Soundware Secret Lab

Project #1 - The Hybrid Video Processor 3

Welcome to the first installment of Soundware's Secret Lab. First of all, I don't expect anyone to build this entire piece of equipment, but many of you will undoubtably find parts of it interesting.

The Hybrid Video Processor is the core piece of equipment we use for automated video editing. It is basically an edit controller, but with many more features than commercially available products offer. Among these is the ability to control up to 24 VCRs, read as well as encode time codes, closed captions, and complete frames of digital data (for data archiving).
A hybrid processor, in computer terms, is one which incorporates both digital and analog technologies. The HVP3 uses a computer to control everything, but the video never leaves the analog domain.
Shown here is the model 3, which is now obsolete, but still demonstrates many useful techniques. Explanations of the various sections will be added later, just getting the CAD drawings to reflect the true state of the machine took quite a while this month. So, for now, just poke around the various drawings.

HVP3 List of Figures

Main Board Analog board
  • power supply
  • memory map
  • inter-board cables
  • external signal headers

    Having difficulty reading the drawings? The complete collection of drawings in scalable PIC format should help.

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