Argosy and Belden sign distribution agreement in the UK

Belden, a world leading supplier of signal transmission solutions for the broadcast industry, has announced that it has signed an agreement with Argosy, a leading UK-based international supplier of HD broadcast cables and studio infrastructure products. Under the terms of the agreement, which is effective immediately, Argosy will distribute all of Belden's extensive range of products, designed specifically to meet the needs of broadcasters and the professional audio visual communities.

In broadcast, top performance and reliability require a high quality product, absolute signal integrity and no system downtime. Belden products provide performance for both critical field applications (where cable is dragged, crunched and trodden on) and permanent studio installations (where the long run is all important). These products are also an important link in major network and cable TV broadcasts, film studios and corporate broadcasting. Pictured: Paul Turner, Belden (left) and Mike Purnell, Argosy.

Speaking on behalf of Belden, Paul Turner, Vice President Sales & Marketing for the EMEA region, said: "Our agreement with Argosy complements our existing partner base in the UK. We know that customers choose Argosy for their ability to serve the market with the best products available today and they will now have even more choice as they gain access to the full range of Belden solutions."

Mr Turner added: "This move underlines Belden's aspirations to grow in the UK. Our strategy is to work with the best in the business. Argosy is one of the country's premier distribution partners in the broadcast market and this partnership will help to strengthen our position in the UK's professional broadcast market."

"Belden has a very solid international reputation in the HD broadcast and Audio Video Information Technology (AVIT) sectors and we are delighted to be able to add their cable range to our extensive infrastructure product line up and support their business across the UK," said Mike Purnell, director, Argosy. "Furthermore with projects becoming more complex throughout the production chain, Argosy's ability to continue to provide first-rate resources, service and support for installations will be of considerable benefit to Belden and its customers."

To underline its commitment to the UK market and to enhance its competitive position, Belden has rationalized its main pricing structure. Paul Turner: "We have set out to be ultra-competitive in the professional broadcast market across EMEA. Following a major pricing review, Argosy is able to offer cost-effective quality Belden solutions to the market." He added: "We will never stop looking for ways to develop business opportunities, with leading partners and customers.

Argosy in profile
Established in 1984, Argosy has a broad range of experience in advising and supplying studio installation products such as cabling, connectivity solutions, equipment racking, cable management & patching and is recognised as a leading international distributor and expert in this field. With customer locations around the world, Argosy is renowned as a "one-stop-shop" for systems integrators and end-users alike, however large or small the project. For more information, please go to www.argosycable.com.

Belden in profile
Belden designs, manufactures and markets signal transmission solutions, including cables, connectors and I/O modules as well as network devices and control, load sensing and load moment limitation systems designed for safety-critical applications ranging from industrial automation to data centers, broadcast studios and the aviation and aerospace industry.

The company focuses on segments of the worldwide cable and automation markets that require both highly specialized and readily available products. With manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and Asia, Belden has recorded a total revenue of USD 2 billion for the fiscal year 2008.

Together with its brands Hirschmann™ and Lumberg Automation™, Belden offers an extensive and highly specialized product portfolio covering the full range of data communications - from the information and control levels down to the field level. The company has more than 15 offices throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with manufacturing facilities in Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Denmark, Italy and Hungary.

New Hirschmann™ EAGLE20 v4.4 software

Belden has announced that it has released an upgrade of its Hirschmann™ EAGLE20 software. New EAGLE20 v4.4 software will be installed on all newly-bought Hirschmann™ devices, and available free of charge for existing customers.

One of the key new features of Hirschmann™ EAGLE20 v4.4 is off-line configuration. "Virtual" devices can be configured using a PC, and this configuration can later be downloaded to real devices. According to Mark Cooksley, Product Manager Network Security, "this is a first for industrial Ethernet firewalls."

Klaus Reister, Head of Development HMI and Testlab, adds: "The Hirschmann™ EAGLE20 web interface is superior to competitive products. It is intuitive, user friendly, logically laid out, includes wizards for more complex tasks and has a hypertext index to find where to configure specific functionality. We have taken this product web interface and made it available as a java application running on a PC. You can open the application and it looks like you are connected to a real device. You can configure all the required parameters, and then save the "config file". This "config file" can later be loaded on to a real EAGLE20."

