"Bridge Over Troubled Waters - Review of Miranda DV Bridge +"

One could consider this situation, which, as I write, is even in further development, the "troubled waters" of digital video production.

To Mention Miranda

To our aid has ridden the white horseman of video engineering - Miranda Technologies. I have been aware of Miranda for many years, as a maker of "make work" appliances - the kinds of devices that installation and location engineers always like to have on hand to, well, make things work.

Only after I had the occasion to do some engineering myself, did I get to know Miranda better, about a year ago. Digital Production Solutions (DPS), a 3D animation studio in Newark, New Jersey, asked me to re-engineer and install a digital video editing room that had been acquired from a previous owner.

Having engineered and installed my own, in-house editing rooms and that of the original Nabisco Brands studio in East Hanover, New Jersey, I welcomed the change of venue and job title.

Re-engineering a major installation requires a good deal of garbage time just getting all the old wiring and components sorted out, cataloged and tested. During this phase of the DPS job (which lasted the better part of two days), I noticed a large amount of small, Miranda appliances. These appliances, many of them no larger than a fat ballpoint pen, were sprinkled throughout the wiring to provide analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog conversion between legacy Betacam and S-VHS decks, and newer DV and Digibeta decks and a Thomspson Grass Valley switcher.

Having never seen these units before, I went to the Internet and searched the Miranda website (www.miranda.com), where I found a catalog of helpful tools, dedicated to handling nearly any problem an engineer could imagine when faced with electronically matching any two types of audio or video equipment. The problem at the website was that there were no prices listed! I wanted to buy some more, and I wanted some more fast. That's when I jumped to our website's sponsor, B&H Photo Video, and typed, "Miranda," into the search engine. Try it now - Miranda - and see what you get!

Driven By A Digital Need

When I finished the DPS facility, I looked at the masses of wires, neatly snaking through a master console with six decks and feeding, by an 8" umbilicus to a 10' wide editor's console. Here and there, sparkled the little Miranda converters like little nerve centers. And I wondered, what if I could have a single box that would convert anything to anything? Wouldn't that be great? I could just have that on the console to solve any connection problem that arose, right?

Well, Miranda has made this box. It's called the DV Bridge + and it sells for a hefty $1,999 that is, in my opinion, worth every cent. Here's one reason why.

I recently acquired Pinnacle's Liquid Edition NLE software, which has the amazing capability of producing fairly sophisticated, interactive DVDs with as little DVD experience as one might expect a video editor to possess. With some reservations, Pinnacle is one sweet little editing platform for a prosumer or small, corporate producer. It's major drawback for higher end work is that it does not offer any input but DV.

If you have the higher resolution data formats, such as DigiBeta or D-9, you will want to transfer your scenes to the NLE using the highest bandwidth of transmission. This is not DV, it is "serial digital interface" (SDI). Pinnacle Edition will not accept SDI. And many DigiBeta and D-9 decks do not offer DV throughput.

I shoot most of my productions on SDI-level equipment, using the Leitch DPS Velocity editing systems. Yet, when I want to make a quick, interactive DVD from my high end machines - in other words, when I want to use Pinnacle Edition's DVD muscle, I can't get the signals from the SDI machines to the Pinnacle!

Solutions? Well, you could upgrade from Pinnacle Edition to the next level, Liquid Chrome for $14,995 (starting price). Well, you could dub the Leitch to a DVD tape deck, such as the JVC BR-DV3000. Or, you could dump out of digital and send the signal by composite video (yuck). Then, when it comes to audio, you have to abandon the high quality digital output of these high end decks and dip down to an unbalance mini-plug to take your audio into the Pinnacle by way of your computer's audio card! Curses! Or you could use the Miranda DV Bridge +.

Everything In One Box

The compact Miranda DV Bridge + is very simple. The front of the box has a power switch and some colored lights to tell you that your signals are moving through the complex internal circuitry. On the back is a virtual catalog of matching input and output jacks.

The unit provides bi-directional DV and SDI (serial digital interface) video and AES digital audio, with time code data conversion (LTS and DVITC). Using an IEEE-1394 (Firewire) connector or an RS 422 (9-pin) connector, VTR controls such as stop, play and rewind are interpreted by the DV Bridge + for use in controlling decks and nonlinear editing (NLE) systems. The unit supports both NTSC and PAL video standards. S-Video and analog outputs (via RCA jacks), can be monitored or used for transfer as well.
While primarily designed for DV editing, the converter also supports the DVCPRO format.

For instance, you can feed the box a DV signal from a camera, and convert it to SDI with AES digital video for use in professional digital decks such as a Sony DigiBeta or JVC D-9 machine (or reverse the flow form the professional digital deck to a DV recorder).
Just connect whatever source you have to the box's inputs. Then connect your recorder, NLE or switcher to the outputs and turn the machine on. It's as simple as that.

I fed a 20' BNC cable from my JVC BR-D85U D-9 deck to the Bridge +, and plugged the Pinnacle Edition's DV input to the Bridge +. Presto! DV quality video on the Pinnacle. Then I connected the AES optional digital output of the D-9 deck to the Bridge. Using the simple RCA monitor outlets on the back of the Bridge +, I connected a very short stereo audio cable (to eliminate RF interference) to the Pinnacle's mini-plug, audio card input. Wow! Nice sound playing on the Pinnacle. Then, I connected a DV cable from the Pinnacle to the Bridge + and a 9-pin RS-422 connector from Bridge + to the D-9 machine. Bam! Pinnacle Edition is now running the D-9 machine for playback and record over a 20' cable to my main edit bay!

In a few hours, I acquired the master edits of three show reels and created a master DVD with all the choices attractively presented on the Pinnacle's DVD authoring system.

Your Problems

My problem - getting SDI and digital audio into a low-cost NLE - might be a rare case in point. Your problem might be just as unique - or perhaps, you have something more common to do, such as copying DV tapes to an S-Video recorder, or converting DVCPRO recordings to SDI with AES audio. The Bridge + can do all these things.

Caution!

One thing the DV Bridge + cannot do, however, is embed audio into a digital video stream. As you may know, both SDI and DV 1394 transmissions are capable of encoding both audio and video into a single stream. When audio is included in the stream, we call this "embedded" audio. Unless the stream coming into the Miranda is already audio embedded, you cannot use the Bridge + to embed. In other words, if you have silent video coming into the Bridge +, you will have silent video coming out.

For my application of Pinnacle Edition, for instance, I had to specify in the capture setup that the audio was coming from the analog inputs of the audio card, because Liquid Edition's default DV settings expect the audio to be embedded in the DV stream.

Conclusion

The Miranda DV Bridge + is a small, sophisticated instrument which can solve a vast array of digital and analog connection problems between various VCR's, monitors cameras, computers and nonlinear editing systems. Frequently, a Bridge + is purchased by systems installers and engineers to add flexibility to facilities by combining various formats of digital video with legacy analog equipment. Consequently, Miranda tends to market the Bridge + through distributors and engineering houses. Now that you know the secret, you can get one of your own, instead of spending gazillions on a systems integrator.

The savings derived from applying a DV Bridge + to a system, instead of conforming the various pieces of equipment can be significant. While even the discount price of a DV Bridge + ($1,999.95) is not small, some studios and individual producers may find it solves several problems which, together, might cost significantly more to resolve.

You can see all the specifications for the Miranda DV Bridge + by simply clicking HERE. You'll be connected to the appropriate specifications page at our spoonsor's website, B & H Photo Video. Your support of our sponsor is deeply appreciated.