French encoder specialist Ateme reckons that its new transcoding system for contribution using 10-bit H.264, gives it a year’s head start over rivals such as Tandberg, Norway’s T-VIPS and Japanese rivals NTT and Fujitsu, for transmitting HD signals for contribution, and a genuine chance to sign tier 1 implementer partners.
Encoding systems for contribution always precede a market and have to offer higher quality than distribution or last mile video delivery. The expression ‘for contribution’ means that this is raw video that will be made into TV programs of every quality, as it is moved around the planet via satellite and IP MPLS systems, often from remote outside broadcasting locations such as soccer matches or war zones.
Sylvain Riviere, EVP for marketing at Ateme told us, ‘Our new system offers support for 10-bit 422P support for contribution up to 1080p60. This means that each HD contribution stream will take up anything up to 30 Mbps.’
In a 422 system the color is sampled half as often as the brightness, which is generally thought to retain enough data for editing. In 420 video for access networks, the color is sampled a quarter as often as the brightness, which is thought to be fine for viewing purposes.
‘Right now most ‘for contribution’ streams are sent in either MPEG 2 in 8-bit at 50 or 60 Mbps or JPEG 2000 at 200 Mbps. We can get the same quality down to 30 Mbps when transmission is done in 10 bits, saving satellite or MPLS bandwidth.’
With 10-bit AVC/H.264 encoding the content is maintained throughout IP/MPLS network at the same resolution and picture information level as at source, ensuring pristine video quality and increasing capacity over DVB-S2 satellite feeds, with two HD streams per signal instead of just one with the legacy codecs.
At NAB Ateme will target the big US broadcasters with this new product such as ABC, CBS and Turner. Until now Tandberg has dominated MPEG2 contribution encoding with K-VIPS offering a JPEG 2000 system and NTT and Fujitsu offering H.264 encoding but in 8-bit on both 422 and 420 systems. Ateme reckons it’s first with 10-bit encoding. Its system sits in a 1RU rack, built around its proprietary FPGA and Ateme says that its existing FPGA can be reprogrammed to offer this service, which is why it figures it has a 1 year lead over rivals, who mostly work with less flexible ASIC chips which will need a new production run.
Meanwhile T-VIPS said this week that it has won a contribution order from ORF, Austria’s public service broadcaster, for an IP video contribution system, based on JPEG2000, which it will use for delivery of HD programming in 1080p/50 over an MPLS network. The T-VIPS JPEG2000 system will operate at around 400 Mbps.