Thor Broadcast Logo
Log in
Cart (0)
  • es ES
  • Products
    • CATV Modulators
      • HDMI RF Modulators
      • HD-SDI converters
      • IP to CATV Edge Modulators
    • DVB Encoders
      • IPTV Video Encoders
      • Hdmi RTSP RTMP RTSP Encoders
      • Transcoders, MPEG Converters, IP ASI Gateways
    • Decoders (IRD's & STB's)
      • RF input - Video /Audio Ouput
      • IP Broadcast Decoders
      • RF CATV and IPTV OTT STB's
    • Satellite Modulators
      • DVB-S/S2 Satellite Modulators
    • Fiber Optic Transport
      • SDI Fiber Optic Extenders, Digital Audio Extenders
      • SDI SD/HD/3G with CWDM
      • Cable TV CATV RF 45-900Mhz
      • L-Band Satellite RF 45-3000Mhz
      • Data & Ethernet over fiber
    • HDMI SDI Switchers, LAN Extenders, and Wireless Video Transport
      • HD Video Switchers and Signal Format Converters for AV Pros
      • Wireless HD SD Video Data Equipment
      • Video Audio Extenders Over Ethernet LAN IP Network
    • DIscounted Inventory
      • Satellite and CATV Broadcast Equipment for Sale
      • Lab Used Broadcast Equipment on sale
      • Past Generation Equipment
    • SDI Monitors
    • Warehouse
  • About
  • Client Portfolio
  • Support
      • Support Center Support Center
      • User Manuals User
        Manuals
      • Request an RMA Request an
        RMA
  • ⬇Download
    • Manuals
    • Datasheets
    • Quick Guides
  • Case Studies
    • THOR Gym
    • THOR Stadium
    • THOR Hotel
    • THOR University
  • Videos
  • Contact
  • Become a Reseller

SDI to RF

Consumer grade electronics found in your everyday household have adopted HDMI as their go to connection platform for most media products found near television sets. The problem with HDMI is that it requires encryption and HDCP compliant products.

Table of Contents

  • The Problem with HDMI for Professional AV
  • Why HD-SDI is Preferred for Live Events
  • Recommended HD-SDI to RF Solutions
  • How HD-SDI to RF Distribution Works
  • Low Latency for Houses of Worship and Live Venues
  • Stadiums, Sports Venues, and Hybrid Channel Lineups
  • Scaling for Modern and Legacy Infrastructure

Consumer grade electronics found in your everyday household have adopted HDMI as their go to connection platform for most media products found near television sets. The problem with HDMI is that it requires encryption and HDCP compliant products to transfer information correctly. While this is ideal for using Blu-Ray players and TV’s set top boxes, this creates massive headaches for audio visual professionals working with products that are not HDMI certified. Most notably these products come in the form of HD-video cameras that are shooting unencrypted high definition video in the form of 1.485 Gbt/s. More importantly it’s difficult to take a live feed from one of these camera’s and distribute that image all over an auditorium, stadium, house of worship, school, or conference center(for live events).

Uncompressed DVB camera feeds that feature HD-SDI video output are much more tangible for concert events than using consumer grade HDMI cameras. However the distribution of HD-SDI video had the necessity of being complicated and burdensome with special HD-SDI converters and hardware adapters so that the video footage streams could be viewed Live without spending enormous amounts of money. Now there’s a much simpler and easier to broadcast the video using an HD-SDI to RF encoder modulator. By running the video footage through existing coax that’s probably already built into the infrastructure of the venue, can make life a lot easier.

 

The H-4SDI-QAM-IPLL has the ideal solution for these needs.

or 8 channel HDMI / SDI H-HYBRID-RF-8

 

First the Thor encoder will take your raw DVB-HDSDI video and encode it to QAM, next you can set this video feed on a particular channel of your choice on any standard RF range. In effect you can use 4 HD-SDI camera’s shooting live video on 4 separate QAM channels being distributed to hundreds of TV’s in your infrastructure.

The Problem with HDMI for Professional AV

House of Worship has a demanding need to project Live video of their congregations in super-auditoriums. The problem has always been that they can do this rather easily, except for the delay in encoding equipment has always created audio and video gaps. Thor’s encoding equipment now offers Low Latency in their hardware and firmware creating an efficient vehicle for transmitting video feeds onto televisions through RF distribution. In the past encoders would usually take up to 2 full seconds to encoder the unencrypted high definition 1080i video quality streams. Now with efficient engineering you can stream SD-SDI video at about 70ms delay and HD-SDI at 110ms delay. Using high speed digital camera’s running a clock on a clear stream versus an encoded stream, we can see that the stability in timing never diminishes and is barely identifiable by the human eye.

Why HD-SDI is Preferred for Live Events

Recent applications of this same unit have been ideal for sports venues and stadiums. In some cases using a 4 channel modulator with a mix of HD-SDI and HDMI channels can result in a single platform that can be modulated to play on top of an existing RF channel lineup with the addition of your live HD-SDI streams on 2 channels and your own customized digital signage on another 2 channels. It’s rare that you can find such an efficient platform that encodes, modulates, and has an output to RF so that you can view these channels on any TV that has a built in QAM tuner (all newer sets include these).

