IBC 2008 | Sports Technology Blog | Media Excel Releases HERA 4000

Media Excel Releases HERA 4000
by | Sep 15, 2008 - 10:30:10 AM

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Media Excel is releasing its new HERA 4000 line of transcoder products at the International Broadcasters Convention . The HERA 4000 is a video compression product that can stream two real-time, simultaneous HD streams in a single product. As the first encoder/transcoder to use the Texas Instruments DaVinci technology digital media processor, the HERA 4000 introduces a new platform for content creators that need to simultaneously distribute high-resolution video over broadcast, web, and mobile networks in an efficient, cost-effective manner.

The HERA 4000 enables broadcast, cable, satellite, telco, and web video firms to rapidly encode, transcode, and distribute professional, broadcast-quality video to any device over any network. Leveraging Media Excel’s patented encoding techniques, the HERA 4000 products provide higher quality video at much higher speeds and much lower costs than previous industry solutions.

Media Excel will demonstrate the HERA 4000 at its booth at IBC 2008 #2.C24, in Hall 2 of the RAI Convention Center.

As HD content becomes more available on web and mobile devices, and as U.S. broadcasters complete the transition to an all-digital terrestrial environment on February 18, 2009, the HERA 4000 will enable broadcasters to more efficiently handle multiple standard definition (SD) as well as HD streams. Webcasters can more effectively serve tens of thousands of real-time viewers, and mobile networks can more efficiently handle video over cellular and broadband networks. Using the HERA 4000, customers can transcode 2 channels of MPEG-2 HD to H.264 HD or 8 channels of MPEG-2 SD to H.264 SD in a live IPTV broadcast scenario.

“We have achieved several benchmarks with the HERA 4000 that enable us to deliver a highly scalable, high-density product that can handle a wide range of professional video applications,” said Thanasis Iatrou, CEO of Media Excel. “The market demands supreme technical efficiencies in order to make the next-generation video era happen, and our patented software, combined with the DaVinci processor, are delivering enormous value to customers that cannot wait any longer for real-time video to appear on multiple networks simultaneously.”

According to the Cisco Systems Visual Networking Index, global IP traffic will nearly double every two years through 2012, so that the Internet will be 75 times larger than it was in 2002. Monthly traffic will reach 28 exabytes, or 27 billion gigabytes. The HERA 4000 will enable up to 40 times real-time file conversion, saving space and time, and offering up to 70% lower total cost of ownership than software-based

“The explosion of video consumption has enabled a market that is realizing the ‘Long Tail’ today; content creators can literally monetize libraries of video instantly, and transcoding brings this to the fore,” said Lewis Ward, analyst with IDC. “The Media Excel platform is an ideal universal gateway for any large-scale video distributor.”

Media Excel has developed a hardware solution that utilizes the DaVinci processor in a single-rack product that is ideal for broadcasters and cable operators, as well as mobile operators, telcos, web video aggregators, content delivery networks and media content production firms.

“The exploding demand for video content across ever more delivery networks has necessitated a more efficient, and scalable video encoding and transcoding solution that we can deploy across all of our production centers,” said MTV Networks’ Tris Baer, VP of Application Development. “The Media Excel HERA 4000 transcoder has a dynamic suite of features in a single appliance, delivering a solution that removes cost and complexities in encoding a variety of formats for delivery to a wide array of networks and devices.”

The new, DaVinci -based Media Excel HERA 4000 encoder/transcoder product line provide in a single, 1U appliance:

* 2 channels of MPEG2 HD to H.264 HD or 8 channels of MPEG2 SD to H.264 SD live IPTV transcoding

* a unique, scalable solution, for massive live or file transcoding from mobile TV to high definition applications

* a common platform and remote management for live broadcasting and VoD file adaptation

* multiple, multi-codec, multi-bit rate, simultaneous inputs and outputs for encoding and transcoding

* multi-device broadcast delivery, converting any content for any device: IPTV, MobileTV, or WebTV

* network stream shaping for adapting to bandwidth conditions over DSL, DVB-H, 3G, WiMax, Wi-Fi

* 16 MPEG2 channels to simultaneous H.264/MPEG4/H.263 mobile TV real-time transcoding

* real-rime multi-pass encoding, advanced video pre-processing for unmatched quality output

* interoperability with leading video infrastructure solutions (editing, streaming, storage, etc)

* creation and management of metadata

* savings on time, space and energy costs: up to 70% lower total cost of ownership than software-based solutions running on general purpose servers

“Media Excel has developed a very solid solution for the transcoding market,” said John Smrstik, manager of TI’s video infrastructure group. “Media Excel’s in-house software and hardware development efforts, based on our technology provides customers with a high performance, highly upgradeable platform, that delivers superb density and scalability advantages over software-based solutions.”