What’s so next about the next-generation PDS?

The PDS series has been around in the rental and staging market for quite some time now. The award-winning presentation switchers are specifically designed for smaller applications bringing high-quality switching at an affordable price. And users in the field know it as a capable, reliable and robust signal processing solution for live events.

This year, we’re introducing a new next-generation PDS. Besides the updated look and feel of the chassis (which makes it even more rugged and suitable for life on the road), there are some other new features to bring the PDS series in line with the current needs and standards of the industry.

What’s new?

1. • Quality 4K

   Here’s something you’ve probably heard too many times: “the future is 4K”. But we believe that’s true! Being used to the high-quality visual content delivered by the displays in their homes, the audiences are increasingly demanding in their image quality expectations for live events – even the smaller ones. The new PDS brings 12-bit processing to your event with up to ten 4K60 inputs and two 4K60 outputs, and in full screen mode, it offers two 4K mixing program outputs for seamless single or dual screen switching. These mixing outputs can be used to present a fixed background with two picture-in-picture layers to maximize your audience engagement.

   • All digital

   In the development process of the next generation PDS, the Barco R&D team worked in close collaboration with partners and operators in the field. You told us what you need. And we’ve been listening. For example, you’ve asked for more digital connectors. Well, the PDS-4K is now fully digital including six HDMI 2.0 input and four HDMI 2.0 output connectors, all supporting HDCP2.2. and full 4K resolution in 60 frames per second. The SDI model adds another two 12G-SDI input and four 12G-SDI output connectors.

   Both boxes also have a dedicated preview functionality with a Multiviewer HDMI2.0 output for full situational awareness without having to give up another output in the system.

   • Athena^TM scaling

   If you’re familiar with our Event Master and ImagePRO series, you might have heard or read about our proprietary Athena^TM scaling technology. The PDS-4K is the first compact presentation switcher to incorporate this state-of-the-art technology. It enables content scaling with superior signal clarity and minimum scaling artifacts, to match the visual content to the native resolution of your output screens while preserving the details of your sources.

   • Audio passthrough

   High-quality visual content is important to keep your audiences engaged, but so is audio. And thus, another important addition to the new PDS product is the high bandwidth option slot which offers the future-proof possibility to add more functionality when desired, but also to support audio passthrough and Dante® (de-)embedding^*. With the ability to manage both audio and video through the same device, the PDS-4K minimizes the cable-hassle on stage and reduces your event set-up time.

   * features available with next software release autumn 2021

PDS-4K in live events

Discover what our PDS-4K has to offer to for live events in this short video, and find out how its capabilities can improve your operating and switching, while impressing audiences with flawless shows and presentations.