TV One and its CORIO®2 Technology: it’s a family affair

Posted by Debbie Heath on Monday, May 21, 2007 - 10:04 am:

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CORIO is a stylized form of the word choreography and refers to TV One’s mission of choreographing video. TV One developed CORIO as its own proprietary technology and this has steadily advanced since it’s inception in 1994 to its present level, called CORIO®2. The continuity and cumulative experience of the design team has established CORIO®2 as the leading video scaling technology available in today’s market. Unlike most manufacturers who use third-party chipsets to provide video conversion, TV One uses its own CORIO®2 technology therefore releasing its products from the constraints imposed by third parties and resulting in an unsurpassed degree of flexibility. Products based on third-party chipsets have a feature set frozen at the introduction of the product. Since the CORIO®2 video processing engine is entirely firmware based, it can be upgraded at any time by downloading the latest firmware version from the support website and flash upgrading the unit in the field. This enables new features to be added to units many years after the initial purchase. This “obsolescence insurance” means that a CORIO® and CORIO®2 based product can always be upgraded to the latest version of that model.

The design philosophy at TV One is to create a product family instead of just one product and the CORIO®2 technology makes this easy and cost-effective. Since the firmware is scalable, new product features can be added however they can also be removed. This has provided TV One with the opportunity to provide an ever-expanding product line that ranges from extremely powerful Multi-Format, Dual Channel processors such as the C2-7000 Series to smaller units that perform specific tasks and functions such as the simple 1T-C2-100 Down Converter from the TV One-Task™ range.

The C2-7000 Series of Video and Video/Audio Processors are the most flexible units available and address a wide range of requirements. All products within this line are, in reality, multiple products in a single box. All models have key video features such as dual CORIO®2 technology processing engines for independent mixing and scaling, high-performance up, down and cross conversion between video, PC, DVI and SD/HD-SDI, 4:4:4 sampling for full bandwidth colour, up to 17 multi-format inputs and 2 outputs in digital and analog, analog and DVI RGB resolutions up to 2048 x 2048 and HDTV up to 1080p, genlocking of any video input to any other, seamless switching with cuts, fades or effects, unrestricted dual picture-in-picture with any input over any other, edgeblending with the ability to ‘feather’ any or all of the edges, multiple layering and windowing capability, flexible chromakey and lumakey layering whilst the background lock source can be moved to the foreground, zoom to 1000% and shrink to 10% with positioning, optional 48-button CORIO EXP front panel for handling live events, RS-232 and IP interface remote control, external control by a Windows control panel or by third-party control systems and external hardware control using the CC-300 CORIOconsole hardware control panel.

The C2-2000 and the C2-1000 series of universal video switcher/scalers, up-scalers and down-converters are single channel video processors that also incorporate TV One’s CORIO®2 technology. The units within these series perform virtually all of the various features and abilities on different models that are available on the C2-7000 products. This means that the user can choose a product that is more specific to their individual requirements without the need to purchase a larger C2-7000 unit if not all of the functions, or inputs and outputs, are necessary.

Smaller still are the 1T-C2 TV One-Task™ products that are dedicated to performing just a single task. Also using the CORIO®2 technology, these are premium-quality products designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind. If it is just simple down conversion or up conversion between video and PC or cross conversion of PC to PC or HD, then these compact units are all that is required.

The ability to offer the customer exactly what they need at a price that is comparable to the required functions is the beauty behind the CORIO®2 processing engine. It can be broken down to provide smaller and more specific products on customer demand, it can be added to when new features become sought after, and because upgrading the unit can be easily achieved freely on-line, it is easy to see why TV One’s CORIO®2 technology is the most flexible video processing engine available.