UK-based digital microwave developer Boxx is ramping up production of its new HD wireless product Meridian, following interest from producers at IBC last month.

Boxx claims its technology delivers a delay of just 1 millisecond in transporting HD quality images over radio frequency links at less than half the cost of any competitive technology.

“Currently, if you want low latency HD microwave links, the cost would be £15,000 or more per camera,” said Boxx co-founder Scott Walker.

“We can deliver high quality, zero delay 1080i/50 transport for less than half of that cost and open up the technology to mainstream studio or arena shows.”

Instead of the MPEG2 compression used by other systems, Boxx employs a codec that sends half of the picture information per frame and then prioritises each pixel according to the importance of objects within the frame.

The technology was first used by the host broadcaster of the Winter Olympics (pictured) in Vancouver earlier this year to cover the Games’ hockey tournament.

“The downside is that because we aren’t compressing the image we lack the range of MPEG2 or H.264 systems,” adds Walker. “Football sized stadia or smaller are ideal for Meridian but we couldn’t do horse-races or marathons for example.”