NHK and Village Island simplify 8K video transport and SDI cabling with TICO
NHK and Village-Island have developed a new system called VICO-8, that makes it possible to transport 8K 4:2:2 60p 10bits on a single 12G-SDI cable using intoPIX TICO compression technology. VICO-8 takes 8K video as 4x 12G-SDI input as compress by a factor of four to one, in visually lossless quality, generating a single TICO 8K stream output mapped on a single 12G-SDI interface with a delay of few video lines, so less than 1msec.
8K 60p 4:2:2 (10bits) usually requires 16x 3G-SDI or 4x 12G-SDI for raw quality transport. Such high numbers of SDI cables implies many drawbacks such as space constraints, high costs and high complexity of wiring. Furthermore, a UHD signal spread on multiple SDI cables brings problems for signal distribution, switching, transmission and other basic operations.
The gain in bringing 8K to a single 12G-SDI is huge. It enables users to achieve 8K with 4K-ready appliances, wherever it is about switching, distributing, transmitting the signal on optical fibre or other support. Dividing dramatically the cost of infrastructure, the gain of VICO-8 is exponential when considering matrix switcher where VICO decreased the number of required input by four, while decreasing the number of required outputs by four, dividing the number of required nodes by 16.
The VICO-8 was developed in collaboration with the NHK, a pioneer in Super Hi-Vision technology. “The gain of using VICO-8 can be dramatic within our 8K OBVAN where the constraints on space, heat, wirings, energy are the most challenging” says Miyazaki san, senior manager of Engineering Administration Department at NHK. “8K on a single SDI cable simplify our operations and reduce risks inside the OB van”.
The VICO-8 can be configured as an encoder or a decoder. As an 8K decoder, it can also be configured to output a down-converted 4K output, thanks to the internal down-scaler available in the TICO compression. It is saving the cost of heavy 8K professional displays, when 4K display are available to monitor the 8K signal.
“All of this would not have been possible without intoPIX TICO supporting resolutions up to 7680×4320 pixels, while keeping all its famous performances.” says Yoshizu Taira, OEM Manager at Village Island. “Our customers are just expecting to work with raw quality and near-to-zero delay, and only TICO would bring this reality on affordable FGPA”.
“TICO technology eases the access to 8K to a wide range of users and applications. 12G-SDI is getting more and more popular in new broadcast infrastructures”, says Jean-Baptiste Lorent, marketing director at intoPIX. He adds: “intoPIX is happy to accelerate the transition to 8K broadcasting, the so-called Super Hi-vision. Enabling 8K on TICO for NHK with the development of new FPGA IP-cores was a natural evolution for us”.