How HD-SDI to RF Distribution Works

Presently around the world, cities and ownership groups are spending over a billion dollars on new state of the art stadiums for events. These stadiums come equipped with state of the art headend equipment rooms that enable every visitor to view the games over hundreds of television sets located all over the ball parks and arena’s. Some newer stadium builds are starting to incorporate some fiber into their newest construction jobs, however thousands of existing stadiums are already wired with copper for easy RF distribution to all of the television sets already plastered to every wall, ceiling, and bar/food area in these buildings. In order for these venues to properly place live DVB streams from the game as well as incorporating marketing and advertising media through digital signage, its crucially important to feature high end broadcast encoding equipment as well as a means to distribute that unencrypted HD-SDI signal in combination with digital signage using HDMI. HD-SDI to RF has become an invaluable resource in demonstrating this ability at the lowest cost available to design engineers.

Low Latency for Houses of Worship and Live Venues

Thor Fiber has been able to implement various inputs of HD-SDI, HDMI, YpBr, CVBS and analog inputs into an encoder modulator that will be able to implement every necessary piece of equipment stadium’s need to transmit those data streams over RF.

Stadiums, Sports Venues, and Hybrid Channel Lineups

Thor Fiber has been able to implement various inputs of HD-SDI, HDMI, YpBr, CVBS and analog inputs into an encoder modulator that will be able to implement every necessary piece of equipment stadium’s need to transmit those data streams over RF.

Scaling for Modern and Legacy Infrastructure

Thor Fiber has been able to implement various inputs of HD-SDI, HDMI, YpBr, CVBS and analog inputs into an encoder modulator that will be able to implement every necessary piece of equipment stadium’s need to transmit those data streams over RF.

SDI QAM MODULATOR
8 channel HDMI and SDI Clear CATV RF Modulator QAM, ATSC, DVB-T, ISDB-T 8 channel HDMI and SDI Clear CATV RF Modulator QAM, ATSC, DVB-T, ISDB-T
1- 4  SDI to QAM Modulators and IPTV Streaming Encoders 1- 4 SDI to QAM Modulators and IPTV Streaming Encoders
SDI over fiber
1 channel  SD/HD 3G SDI Fiber Extender 1080p/60hz 1 channel SD/HD 3G SDI Fiber Extender 1080p/60hz
3G SDI and Ethernet over Fiber 3G SDI and Ethernet over Fiber
Justin White
Justin White
Broadcast Engineer
Broadcast engineer specializing in turnkey CATV and fiber-transport solutions. Experienced in designing and deploying complete encoding/decoding workflows to move virtually any signal over IP, fiber, and RF. Focused on ultra-low-latency headend architectures and custom mux/demux builds, supporting demanding environments across telecom, sports, education, hospitality, studios, live events, and mission-critical institutions worldwide.
View author page
Contact us

Thor Broadcast Sales

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1(800)521-THOR (8467) Ext 1
FAX: 1(800)521-6384

Customer Service/ Support

Phone: 1-800 521-THOR(8467) Ext 2
Email: [email protected]

Case Studies

- Converting Clear QAM HDTV Channels to Analog RF NTSC for Multi-Site Distribution
- Stadium IPTV - Replay System
- Hotel HDMI-to-QAM TV Distribution
- University IPTV Lecture Systems

  • CATV Modulators:
    • HDMI RF Modulators
    • HD-SDI converters
    • IP to CATV Edge Modulators
  • DVB Encoders:
    • IPTV Video Encoders
    • Hdmi RTSP RTMP RTSP Encoders
    • Transcoders, MPEG Converters, IP ASI Gateways
  • Decoders (IRD's & STB's):
    • RF input - Video /Audio Ouput
    • IP Broadcast Decoders
    • RF CATV and IPTV OTT STB's
  • Satellite Modulators:
    • DVB-S/S2 Satellite Modulators
  • Fiber Optic Transport:
    • SDI Fiber Optic Extenders, Digital Audio Extenders
    • SDI SD/HD/3G with CWDM
    • Cable TV CATV RF 45-900Mhz
    • L-Band Satellite RF 45-3000Mhz
    • Data & Ethernet over fiber
    • Analog Audio Video
    • Fiber Amplifiers - EDFA
    • DVB - ASI
    • Fiber Jumpers, Cables, Attenuators,
    • Optic Splitters Couplers CWDM Muxes
    • Optical Meters, Test Equipment, Accesories
    • Analog Baseband Video Audio, RS485/422/232 Data, Contact Closure
  • HDMI SDI Switchers, LAN Extenders, and Wireless Video Transport:
    • HD Video Switchers and Signal Format Converters for AV Pros
    • Wireless HD SD Video Data Equipment
    • Video Audio Extenders Over Ethernet LAN IP Network
  • HD 4K Cameras, SDI - HDMI - IP Streaming - PTZ - Broadcast and Security:
    • PTZ Streaming Cameras Broadcast cameras with SDI ,HDMI CVBS USB
  • DIscounted Inventory:
    • Satellite and CATV Broadcast Equipment for Sale
    • Lab Used Broadcast Equipment on sale
    • Past Generation Equipment
  • SDI Monitors:
  • Warehouse:
Thor Broadcast Logo
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 1(800) 521-8467 Ext 1
FAX: 1(800)521-6384
Information:
  • About us
  • Client Portfolio
  • Become a Reseller
  • Contact
  • Articles
  • Return Policy
  • Shipping Policy
  • International Order Policy
Popular:
  • RF Modulator
  • HDMI over COAX
  • HDMI over IP
  • COAX to HDMI
  • HDMI to SDI

Thor Broadcast
Torrance Business Park
2421 W 205th St
Torrance
CA 90501

© 2026 Thor Broadcast
Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up here to get the latest news, updates and special offers delivered directly to your inbox.

You can unsubscribe at any time
newsletter image