Get more from Pearl-2 with AV.io

As of Pearl-2 firmware release 4.2, Pearl-2 supports AV.io family video grabbers as alternate video input sources.

Pearl-2 is an advanced live video production system with a large variety of available audio and video inputs. This powerful system captures video from any six sources simultaneously. Until recently, the list of available capture inputs was:

• RTSP sources like IP cameras sources and other Pearl systems,
• two on-board SDI ports (12G-SDI capable with the 4K add-on), and
• four on-board HDMI™/DVI ports (two of which are 4K UHD HDMI capable, with the 4K add-on).

But what if you have three HDMI and three SDI video sources? Or six HDMI sources?

Meaning you have more physical HDMI or SDI connectors than Pearl-2 has input ports.

Not to worry, Pearl-2 has you covered! Because it now also supports video from:

• web cameras,
• AV.io HD,
• AV.io SDI, and
• AV.io 4K.

This means that if you have three SDI video sources (e.g. and Pearl-2 has two on-board SDI ports), you can simply connect an AV.io SDI to one of the two USB 3.0 ports on the back of your Pearl-2 and get an extra SDI input port. This extra port can be used in all the same ways as a traditional source, including setting a no signal image for the source and using it in any number of full-screen and picture in picture layouts. The same is true for AV.io HD and AV.io 4K (although Pearl-2 has a limit to the number of simultaneous 4K signals you can use).

Webcams? Did someone say webcams?

Yes, actually. I did sneak webcams into this post. Pearl and Pearl-2 now support video input from web cameras. Pearl can support one web camera, and Pearl-2 can have up to two. These are interchangeable with all the other source types to be one of your four video sources on Pearl or six video sources on Pearl-2. You can also use UAC-based audio devices to capture from USB microphones and other USB audio devices.

Fantastic flexibility

These new features bring even more flexibility to Pearl and Pearl-2. Release 4.2 will be available in February 2017 and is a free firmware update for all existing Pearl and Pearl-2 customers.