Master Clock/Sync Pulse Generator

Another one of the most important parts of the production facility is the Master Clock/Sync Pulse Generator (SPG), also know as "Reference".

As we saw with the Routing Switcher, a lot of the equipment works in tandem with each other. To ensure everything works together, "at the same time", you need it all to have a reference to something, which is the function of the  Master Clock/SPG.

Let's suppose we did not have a Master clock/SPG. At the very visually obvious level, our cameras would not be synchronized and would thus not resolve their images at the same time, so when we switched between cameras there would be jump in the image. There would also be discoloration due to the lack of phase synchronisation. The record and playback decks would create lines in the picture because it would not resolve the bottom of the image at the bottom of the screen.

So as you can see, it would be pretty catastrophic if we did not have reference to our equipment.

There are a multitude of ways to configure the output of your SPG. At our facility we use HD Tri-level SMPTE ST 274 1080i/59.94.

We are using an Evertz 5601MSC Master Clock/SPG.

As you can (kind of) see, sorry for the bad quality picture, we use 2 MC/SPGs with an Automatic Changeover. This does just what it sounds like. If one of the Master clocks should fail, the other one is automatically assigned to take over sending reference to all the equipment. 

Back of Both MC/SPGs and Automatic Changeover

As you can see, on the back it uses almost all BNC connections, as the Routing switcher does, even for DARS (Digital Audio Reference Signal), with the exception of a few XLR for LTC (Longitudinal Time Code) outputs.

I feel like this post got a little bit out of hand, it was a little harder explaining this than I thought. I may end up editing it later. But for now, I hope it helps. :)

Please leave any comments, corrections or questions you have.

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