as delivered face-to-face training in The Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland,” says Calverley. “Technology is constantly evolving, but our main objective is always to cover everything that a modern broadcast engineer needs to know about – from production through to playout.”
The Q3 Media team are no strangers to PHABRIX test & measurement (T&M) solutions, and for the past 18 months have been utilising an Rx 500 single-dual channel 2K/3G/HD-SDI video/audio analyser and monitoring solution. But in recognition of the increasing need for training in both higher-capacity SDI and IP formats, as well as UHD and HDR production, the company has recently invested in a unit of the hugely successful PHABRIX QxL rasterizer, which was developed to address the full range of professional broadcast media network requirements in a compact form-factor.
“We saw demonstrations of the QxL at both NAB 2022 and IBC 2022, and it was clear to us that it constituted the most advanced and flexible T&M tool available for broadcast signals, and would therefore be the ideal addition to our growing inventory of equipment,” recalls Calverley. “Our new QxL unit was received at the beginning of November 2022 and is equipped for both IP (SMPTE ST 2110, ST 2022-6, PTP, NMOS) and SDI operation (3G, Quad-3G and 12G, including SDI Eye capability), with UHD/HDR support.”
The investment in the QxL will allow the Q3 Media team to train engineers and technicians in the full range of media workflows, including the migration from SDI to IP that is in progress at many organisations around the world. To this end, the QxL has been “built into our new IP/UHD demonstration rack and will feature on our popular IP Media Networks course, as well as other sessions which require it. Importantly, having access to such a tool helps us to enhance our own knowledge of the emerging standards. In fact, with support from PHABRIX’s excellent QxL documentation, we have already learned something we didn’t previously know!”
Phillip Adams, founder and CEO of PHABRIX, comments: “The broadcast industry is in the midst of an unprecedented period of change that encompasses several profound technological shifts, including the migration from SDI to IP, and the adoption of UHD and HDR. One consequence of all this is that the need for first-class training has never been more important, so we are delighted that Q3 Media Training has bought a QxL to enhance its capabilities in both present and emerging broadcast workflows. As part of a highly impressive IP/UHD demo rack that includes products from a number of other leading manufacturers, the QxL will play a vital role in ensuring that Q3 Media’s trainees are able to work effectively in all types of production environments.”