Denver 8 TV, the official cable station of the the City, and County of Denver announced today plans to incorporate fiber optic transceivers into their camera setup. The station, which mainly provides coverage of local, government, and community events will essentially be able to jack in the city's existing fiber optic network, and transmit data back to a control room across the street. The new gear will save them time, and provide audio, video, sync, and communications signals across a single cable.

the camera-mounted CopperHead transceivers (pictured here with additional battery packs) are the latest gadget from Massachusetts based Telecast Fiber Systems. The CopperHead features all the ins and outs of a standard transceiver, and is capable of sending NTSC, Digital SDI, or HD/SDI signals over distances of 20 Kilometers, or about 12 miles. The little black box is fairly small, fitting between the battery pack, and the butt end of a standard ENG style camera.

This seems like a great resource for studios and production facilities with an existing fiber network. In fact, it could even be a good incentive for start up companies to look at fiber as a single cable solution. The best part is, the network can still be used for super-fast transmission of regular old data. If nothing else, it's a great example of the narrowing gap between the television, and data networks.

click READ below for a link to the Press release