Since 1990, the Motion Picture and Television industries have used high definition serial digital interface because, due to their need of recording higher resolution videos, it gave them the ability to move uncompressed and unfiltered recorded videos from their video camera to the video processor.  This video interface can transmit data up to 2.97gbit. HD-SDI is mainly used for higher output video transitioning and can output video resolution up to 1080i.  Originally, HD-SDI had limited work scope; this meant the digital video signal could only be transmitted, in an uncompressed and unencrypted form, within the production facility.

What is HD-SDI?

High Definition Serial Digital Interface (HD-SDI), also known as the SMPTE 292M standard, is an interface standard that allows the transmission of high definition video over coaxial cable at speeds of around 1.485 Gbit/s. The cable length will vary depending on the quality of the video you require and the quality of the cable used. The maximum cable length for HDcctv™ 720p and 1080p standard is 100 metres. If you do not require HD resolutions, cable lengths can be up to 300metres can be used. This broadcast television technology has been technically proven through application in television studios worldwide since the late 1990's.

Although HD-SDI is new to video surveillance applications, HD-SDI has been around for many years in Television broadcast production), the high cost is what has kept HD-SDI out of the mainstream. This is now changing with more manufacturers producing SDI equipment at a more competitive price. Since many organizations have existing coaxial based analogue CCTV networks, the upgrade path to High Definition CCTV will be less expensive by utilizing HD-SDI technology rather than IP.

HD-SDI has the potential to solve many common issues associated with both conventional analogue CCTV and IP based systems, some of these being scalability to High Definition and implementation complexity and cost. It's still early days for HD-SDI, hardware availability is improving.