This is really just a few thoughts on running multiple HD-SDI signals along one cable- a number of production sound mixers have historically run multiple analogue sources over CAT5 cable (and even with a balanced audio return), however, the majority of video signals around set are increasingly HD-SDI, which are more fussy over the 75ohm BNC cable they’re distributed through.
My first thoughts were to up the spec of the cable, to CAT6 or CAT7, which have superior shielding, however I found that Muxlab make a passive HD-SDI balun which says it can transfer HD-SDI video over 120m of CAT5e cable. As it only uses one pair of wires out of 8 in the CAT5e cable, I can’t see a reason why you couldn’t wire 2 (or even 4) of these baluns to run over 1 cable. There also isn’t much to them, they’re a 75ohm to 100ohm balun transformer, however they need to work at 1.5GHz in order to transfer HD-SDI, and 3GHz for 3G SDI (and finding a suitable transformer is more difficult)
After looking at the 3G-SDI spec (SMPTE424M), I noticed there was a mode (B-DS), which allows 2 independent HD-SDI signals to be transferred in one channel. So I had a look round for a box that could combine and split the two signals, and came across something even more powerful: Blackmagic’s SDI multiplex 4K mini converter* This allows 4 independent 1.5Gbit HD-SDI signals to be muliplexed into one 6G-SDI signal. This will also allow for current monitors to work with fancy new 4K signals and it’ll also work as a distribution amplifier if things get a bit congested at video village (although this is not sound dept’s job). I don’t know whether it’d be possible to run a 6G-SDI balun, CAT6 cable is capable of handling 10Mbit/s networks, however not over long distances (CAT7 would be more appropriate, if a suitable transformer could be found)
Another solution is running a quad split, where the converter box will put up to 4 different images on each quarter of the screen- a single, larger monitor could be a good solution to this, however an advantage could be to be able to get a cheaper HDMI monitor (as some have HDMI out), run the quad split close to that. Decimator design make a number of suitable boxes for this, depending on your requirements.
*amendment- After contacting both Muxlab and Blackmagic about their 6G multiplexer boxes, they’ve both said they *should* support multiple streams, however they’ll all need to be in sync, however neither company has tested them. So neither box has sample rate converters (or their video equivalent?) on the inputs. I’d expect them to work if all the cameras have genlock sources on lockits