Design of a 6/12G SDI interface for machine vision cameras

Abstract

Nowadays, video production has almost completely migrated to digital technology. Besides, users demand ever higher image quality, which requires to increase resolution and frame rate captured and/or improve real-time video transmission. This leads to a huge amount of data to be managed and sent from the camera to the external video equipment, maintaining signal integrity as much as possible. This project presents the design of a Serial Digital Interface (SDI) to transmit SMPTE standard digital video signal of up to 12 Gigabits/s. The board is meant to be implemented as an OEM module for the MV4 machine vision camera platform of the company Photonfocus. The interface includes video signal input and output, genlock synchronization (bi- and tri- level), RS485 camera-control interface, shaft-encoder driver and lenses control drivers. Additionally, the implementation will allow to turn the SDI-type interface into an IP-video type interface just by switching the connected transceiver.