Broadcast International (BI) will demonstrate live HD video encoding at less than 3Mb/s. The company claims this is the first time in the broadcast industry that video will be encoded from a live camera feed at this rate of video compression. The company’s CodecSys video compression software is now integrated with IBM’s Media Hub framework for real-time encoding in a production broadcast workflow environment.

HD video is typically transmitted at the MPEG-2 standard of 19.4Mb/s. A compression rate of less than 3Mb/s means that video providers can reduce their bandwidth needs by more than 80 percent for HD quality, with more video packed into less bandwidth. This will allow IPTV providers to keep up with bandwidth-intensive, HD video requirements to be competitive against cable and satellite TV providers.

The video distribution process involves a variety of file formats, bit rates, screen resolutions and audio and visual codecs. As such, real-time transcoding helps reduce the complexity of the delivery process. As the market strives to make the “any screen, any time” mentality a reality, real-time transcoding becomes mission-critical — especially considering that single video streams may need to be transcoded dozens of times to be distributed only over mobile handsets or the Internet.

BI’s CodecSys uses a multicodec approach to analyze the video stream and automatically determine the best-suited codec for a particular frame or video sequence from a library of specialized codecs. The codecs are designed to handle high-bandwidth video streams, such as motion in a sporting event and action movies. These types of fast-action scenes are extremely bandwidth intensive, often causing chokepoints on general-purpose codecs. BI’s processor increases performance by selecting the most relevant codec to increase processing power and video compression. Combined with IBM’s Media Hub, HDTV can be delivered at compression levels four to six times higher than is currently possible. Furthermore, as standards and requirements evolve, the software can be easily upgraded to accommodate future needs.

For more information, visit www.brin.com.