communications satellites at transmit antennas 13 using techniques well known to one skilled in the art the serial digital router 10 can be operated to present the same signal to the noise reducers 11 or two different signals in similar fashion two other outputs of the serial digital router 10 are connected to digital to analog converters 14 and 16 which convert the sdi signal back into an analog format the analog audio and video signals are then connected to vtrs 15 and 17 it is often useful to place monitoring connections at the inputs and or outputs of the various units of equipment shown in fig1 this monitoring serves two purposes first to monitor the quality of the outputs of the equipment at various processing stages in the facility and second to pinpoint the location of equipment failures in the facility fig2 shows the television production facility in fig1 with the addition of monitoring connections to serial digital router 20 digital to analog converters 22 convert the sdi output signal from serial digital router 20 to an analog format suitable for display on standard television monitors 23 in this fashion two different inputs from the serial digital router 20 can be displayed on monitors 23 however this monitoring capability has the disadvantages of tying up outputs from the main serial digital router 20 as well as the fact that only inputs to the serial digital router 20 can be monitored if for example the input 21 to the serial digital router 20 corresponding to camera 23 fails the prior art monitoring solution in fig2 cannot determine if the problem is in the camera 23 connecting cable 24 or in the analog to digital converter 25 it is possible to connect additional monitoring cables.