Imminent close of KIWI OSD manufacture.

OUT OF STOCK

If I was asked in 2004 - is the KIWI OSD Video Time Inserter (VTI) a consumer product? I would have said of course! Just connect power and video cables, point GPS at the sky and that's it! Now after 5 years of user feedback, I know it is not that simple, there are a huge number of technical questions about using GPS technology. As the number of units sold has increased, e-mail questions have increased to a point I cannot keep up. Trying to do this in my spare and hobby time has become unsustainable.

Most e-mail is from new users asking questions, and although I have tried to keep up, I realize the technology requires a level of customer support that I simply never anticipated. It is clear that a much more complex (and thus expensive) VTI system is required to become a true consumer product that does not require such a high level of support. So after five years of production - the manufacture of KIWI OSD is soon to end, once current stock is exhausted at the USA Web Shop.

There is a need for someone to design a new "consumer" VTI, to meet the needs that have arisen since KIWI OSD was first designed - machine readable text, greater than 1 millisecond accuracy, not only "timing fault" detection - but "timing fault" correction, easy text control like font size and text positioning, and much more information provided as the GPS attempts to get a FIX.

In this respect the current KIWI OSD device is like a "beach buggy" compared to a Rolls Royce car!

However I want to reassure current users of KIWI OSD, that it still meets my original claims and specification. Some great work has been done with the little old "beach buggy", and I trust that will continue for many years to come for current users.

I can now appreciate that the next generation of VTI - is much more complex than I can design, as a hobbyist project.

However I like to think that KIWI OSD has played an important part in the development of video timing, especially the finding (from its integrity code functions) that issues involved with the "power supply and wiring" are the greatest weakness for precision video timing - rather than needing a better GPS system or receiver!

There are many many people I wish to thank for helping with the KIWI OSD project:

Vince Sempronio for USA production, Gerhard Dangl for his video precision experiments, Dave Gault and Brian Loader for local encouragement, Walt Morgan for his height studies, Scott Degenhardt and Derek Breit for pushing the envelope in all directions. Gosh so many people have advanced our use of GPS timing with all sorts of interesting experiments - and I hope this will continue for a long time.

Indeed once the dust has settled - I myself would like to do a "write up" of what I have learned over the years from the integrity code in KIWI OSD. This may help current users with more reliable data collection - and also help those designing next generation VTI systems.

Regards , Kiwi Geoff - April 2009.