about eyeheight

Eyeheight designs and manufactures broadcast-quality SDI/HD-SDI equipment for programme-origination, quality-assurance, post-production, playout and associated areas. This includes legalisers, logo generators, safe-area generators, keyers, colour correctors and aspect ratio converters. The company was founded in 1992 by two BBC-trained engineers, Steve Crocker and Martin Moore, who were then working as chief engineers in the post-production industry.

From its inception, Eyeheight has focused on the digital broadcast and post-production market. An early success was a serialiser/de-serialiser making parallel-digital equipment compatible with the newly developed SDI transport. This was soon joined by the company's first modular products. The Unibox range could support two units in a single-rack-unit chassis. It included an RGB legaliser, aspect ratio converter, logo inserter and safe-area generator.

In 1999 development began of a second generation of modular products: geNETics. These expanded the capacity to six cards per rack unit and added a versatile control system enabling multiple control panels and products to exist on a single network. The geNETics range has since grown to over 50 products, all fully compatible with each other and operated via an intuitive menu-based control system.

In 2018 we stopped hardware development but we can still provide customers with most of our legacy products, particularly legalisers, safe area generators and colour correctors. We also provide a repair and refurbishment service for products already in the field. We continue with plug-in software development.


our clients

Eyeheight supplies national and international broadcasters and content generators the world over. These include:

UK

Ascent Media
BBC Outside Broadcasts
BBC Television
Charter Broadcast
eeZee tv
Fame Academy
Gearhouse
Lipsync
Manchester United Television
Mediagate
Moving Picture Company
On Sight
Pepper
Red Bee Media
Riverside Television Studios
Rushes
StormHD
Technicolor
The Hospital
The Machine Room
The Mill
Transmission (TX)
TWI mediahouse
Uncle

Overseas

Al Jazeera, Qatar
Al-Rafedien, Egypt
Astro, Malaysia
Beeaty Channel, Egypt
Brescia Teletutto, Italy
Broadcast Video Services, Ireland
Digital Design Inc, USA
E-TV - The Technology Channel, Italy
Fox, USA
France Telecom, France
Jetix Europe, Italy
Matrix Engineering Group, Russia
New Delhi TV, India
New Edit Inc, USA
O-TV, Egypt
Polsat, Poland
RTL, Germany
RTV Nord Holland
TV2, Denmark
TV4 Sweden
WDR, Germany
YLE, Finland


customer quotes

John Mander, Charter Broadcast:

"CanalettoHDi was the ideal choice for us. It is easy to use, compact and versatile, providing full digital colour correction in 1920 x 1080 HD, including individual gain, lift and gamma control of each colour component. We are using the units in a colour correction role rather than as legalisers but I have no doubt the players would appreciate protection of their own against overshoot!"

Paul Ingvarsson, StormHD:

"Eyeheight is the defacto standard in legalisers, a well known and trusted name. I have worked with their equipment at many companies over the years. legalEyesMDi is easy to use, reliable and versatile. Being multidefinition, it gives me HD and SD legalisation in a single unit."

Eamonn Dowdall, Gearhouse Broadcast:

"Eyeheight was able to deliver a very compact SA-1 modular system within a week of our order being placed which is very fast turnround. The SA-1 is also impressively compact. With three modules in each chassis, only 8U of rack space was required for all 24 processing channels. The SA-1 generators lived fully up to their reputation for reliability and ease of use."

Alan Pimm, ATG Broadcast

"The Eyeheight modular architecture offers a high packing density; in this case six logo inserters in a 1U box. We were able to develop a custom solution allowing each logo inserter to be controlled separately by the Omnibus automation system. The Astro Broadcast Centre is one of the biggest, and certainly the most modern, in South-East Asia. Modularity was crucial to the entire design as it will enable easy scaling in line with Astro's future requirements."

Colin Renwick, Manchester United Television:

"Eyeheight's playout is such good value for money that its choice was a no-brainer. It will enable us to develop our on-screen style as we position the channel to carry on-screen text feedback from Manchester United supporters. The switcher can be used manually or under automated control from a Pharos Playtime play-to-air system."

Chris Warden, E to E:

"eeZee tv's output will be almost entirely live so full backup protection of all crucial components in the transmission chain is obviously important. Eyeheight's playout incorporates a vision mixer and independent signal router. In addition to its role as a presentation switcher, playout can be double in an emergency as the main studio mixer and transmission-path router. This high level of flexibility made playout the obvious choice for this application."

Ismo Torkko, TV Tools, Finland:

"YLE sets extremely high standards, both for the technical quality of its productions and for the ergonomic efficiency of its studios. irisLite's compact control panel is much more suitable for a busy drama studio than the broad arrays of pushbuttons found on old-fashioned switching desks. The menu structure within irisLite enables subsidiary functions to be performed quickly and easily, as well as real-time cut and crossfade operations. irisLite's benefits are even more relevant to OB origination where compact equipment enables significant weight savings as well as space efficiency."

Paolo Sala, Media Signals, Italy:

"The Eyeheight playout system's combination of intuitive operation and technical reliability met Brescia Teletutto's current requirements exactly, with the further advantage of being easily expandable to meet future needs. Compactness was an additional benefit, both in terms of MCR and rack space. Sony Systems Italy (system integrator and provider of the entire production facility project) was pleased and satisfied to integrate the Eyeheight master control into the complete system"

Vladimir Migin, Matrix Engineering, Russia:

"We chose irisLite following a careful comparison of currently-available vision mixers. Its combination of crosspoints controllable by a programme/preset pushbutton panel with T-bar vision mix/wipe is ideal for fast and efficient operation."

Wiljam Pongers, RTV Nord Holland:

"We broadcast a full 24 hours per day including on average 60 to 90 minutes of locally originated content. Located in our continuity suite, Eyeheight's playout enables us to break into the transmission playlist without interrupting the studio gallery. The playout system has proved very reliable. Its control menu enables routine transmission operations to be performed quickly, with more detailed levels of functionality easily accessible when required. playout's compactness is also major benefit."

Bright Hammond, Pepper:

"HD forms a rapidly expanding part of our activity but many clients require standard-resolution viewing copies of HD work. Incorporating standard and high-definition processors capable of simultaneous operation, vista SD/HD will enable us to achieve a substantial increase in operating efficiency."

Bernd Poth, Logic Media Solutions, Germany:

"The operational and engineering staff at WDR were impressed by vista's exceptional combination of versatility and compactness. Eyeheight's geNETics modular building-block system enables up to six vista systems to be housed in 1U. vista is easy to use, easy to reconfigure, and brings the added benefit of interfacing readily into existing station automation."

Ray Barnard, On Sight:

"LegalEyes enables programme producers and editors to prevent video signal levels exceeding internationally agreed standards for RGB colour space and luminance. Designed to match EBU specification R103-2000, it employs full 10 bit signal processing of the 270 megabit/s SDI input signal. It is compact, cost-efficient, and provides exactly the controls that an Avid online editor requires."