Codec specialists Broadcast International (BI) and On2 Technologies announced at CES that they will bring together each of their strong points, On2’s VP6 and VP7 TrueMotion codecs which are embedded in Adobe’s Flash, and the BI CodecSys Cell chip based encoders, which use multiple codecs simultaneously and takes the most compressed frame from each of them, which is shooting for HD compression in under 3 Mbps of bandwidth.
This integration was triggered by a one time license payment from BI which will now port the codecs to the Cell chip architecture, with On2’s help. It will allow high speed encoding of Flash Video files, or higher resolutions or those files, in real time. That means that about 90% of all PCs on the planet and something approaching 300 million mobile devices can view these files, which are expected to support Flash with FLV video.
Underlying this deal the two companies see a single Cell based encoder blade chassis, holding up to 9 blades, each with two Cell chips, driving encoding of between 40 to 50 TV signals, some for broadcast, some for mobile TV, some for internet video, all working in real time, and targeting multiple devices types with multiple device resolutions.
“The days of small-screen, jerky, fuzzy video over the Internet are numbered,” said Rod Tiede, CEO of Broadcast International. “Our agreement with On2 will make watching video on your computer the same quality experience as on your home theater system. And if you’re not at a computer, you can watch it seamlessly on your PDA or phone. It’s a real breakthrough for consumers, everywhere.”
Through a prior agreement with IBM, the CodecSys software is powered by IBM’s Cell Broadband Engine, the same powerful, multi-core IBM chip used in the Sony Playstation 3.
BI believes that with the new compression available from its CodecSys system using On2 codecs, Placeshifting, the idea of sending live and recorded TV signals over the internet to a remote device, will be possible with higher resolutions. Given that it is unlikely that the average home will have a Cell Blade installed, this seems to imply that the company is either planning to harness the PlayStation 3 for placeshift encoding or that the encoding will have to be done in the network, as a kind of hosted offering.
BI is also likely to offer an H.264 encoder as well as the VP6 and VP7 codecs, and we wouldn’t rule that out from being the Handro Arm processor targeted codec which was acquired by On2 last year.
Just prior to the New Year BI closed a funding round raising $15 million in 6.25% senior secured convertible promissory notes and the money will be used to finalize the development of the CodecSys technology and to fund its market launch.