In high-end professional video cameras a triax
system is used for transferring various signals back and forth over a single
coaxial cable between the camera and a base unit using frequency
multiplexing. In current low-cost camera systems several signals are transferred as analogue signals over separate wires or cables. However, the analogue camera CVBS
video output signal is replaced by a standard serial SDI
signal from the camera to a base unit, achieving a maximum
data rate of 270 Mbit / s. According to the invention, a single SDI or HDSDI connection is used for transmitting a digital playback video
signal as well as a digital teleprompter video signal from the base unit to the camera. A one-dimensional adaptive
dynamic range compression is used to reduce the data
word length of the two video signals to be transmitted via the SDI / HDSDI connection. To one of the two video signals a smaller data
word length is assigned than to the data
word length of the other one.