Thomson offers improved ViBE encoder with compression gains
Thomson Video Networks has launched a new quad-channel multistandard version of its ViBE EM4000 MPEG broadcast encoder, and the company says it is another step up in efficiency for broadcasters seeking to deploy more HD and SD channels within bandwidth limits.
Developed for satellite, terrestrial, cable, and IPTV applications, the ViBE EM4000 encoder has capacity for four channels within a single 1RU chassis and allows each channel to consume only 70W of energy. Using the latest generation of Thomson’s Mustang compression technology, the ViBE EM4000 can deliver efficiency improvement of 15 per cent or more when encoding in MPEG-4 AVC, freeing up bandwidth that enables broadcasters to run an extra channel per multiplex or transponder.
“The ViBE EM4000 platform offers enormous potential in almost any broadcasting scenario, now and into the future,” says Hervé Congard, chief operating officer at Thomson Video Networks. “From the launch of the first version last year, it has provided the next big advance in compression performance, and this new quad-channel configuration is the second stage of our ambitious development program for the product, which will see 30 percent gains in efficiency over the previous generation of technology.”
The Thomson Mustang 2.0 encoding engine increases HD MPEG-4 AVC encoding efficiency through improved motion estimation, refined multipass encoding, and advanced pre-processing. Thomson says the ViBE EM4000 can deliver further efficiency benefits when configured as part of a statistical multiplexing system using Thomson’s new Flextream 2.0 technology, which frees up bandwidth provisioned for the processing of service components such as audio, teletext, subtitling, and closed captioning, allowing it to be reallocated to improve video quality.
The ViBE EM4000 is now multistandard with HD, SD, MPEG-4 AVC, and MPEG-2 encoding capability, providing superior flexibility in headend deployments and extensions.
The ViBE EM4000’s comprehensive feature list includes unmatched support for multichannel audio compression; Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and AAC/HE-AAC support; DVB subtitling from teletext input; and the ability to input from 3G sources.
A future-proof platform with ample development potential, the ViBE EM4000 MPEG broadcast encoder can be deployed as a stand-alone encoder or as part of a headend infrastructure with multiplexers and a network management system.