The key benefit is that it is possible to configure the network security without having the actual devices. Up until now, a reseller or end customer would have to take the devices out of the boxes, power them up, connect them together, configure them, then put them back in the boxes and ship or move them. This is no longer necessary. In this way, installation engineers can spend as little time as possible on-site.

Mark Cooksley: "For a network engineer, on-site hardware configuration during network commissioning can be a stressful and time-consuming experience. The off-line configuration application alleviates this problem, resulting in faster network installation. In addition, reduced configuration errors culminate in higher network availability."

In addition to offline configuration, Hirschmann™ EAGLE20 v4.4 offers a number of new advanced security features such as 1 to 1 NAT inside a VPN and VPNs without certificates.

Belden: leadership in HD technology

Hundreds of millions of viewers around the world depend on Belden for reliability and quality when they are watching live coverage of the world's largest sports events. Designed for the perfect capturing, live or post production processing, routing and delivery of content, Belden cables are the first choice for TV/ Radio stations, film and recording studios, performance and sports venues. They are used extensively in audio, video, lighting and camera applications. Providing top performance and high reliability, Belden cables meet the specific requirements of even the most demanding technological constraints of time and mission critical applications such as news or sports broadcasting in high definition (HD) video.

In radio, TV or post-production applications, the key advantages include improved picture and sound quality as well as interactivity. Werner Eich, Market Manager Broadcast EMEA for Belden, says: "Radio and Television broadcasters are going all-digital. Now the digital formats are being adopted by recording studios, video post-production and film production facilities, and many associated applications. The reason is clear - the digital format provides superior A/V performance. This digital transition is leading to a similar revolution in High Definition TV (HDTV)."

Although the digital format promises to revolutionize the broadcast industry, it also poses a challenge when it comes to designing, choosing, and installing a new system.

Werner Eich comments: "Broadcasters, television production studios and post-production enterprises are adopting high definition, serial digital imaging (HD/SDI) as their format of choice because of its superior performance and other advantages."

Precision digital video is processed in real time and is extremely stable, which reduces equipment adjustments and allows copies or reproductions to retain the same quality as the original. Moreover, signal degradation is virtually eliminated and noise immunity is greatly improved. Digital technology not only promises to improve picture and sound quality, but also paves the way for interactive on-demand TV and other digital services.

Cable manufacturing consistency and quality are both key to achieve minimal return loss. Good practice requires testing to the third harmonic of the operating frequency. For HD, single cable should be able to deliver 1080p, that means testing to a frequency of 4.5 GHz. This 1080p format is expected to transmit HD video signals at 3 Gb/s, requiring an operating frequency of 1.5 GHz. This translates to a shorter wavelength and a greater chance that inconsistently manufactured cables will choke off the signal with a high level of return loss. This may be caused by even the slightest irregularity in the cable manufacturing process. A slightly bent shaft, bad bearing or uneven cable tension, for example, can cause reflection and affect the signal wavelength. Therefore, utmost consistency and control in the manufacturing process is essential to the reliability of the cable's signal transmission at high frequencies and to minimize return loss.

Increased sweep testing
Therefore, broadcast camera and video cables need to deliver top performance, whilst at the same time meeting extended international and European standards.

It is for this reason that Belden became the first cable manufacturer to increase its sweep testing from 3 GHz to 4.5 GHz for all coaxes designed for maximum bandwidth, minimum return loss and minimum attenuation loss. These cables already meet the very tight specifications for electrical properties and are ideally suited for both analog and digital video in broadcast, post-production and other critical video applications. In addition, Belden performs 100% sweep testing to 4.5 GHz on every reel of HD cable and provides certification to assure unequalled levels of cable signal integrity and reliability, with lower return loss (RL) at higher frequencies.

Werner Eich comments: "We are prepared for the future. As a pioneer and leader in cable technology, Belden has always taken a stringent approach to cable quality assurance. Rather than simply inspect and test random batches of cables after manufacturing, Belden begins its quality process in the product development and manufacturing stages."

When an independent test laboratory took an in-depth look at the HD performance of the video coaxes used in TV studios, cables were tested for return loss, attenuation and maximum cable run on HD (1080i and 720p). In the end results all Belden products delivered performance values that exceeded the industry standards.

Belden continually introduces new developments and products for a range of different applications for the creation, production and delivery of entertainment content, including Mobile TV, IPTV and D-Cinema.

For further information, e-mail: berry.medendorp@belden.com or view website: www.belden-emea.com   Refer to page 116