NeoPro Has Announced The Vandenberg

January 16, 2012

HDMI brings several great benefits to home theater. However for the professional integrator, it also brings many headaches. One of those challenges is switching and signal distribution in a whole-house environment. Many of the solutions offered to date have not had good EDID management between the source and display, and there is always the challenge of running HDMI long distances from room to room. Now with a fresh solution, NeoPro has announced the Vandenberg, an 8x8 HDMI matrix switch that when combined with their LightSpider HDMI over fiber extenders, offers a great solution to the one of the bigger problems facing integrators. We looked into the Vandenberg to see what makes it different from other HDMI matrix switches. One very attractive feature we see right off the bat is the Vandenberg is a 1RU (1.75” tall) switch, which helps us save on rack space. Unfortunately we don’t all have the luxury of a 42U six-foot tall monster in our closets. And they did not have to eject important features such as support for Toslink and SPDIF digital audio to do that either. They managed to get 8 HDMI inputs, 8 SPDIF inputs, 8 Toslink inputs, 8 HDMI outputs, and 4 SPDIF outputs on the rear panel. For controlling the matrix, the Vandenberg offers IR, RS232, and TCP/IP, with a built in web server for setup and configuration. To address the EDID challenge, the Vandenberg offers a built in web server that the customer or integrator can use to setup how the matrix handles different situations such as a mixed bag of displays with different capabilities. Although we could not review the interface before press time, NeoPro tells us there will be automatic configurations as well as full manual control of EDID settings. This will allow for better control of audio modes and screen resolutions for different source devices. Another unique feature of the Vandenberg is its ability to extract and insert digital audio. One configuration issue where this is desired is when there is a display with 2-channel capability, but there is also a surround sound receiver in the zone. Having the additional digital audio connections makes it possible to have both audio streams sent to the right destinations. NeoPro tells us that the recommended system design is to use the Vandenberg for switching HDMI and digital audio, and then use the LightSpider series to extend the outputs over fiber to the displays. Their LightSpider series also comes in a similar 1RU chassis along with slim receiver units for behind flat panels. So far NeoPro has not endorsed any of the HDMI over Cat5 solutions out there, citing concerns about reliability and signal integrity. We also wondered about NeoPro’s other switching product that had been announced a couple of years ago, the NeoStar, so we asked Bill Paul, CEO. “We have done a lot of work on the NeoStar and made an amazing product. However as we approached completion of the product, the target market for the product has significantly changed. What we see as the 2012 and beyond market will not bear a product in this price category, therefore the Vandenberg was created to fill this need. We may still ship the NeoStar for some specific customers, but the Vandenberg will be the solution that will fill most customer’s needs.” NeoPro has not announced pricing on the Vandenberg yet, but promises us it will be very competitive. Shipments are expected in Q1’12.

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