CodecSys AVC, Now Six Times More Compression

by Alan Harten

Last week’s IBC in Amsterdam saw a flurry of activity, not least of all in announcements from companies.

One of those was from Broadcast International, who were letting the world know about their CodecSys AVC, which they claim to be the first Cell Broadband Engine based broadcast-quality video encoder.

They new system will give content providers the ability to deliver high-definition television at new much more intensified compression levels.

The AVC is capable of delivery at six times the present levels of compression available with MPEG2.

They say that this will open up the HD market for devices that currently can’t receive the signal due to their limited bandwidth capabilities.

The tech behind the new system comes from IBM’s BladeCenter QS21 server.

This was originally designed to give the huge computing power needed to power the latest gaming apps.

The Cell/B.E. processor is part of the QS21 and has been adapted to help the AVC manage the huge numbers of video channels and the premium quality video needed for delivery of the HD programming to the devices.

Like many new developments, the company claims that AVC is “future-proof” and will be able to deal with any new codec developments and any other standards that may need to be changed.

They say the system is very scalable with more processing power easily nailed on if required.

Unlike other video encoders, the AVC does not work off inflexible tightly coupled, embedded hardware/software architectures, which mean upgrading is not practical.

This is where the company believe they have the greatest advantage, as their clients will not have to scrap equipment and start again, they can just add on to the AVC.

CodecSys AVC also features technology from NextIO that solves one of the most important challenges encountered by high-speed HD video transmission – limited input/output (I/O) throughput.

The ultra-high speed connections provided by the NextIO’s PCI Express-based ExpressConnect solutions allow maximum and scalable data flow to the system, commensurate with the processing power of the IBM BladeCenter environment.

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