Fujitsu IP-9500 MPEG-4 AVC Low Latency Encoder Enables High Definition Satellite News Gathering

Encoder Offers Exceptional Picture Quality at Low Data Rates for Low Cost Satellite Transmission

Today’s broadcasting industry has seen an increase in demand for High Definition (HD) news content. While many national and local news programs are being broadcast in High Definition, because of the high cost of satellite transmissions, remote news broadcasts in HD are quite rare. Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc., today announced that the Fujitsu IP-9500 MPEG-4 AVC HD Encoder is an exceptional solution for broadcasting companies that desire to transmit remote HD content through existing satellite configurations, while minimizing costs by utilizing a single satellite channel. The IP-9500, which is being showcased at HD World this week, offers broadcast quality video transmission at low bit-rates and low latency, enabling HD news content to be transmitted in the same satellite bandwidth as standard definition (SD), at a fraction of the cost of competing products.

“The IP-9500 is ideal for today’s HD satellite news gathering. As a result of using innovative MPEG-4 AVC compression algorithms developed by Fujitsu Laboratories, the IP-9500 delivers HD quality at a very low latency, encoding and decoding video content at less than 300 milliseconds,” said Vic Herring, senior director, new products group, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. “Fujitsu anticipates that MPEG-4 AVC will become the industry standard to replace MPEG-2 for demanding HD applications such as SNG, pushing us to innovate products for a rapidly growing HD market. We’re inviting major broadcast, satellite and cable networks to review and qualify our product.”

Although the IP-9500 encoder has been introduced to the U.S. market only recently, it is in wide use today in Japan. The Fujitsu encoder supports both 1080i and 720p formats with video data rates from 4-20 Mbps in both standard and low latency. Today’s DVB-S/S2 satellite technology segments a satellite transponder into multiple individual “channels”. Fujitsu’s IP-9500 MPEG4 AVC HD Codec encoder provides high picture quality down to 4Mbps (Mega-bits per second) allowing for high quality HD content to be transmitted in a single DVB-S/S2 satellite channel. In return, companies could save up to 50 percent in operating costs versus having to use two channels for MPEG-2 encoded data.

“When coupling the Sencore MRD decoders with the Fujitsu IP-9500 encoder, we’re able to offer the broadcast industry a new best-of-breed application,” said Chuck Robertson, general manager, Sencore “The IP-9500 encoder provides broadcast quality video content to be transmitted in a single satellite channel, opposed to current solutions that require twice the bit-rate to obtain equivalent picture quality. Together we combine complimentary skills and technology that enable broadcast stations to deliver to a quickly evolving market for HD satellite news gathering.”

With the IP-9500 encoder, Fujitsu addresses market-leading specifications for today’s real-time, high-quality video streaming. It will feature:

• Video coding: MPEG-4 AVC High Profile at Level 4
• Video bit-rates: 4Mb/s to 20Mb/s
• Latency: 300ms to 1.6s
• Audio coding: MPEG-1 L2, MPEG-2 ACC, Dolby Pass-Through
• Network interface: DVB-ASI, 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX/1000BASE-T

The encoder appliance is priced at $49,950 (U.S. list) and is available for qualification by all broadcast and cable networks.

Press Release source: Fujitsu.