Enhanced functionality also includes HDR colour bars for production workflows
Bridge Technologies will use IBC2025 (Booth 1.A71) to announce a new set of enhancements to its innovative AV Sync Generator toolset, an award-winning component of its wider VB440 production probe. In addition to frame-accurate synchronisation for audio and video, the functionality has now been expanded to include synchronisation for ancillary data – a function particularly beneficial for ensuring alignment of metadata such as captions, timecode, and signalling, and thus critical for maintaining consistent video length, accurate start and end points, and precise triggering across complex production workflows.
In addition, HDR colour bars have been added to give users yet another layer of intuitive, at-a-glance visualisation when managing production workflows. These enhancements will be demonstrated live at IBC 2025, where attendees will see how the VB440 continues to redefine the possibilities of IP-based production monitoring – not just through the breadth of its functionality, but the depth of innovation within each feature.
Precise AV sync is mission-critical in live production, and in IP-based workflows, where audio, video, and metadata are transported in discrete streams, maintaining that synchronisation becomes significantly more complex. Historically, frame accurate management of this issue has largely been the preserve of Tier One broadcasters with specialist hardware and significant budgets. The VB440’s AV Sync Generator challenges that status quo by delivering a browser-based solution accessible to any production environment – large or small, from anywhere in the world.
The VB440’s AV sync feature works by embedding machine-readable electronic markers directly into the audio signals and using a built-in sync client to visualise, in real time, the delta between video and a virtually unlimited number of audio channels or groups – including immersive audio formats. This provides operators with immediate, granular insight into alignment, allowing for swift and accurate correction. Additional visualisation tools such as rolling shutter simulation, blink-and-beep reference cues, and now HDR-compatible colour bars enhance ease-of-use and confidence in synchronisation.
What truly sets the tool apart, however, is its flexibility. Running entirely within an HTML-5 browser interface, the VB440 allows multiple users – anywhere in the world – to access and monitor production-critical AV sync data in real time, without specialist training or localised setups. And with the recent addition of ancillary data synchronisation, the tool continues to demonstrate how every member of the production team is supported across a full spectrum of technical and creative roles – from video engineers and audio technicians to those managing captions, timecode, and other metadata streams.
Beyond live monitoring, the VB440 also allows for third-party integration via API, paving the way for proactive sync management. In essence, the AV Sync Generator doesn’t just solve today’s problems – it’s built with tomorrow’s automation in mind.
Commenting on the expansion, Bridge Technologies Chairman Simen Frostad said: “When we build a new feature into the VB440, that’s never the end of the story. We’re constantly evolving each tool to expand its potential and address the real-world challenges of IP production”.
He added: “The result is not only a platform that delivers an extraordinarily wide range of functionalities for all members of the production team – accessible anywhere, in real time – but one in which every individual feature is, in itself, industry-leading in both design and capability.”
More information about Bridge Technologies and its products is available at www.bridgetech.tv or by phone at +47 22 38 51 00.