Video router

Some video routers, by the use of additional drop-in cards, allow the system to be expanded for more inputs or outputs, or to support other formats.

Crosspoints can also be switched in the vertical interval to avoid losing picture information, for this the router would need to be genlocked to either black and burst or tri-level sync.

Many types of broadcast automation systems can be used to control a video router via IP or serial communications such as RS-422.

Traditional crosspoint based devices have therefore been reduced in size by a factor of 4 as the UHD signal is split into 4x1080P@50 Hz/60 Hz 3 Gb/s streams.

A few smaller manufacturers (Blackmagic Design, Utah Scientific, Ross Video, PESA) have taken on 12 Gb/s routing over copper coax cable and fiber.