Designing highly reliable test and measurement tools
Established in 1954, Leader has earned a worldwide reputation for designing and manufacturing highly reliable, practical and cost-effective test and measurement instruments. Leader products are specified for research, development, broadcast, production and service applications. Manufacturing quality is built in every step of the way. Less than 0.1% of all Leader products made are ever returned for warranty repair or adjustment.
The Leader product range includes award-winning 3G/HD/SD SDI waveform monitors and rasterisers with customisable layout. Available options include 4K/UHD, CIE colour chart, HDR measurement, test pattern generation, eye and jitter measurement and closed caption display, IP and 12G SDI. Having helped many customers manage their transition from analogue to digital, from SD to HD, from HD to 4K/UHD, from SDR to HDR and from BT.709 to BT.2020 wide colour gamut, Leader also provides dependable support for the transition from SDI to IP.
New Leader Products: the LV5600, LV7600 and the LV5350
Four new broadcast test and measurement products were introduced in 2018 – the LV5600 true hybrid IP and SDI waveform monitor and LV7600 rasteriser equivalent, plus the LV5350 portable 12G/3G/HD/SD-SDI waveform monitor and its LV7300 rasteriser equivalent.
Leader has helped many broadcasters and broadcast-equipment manufacturers manage their migration from analogue to digital, from standard definition to high definition and from standard dynamic range to high dynamic range. Most broadcasters now recognise the potential of video-over-IP both within their studio facilities and for long distance content delivery. The majority will transition to IP via an interim SDI/IP hybrid infrastructure so they will want to handle SDI and IP in a single test and measurement product. The LV5600 and LV7600 address this concern, providing common display interfaces, irrespective of whether the source signal is SDI or IP. Both instruments conform to the Leader style of being intuitive for camera operators to use as well as for engineering staff.
The Leader LV5600 is a mains-powered SDI/IP waveform monitor in a compact half-rack width 3U desktop chassis with a touch-screen front panel display. It provides all the facilities needed to seamlessly monitor UHD/HD/SD SDI as well as video-over-IP signals. The LV5600 includes a broad set of engineering-related features including test pattern generation, eye pattern display, jitter measurement, closed-caption monitoring, CIE colour chart, high dynamic range measurement, focus assist, customisable screen layout, tally interface, 4K/UHD operation, 10G IP input and 12G-SDI interfaces. SMPTE 2022-6, SMPTE 2022-7 and the recently published SMPTE 2110 protocols are all supported. The LV5600 also incorporates Leader’s intuitive Cinezone and Cinelite which are familiar to many camera crews, editors and colourists.
The LV7600 rasteriser offers exactly the same capabilities as the LV5600 but in a low-profile 19-inch 1U form-factor for easy rack or desk mounting.
The LV5350 portable 12G/3G/HD/SD-SDI waveform monitor and its LV7300 rasterising equivalent continue Leader’s long heritage of providing products that support operational and engineering requirements within a single instrument. Designed for mobile and studio-based TV and film applications, the LV5350 is a state-of-the-art instrument for today’s predominantly SDI world which does not require the IP measurement capabilities. It succeeds the LV5333 which has proved especially popular with DITs and camera crews needing advanced 4K/HD/SD measurement facilities. Both instruments incorporate all the SDI facilities of the top-of-the-range LV5600 and LV7600 minus the IP measurement capabilities which are currently required by only a minority of production and post-production teams.
Engineering-related features include test pattern generation, closed-caption monitoring, CIE colour chart, high dynamic range measurement, focus assist, customisable screen layout, tally interface, 4K/UHD operation and 12G-SDI interfaces. The LV5350 and LV7300 also incorporate Leader’s intuitive Cinezone and Cinelite. A new focus detection algorithm enables the two instruments to sense edges across a very wide range of image contrast levels.
