C-Cube Microsystems this week released a single-chip
broadcast CODEC for one and two-way video networking applications including
the emerging market for streaming video.
DVxpert 5120 is a single-chip MPEG CODEC (encoder and decoder) solution for
streaming video over Internet Protocol (IP) and provides the potential for
broadcast quality content creation and video playback over narrow, middle and
broadband Internet pipes.
“Streaming video offers a cost-effective solution for highly visual, global
communication,” said Ray Newstead, vice president and general manager of C-
Cube’s Broadband Network Division. “C-Cube is offering the enabling MPEG
compression and decompression technology that will allow video over IP to be
as crisp and clear as it is on television, creating a new performance
benchmark for communication applications.”
DVxpert 5120 can be used for both one and two-way enterprise video networking
applications, including streaming video over IP, VOD (video on demand),
distance learning, enterprise-to-enterprise video training, video
conferencing, telemedicine, security/Web camera operations and satellite news
gathering.
The CODEC offers scalable MPEG in a single-chip, allowing MPEG-1 and MPEG-2
encoding at varying quality levels for optimum bandwidth use. The CODEC
allows MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 compression at bit rates ranging from 56Kbps up to
15Mbps.
For narrow and middleband applications the CODEC can compress MPEG-1 video to
as low as 56Kbps. For broadband, the chip compresses MPEG-2 video at a rate
as low as 1.5 Mbps or as high as 15Mbps.
The CODEC places a time-code on the audio and video streams. When the two
streams merge together for streaming over the Internet, the stamps are linked
together for precise matching of sound with movement.
Packaged on a 308-pin BGA, DVxpert 5120 requires 8MB external SDRAMs (no
external FIFO required) and consumes less than two watts of power.
For corporate communication applications, DVxpert 5120 is designed to enable
MPEG-based turn-key or stand-alone desktop video communication systems at the
sub $5,000 range.
In addition, the company announced that its
single-chip DVxpert 5120 broadcast CODEC for streaming digital video over the
Internet will provide MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video encoding for Cisco Systems’
newly announced Video-Over-IP Networking product, the IP/TV 3400 Broadcast
Server.