Communications Electronics Inc. - ECW-40 Satellite Chronometer

ECW-40 Satellite Chronometer

ECW-40 Satellite Chronometer

Time Reference Standard and Clock Display for Communications Loggers

The Eventide ECW-40 Satellite Chronometer is a unique product which serves as an extremely accurate time and date reference for tape logging recorders such as the Eventide VR240 and VR204 and Dictaphone 9800 digital communications loggers. Since these units can record for several hundred hours on a single tape, they encode a digital time code along with the audio on each channel. This verifies the date and time each segment was recorded and enables the user to search and play back specific material on the tape.

These units do have an internal clock. However, most installations typically do not have a highly accurate time standard to which the logger clocks can be set. Moreover, in the absence of a connected external time reference, the recorder's internal clocks can drift several seconds per week.

The ECW-40 answers these needs with the most modern technology available. It has a built-in GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) receiver, which simultaneously receives time signals from several orbiting satellites. Accuracy is maintained to within +/- 1 microsecond. A single ECW-40 can supply time reference information to several logging recorders, thus synchronizing their recorded time codes to a single standard. The unit can also supply time reference to other external devices via an RS-232 serial data connection.

Time - either local or UTC- and date information are shown on the ECW-40's large, brightly lit, graphic LCD display. The user can choose from among twenty different predefined display formats, or create a custom format. Battery-backed RAM memory saves user-set information in the event of a power failure.

In addition to showing the current time and date, the display of the ECW-40 Satellite Chronometer can also show the recorded time and date info of an audio channel being played back from a Dictaphone 9800, Eventide VR240 or VR204 logger, as well as from Eventide VP204 or VP244 players. In this mode, the ECW-40 serves as a much larger, very easy-to-read display which duplicates the time and date readout of the logger. It's ideal for use when time information is being observed by several people from a distance, for example, in a large control room, or when tapes are being played as evidence in a courtroom.

Your facility will finally have a truly accurate clock and your logging system will have a stable, sychronized time reference standard when the Eventide ECW-40 is added to your communications audio logging installation.