RENNES, France — Sept. 10, 2010 — Thomson Video Networks (formerly the digital headend division of Grass Valley) has announced a significant upgrade to the functionality of the ViBE EM1000 and EM2000 encoders with the addition of MPEG-over-IP input and built-in DVB subtitle transcoding. The new capabilities give broadcasters an outstandingly versatile tool for both primary encoding and turnaround channels, with the ability to re-encode signals received on ASI or IP, within a full IP architecture delivering uncompromised picture quality.
IP has rapidly become the dominant headend infrastructure transport format, offering reduced cost with increased routing flexibility and enabling the use of remote statistical multiplexing. Thomson has been the driving force behind many of the open standards available today for secure handling of video over IP, and with this upgrade the Thomson ViBE encoder range is capable of replacing traditional SDI routers with an all-IP architecture, providing a major advance in control and redundancy management.
Based on the most advanced video compression engine on the market today, the ViBE SD MPEG-2/MPEG-4 AVC encoders establish a new benchmark for SD single- or multichannel encoding, and are perfect for satellite and terrestrial broadcast applications, cable and high-end IPTV operations, and other kinds of content aggregation.
With dual GigEthernet and ASI input, support for decoding SD/HD video, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 standard, and several audio standards including Dolby® Digital, any ViBE EM1000 or EM2000 hosting the MPEG-over-IP input option can adapt its behavior to several applications, from turnaround applications to interfacing with primary contribution over IP.
“All of these applications require the best possible picture quality at minimal bitrates,” said Christophe Delahousse, president of Thomson Video Networks. “With the addition of MPEG input, the ViBE EM1000 and EM2000 encoders have become a true Swiss Army® knife for broadcasters and media operators, providing outstanding picture quality with a versatile range of functions that makes it possible to reduce the cost of infrastructure by dispensing with external decoders and SDI routers.”
The ViBE EM1000 and EM2000 encoders now offer MPEG, ASI, and baseband inputs, with built-in automatic redundancy on incoming IP streams. In addition to MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 encoding, the EM1000 and EM2000 encoders also support VBR and CBR streams and offer pass-through of data resynchronized with video.
Combining compression efficiency features, including the complete MPEG-4 AVC toolset and advanced preprocessing, the ViBE EM1000 and EM2000 MPEG SD encoders deliver clearer pictures with increased depth and clarity. Including a powerful compression engine with true multipass encoding, they deliver MPEG-4 AVC compression at more than 50 percent efficiency compared to existing MPEG-2 systems.
