AV Workbox — Reference Tool

Broadcast Codec

The reference I reach for when a show won't wait. Connectors, codecs, loudness standards, signal specs, and the calculators I actually use — every number traced back to primary manufacturer documentation, not a diagram someone copied off another diagram.

$14.99 one-time Live on four platforms

App Store Play Store MS Store

What it does

Four things, one tap away.

No login, no cloud round-trip, no ads in the middle of a lookup. It opens to what you need and stays out of the way.

01 — Reference

Look it up

Audio specs, codecs, colour & HDR, frame rates, loudness targets, resolutions, signal levels, IP / ST 2110, lighting, and connector pinouts — grouped the way an engineer thinks about them, with a note on why each value is what it is.

02 — Calculate

Work the math

SDI cable-run limits, audio delay from distance and speed of sound, sample counts, dB ↔ ratio. The calculations you'd otherwise do on a phone calculator and second-guess.

03 — Convert

Change units

Timecode ↔ frames at any rate, drop and non-drop, feet ↔ metres, and the other conversions that come up on a cable run or a spec sheet.

04 — Connect

Wire it right

Connector faces drawn from manufacturer datasheets and dimensioned drawings — XLR, DT12/FK37, EDAC/SAC, Socapex, D-sub fanouts, RJ-family, and more — with the pin assignments and the caveats that come with them.

What's inside

Reference categories.

Growing most weeks. New connector categories and manufacturer references get added as the sourcing work clears.

Audio Specs Codecs Colour & HDR Frame Rates Loudness Resolutions Signals IP & ST 2110 Lighting Connector Pinouts Intercom / Talkback Broadcast Control Manufacturer refs — rolling out

A look at it

Built to be read fast.

Dark, dense, and legible on a dimmed phone at front-of-house. Same layout on iOS, macOS, Android, and Windows.

Broadcast Codec reference view showing audio sample-rate entries, each with its Nyquist frequency and a plain-language note on where it's used.

Reference Audio specs, with the reason each rate exists

Broadcast Codec IP and SMPTE ST 2110 reference screen.

Reference IP & SMPTE ST 2110 essentials

Broadcast Codec SDI cable-run calculator.

Calculate SDI run limits by rate and cable type

Broadcast Codec connector view showing an XLR pinout diagram.

Connect Connector faces traced from datasheets

Broadcast Codec timecode-to-frames converter.

Convert Timecode ↔ frames, drop and non-drop

Where the data comes from

Every value has a source.

Most reference tools and PDFs in this corner are the same secondhand diagrams, copied and re-copied until nobody knows where a pin assignment came from. This one is built the other way around.

Primary documentation first

Pinouts, loudness targets, SDI and IP specs — each one checked against the manufacturer's own datasheet, the published standard, or a dimensioned drawing. Connector faces are traced from CAD geometry and datasheet drawings, not product photos.

A running accuracy audit

There's a documented internal process for catching the entries most likely to be wrong — order-specific or assembly-specific wiring shown as if it were a fixed standard. Those get flagged and re-checked rather than left to sit.

Honest about the gaps

When there's no authoritative source for something, the entry says so — plainly, in the note — instead of dressing a best guess up as verified fact. A reference you can't trust on the edge cases isn't much of a reference.

Manufacturer-specific stays gated

Manufacturer catalog references only appear in the app once that manufacturer has given permission. Until then the work happens off to the side, not in front of you.