Sapphire HEVC is a broadcast-quality HEVC codec system, offering exceptional compression ratios on video resolutions up to 4K UHD. The Sapphire HEVC L1500 allows legacy wireless camera back systems to be conveniently upgraded to HEVC and 4K.

The Sapphire L1500 HEVC Encoder module is a cost-effective way for users of L1500 MPEG2 transmitters to upgrade to H.264 and HEVC encoding formats. The increased encoding efficiency of these formats enables wireless camera operation with HD 1080p and 4K UHD for the first time.

The module integrates seamlessly in the blank/camera control module slot on the L1500 and uses no internal connections. The on-board MPEG-2 encoder in the L1500 is disabled and ASI from the Sapphire is fed via a single BNC cable. This is fed into the RF modulation engine of the L1500 and the system operates as a standard wireless camera. Sapphire module powering is via D-Tap connector on the existing battery port.

On the receive side, ASI is fed from the existing L2134/74/94 RX into the Sapphire decoder which then outputs the required video/audio signals.

Latency is critical in many broadcast applications and the Sapphire Codec is built to minimise latency without compromising quality. The 60mS end to end latency (70ms in 4K) makes the Sapphire solution suitable for all live event coverage.