Archive page -
for reference only

Leitch / Harris

 

DPS Company Logo Leitch, the broadcast electronics group, is a leading player in the supply of content production, processing, transmission and management systems. Amongst their acquisitions is Digital Processing Systems Inc. who were leading designer and manufacturer of electronic hardware and related software used for recording, editing and processing broadcast- quality video and audio material. Leitch are also a part owner of Eyeon, who produce the compositing/effects software, Digital Fusion.

Demo Available
of Velocity
plus Animate

PVR box

The history of DPS before becoming part of Leitch, who are now part of Harris

DPS were one of the pioneers of broadcast quality desktop video with the PAR (Personal Animation Recorder) in 1993, followed by the PVR (Perception) a couple of years later. The PVR offers true non-linear playback, and together with edit software like Speed Razor, made one of the first sub-£10K broadcast quality on-line edit systems, many of which are still in use today.

The next product was the Hollywood, a true uncompressed video board with YUV & SDI I/O as standard, aimed at high end compositing applications. This was followed by the PVR-RT, a dual stream boardset with an optional hardware 3D-DVE board, offering real-time perspective rotation, page turns, warps, ripples and chroma keying.

Next, DPS brought it all together with the Reality/Velocity board, a single plug-in card using just one PCI slot and one IRQ! Dual stream compressed video and onboard audio, or single stream uncompressed (with alpha channel), and the Reality costs less then the original PVR, let alone the Hollywood or PVR-RT. More information on  Reality & Velocity

A further development of the Reality is NetStreamer. These 1U/2U rack mount self contained systems are purpose built for video streaming and use the innovative NetStreamer remote access control software. NetStreamer can be upgraded via software for non-linear editing and accepts the same SDI & 1394 I/O options as Reality/Velocity.

This was followed by the VelocityQ (Quattrus) - a quad channel version of Velocity with four DVE channels, which can play four streams of video combined with six graphics layers in realtime, compressed or uncompressed. Also available as VelocityQ 2x4 (two DVE channels) and VelocityQ 0x4 (no DVE channels) as a replacement for the basic Reality. The entire VelocityQ range was discontinued in July 2006 due to not being "RoHS compliant" (in line with EU directives).

Currently available -

VelocityHD - combines the innovative new Altitude hardware platform with a significantly enhanced version of the existing Velocity software interface, VelocityHD makes HD non-linear editing as efficient and easy as standard-definition editing. With guaranteed full-quality HD playback of two video streams, two dynamic graphics streams, and optional real-time 3D DVE, VelocityHD offers true real-time power. This is instant, full-quality real-time playback, not just scaled-down real-time previews, and not just in basic effect combinations. All of this real-time power can be performed on both uncompressed and compressed HD video, delivering high-performance HD editing without sacrificing quality.

More than just an innovative HD non-linear editor, VelocityHD also features outstanding standard-definition editing performance, with full-quality, real-time playback and mixing of multiple SD video and graphics streams. This format flexibility makes VelocityHD ideal for the transition to HD, offering the best of both worlds while you continue to work in both realms. Even if you aren’t working in HD yet but expect to in the future, VelocityHD is the ideal solution, offering an unparalleled level of SD performance in its price range, while being immediately ready to handle HD with no expensive options required. includes Velocicty HD v9.1 edit software

Note - all prices quoted on this site are UK pounds - ex VAT & delivery

Leitch  VelocityHD

PRICE (ex VAT)
Q2D-5020  VelocityQ 0x4 - Product info - 4 Streams of Realtime Uncompressed Video N/A  2,330.00
Q3D-5220  VelocityQ 2x4 - Product info - 4 Stream video, 6 graphics layers plus 2x 3D-DVE channels N/A  3,330.00
Q3D-5420  VelocityQ 4x4 - Product info - 4 Stream video, 6 graphics layers plus 4x 3D-DVE channels N/A  4,325.00
A2D-7000  VelocityHD card & breakout cable, inc Velocity-9, Titlemotion & DFX+ software 5,950.00
A2D-7200DX  VelocityHD as above but with Breakout Box & dual channel SCSI module 8,330.00
A3D-7200DX  VelocityHD as A2D above but with realtime 3D effects module   10,410.00
SCSI-7000  VelocityHD Dual channel SCSI module - required for dual-stream uncompressed HD   800.00
3DM-7000  VelocityHD A3DX realtime 3D module (included in A3D-7200DX-NP) 2,380.00
SCSI-7000  VelocityHD Breakout Box (included in 7200DX-NP bundles) includes AES audio I/O & USB/RS422 1,785.00
HUGE Systems MediaVault U320 RAID storage - validated for VelocityHD  

Optional I/O cards & modules

  
3DM-5500 3D-DVE module to upgrade V2D to full V3D Velocity package 1,250.00

Other Leitch hardware

 
RS422 - 232 Interface Module for Edit Control 160.00
JOG-5000 Jog/Shuttle Controller with LCD Display for Velocity NLE Systems, 230V AC 770.00
FAD-5000 External 8 Channel audio controller for Leitch VelocityQ with motorised faders. 1,185.00

Software

 
Vel-OMF-AFF  Velocity/VelocityQ OMF/AAF Import/Export Option. OMF permits project metadata and audio essence interchange with other post-production applications and platforms. AAF (Advanced Authoring Format) expands upon that of the OMF by adding video essence interchange, and even wider industry support. 649.00
Inscriber TitleMotion 4.2 for Velocity 355.00
Inscriber TitleMotion Pro upgrade for Velocity (requires TitleMotion 4.2) 235.00
Boris FX 8 359.00
Digital Fusion - see the Eyeon page  

What we're about . . .      ZEN is not a traditional Audio-Visual dealer who started selling computers, nor is it a computer shop that also sells video editing systems. You won't get any salesmen giving you the "hard-sell" when you call, just straightforward advice and information - which for some callers is the knowledge that they don't need to buy whatever it is they thought they needed! Above all you'll be dealing with someone with a wide range of experience and knowledge of both PCs and video production. We're not the biggest, nor necessarily the cheapest, but we are one of the longest established computer/video specialists in the UK.

Company history . . .      ZEN was started in the 1980s by Martin Kay, then working for ITV at Granada's Manchester studios, who built his first 6502-based computer in 1979 from an Ohio Scientific kit, bought in the USA whilst working as a Sound Recordist on a film shoot for World In Action. With the advent of the Amiga, which could be gen-locked to a video source, Martin started writing a variety of video-related software. This included subtitling & tele-prompting, ident clocks, scoring software for sports & gameshows, and specialist software to mimic other computer displays for use in TV film dramas like Cracker, Prime Suspect and A Touch of Frost. Martin left Granada in 1993 to concentrate on his computer-video activities with ZEN, following a natural path into non-linear editing systems, now the main focus of the business, although he still maintains an active interest in video production.

ZEN - Home Page Phone 0161 736 5300 Copyright © 2010 Zen Computer Services.
All rights reserved. E&OE
Revised: 21 July, 2010