Have you ever noticed that when you send a computer signal or an HD camera feed through the old coaxial cabling in your building that it looks bad? The color isn't accurate and the resolution is low. That's what happens when you take those high resolution signals and convert them to work with older RF modulators.

What's great about RF systems is that they can support multiple channels on one piece of cable, so anyone with the remote control can select from the a video feed, the security cameras, a childcare feed, an announcement video, a rolling activities feed from a computer, or anything else on the system.

RF modulation is a great way to create a low-cost distributed video system.  The problem is that RF modulators can't handle today's higher resolution computer and HD video signals, but the coaxial cable that connects those modulators to the TV's can.

I can almost hear you saying, "but the picture quality is so bad, especially the computer, that I think that we just need to scrap the whole thing and start over." Did you know that many cable TV systems use the same type of coaxial cable and a modulation process to deliver HDTV signals right to your home?

Before you rip out your old coaxial cable, consider this. 

QAM tuners have been used for several years in cable TV systems to deliver high resolution video, but only in the past several months have they been made affordable.  Without discussing the complexities, a QAM tuner allows high resolution signals like component video or the output signal from a computer to be connected directly to your old RF cable system, without the dreaded down-conversion process.  No more jagged lines and edges, no more color problems, no more images that aren't framed quite correctly.  

Two of our suppliers offer QAM tuners at reasonable prices, but we favor the Drake DSE24 since it handles 1080i input signals at the same price that another supplier offers a 720P unit.  In a nutshell, you can use the DSE45 to inject computer, or video signals into your old coaxial system without disconnecting any of the existing sources.  The new high resolution signal and the existing RF signals can share same piece of coaxial cable, without having to make any more of a modification than adding a $4 combiner to deliver the high resolution signal.

If you need a little more information, please give us a call.  This is the kind of work that our installers do frequently, so we can help design a system, or simply help integrate this piece into your existing system.  The Drake DSE24 is $1499.95.  You'll need one for each source you're injecting into the system.  If you have an HD feed from your video switcher and a computer feed, you'll need two.