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We describe a flexible 4.5 MJ pulse power supply (PPS) for use as a driver for experimental electrothermal guns. The PPS consists of 18 identical pulse forming modules which can be set to discharge independently at predetermined intervals. The system features 1 % capacitor bank charge repeatability from shot to shot and an ability to generate short and long pulses for each of the modules using a combination of pulse shaping inductors, crowbar resistors and diodes. Fiberoptic isolation for the controls and diagnostics provides a high level of noise immunity from the main gun circuit. Critical components were selected with ample safety margin, to allow for reliable operations and ability to fie-through a gun breech short circuit fault.

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Much has been written on the subject of maintaining video quality in a modern television facility. But with often as many as a hundred or more television channels to monitor, we must be concerned not only with signal quality, but also with the continuity of the video, multiple audio channels, closed captioning, V-Chip parental guidance and other VBI data associated with each channel. The task of monitoring so many channels, often involves employing a plethora of gadgets specifically designed to check each function. But even with the best equipment, it is difficult to watch up to a hundred picture monitors and impossible to monitor the levels and phases of hundreds of audio channels. And then what do we do about the closed captions, XDS and other data on every channel? This paper describes a system using in-line video and audio converters, to automatically monitor signal continuity, at the same time as reporting video errors (including EDH, frozen video and black), audio levels and phases, closed captions, V-Chip parental guidance, source identification and time information. Any errors discovered, are automatically flagged over a TCI/IP network and may be logged in a database. A remote monitoring and control system, based on the common SNMP protocol, is described.