September 2008

Technology Update

Technology Update- Video Encoding

If you work with video, sooner or later you are going to need to convert it from one format to another. Not too many years ago, that would have possibly meant going from Betacam to VHS. With the advent of digital tape formats, maybe the requirement was to go from Betacam to DVCAM.





There has been an explosive growth of digital video in the consumer market and a corresponding growth in the ways that people receive video information: webcasts, podcasts, IP video, YouTube, DVD videos are just some of the vehicles used. More companies are now also using more than one of these mediums to get their messages out. So there are now a whole slew of video formats for the distribution of video through all kinds of digital mediums.

The expanding breadth of devices for viewing content is accompanied by an ever increasing number of encoding formats. Each of these has unique requirements for optimally reaching each kind of device. No one kind of format optimally serves them all.

AVW-TELAV has addressed these changing trends by developing a computer based mobile video encoder. The encoder is flexible enough to be able to capture video in a wide range of formats. Now the conversion does not have to be done after the event, which saves time and money. The encoder can produce output in Windows Media, MPEG-4, MPEG-2, QuickTime, AVC/H264, AVI and more, and in any sampling rate that your application requires. What is more, multiple formats can be produced simultaneously! At the end of the event the video can be delivered, burnt onto a data DVD or on a removable hard disk, which can then be easily transferred to any computer or digital editing system.

At the heart of the new system is a video capture product from a company called Digital Rapids. We mention this because this leading designer of professional encoding and streaming products is a Canadian company based in Markham. Although not known by the general public, their products are well known by every major network. Their products were recently used in Beijing to encode over 2,200 hours of video live on the Internet for NBCOlympics.com. We know that the content is still king, but even the best content can fall flat unless delivered in the quality that today’s viewers demand. AVW-TELAV chose Digital Rapids because they have gone to great lengths to optimize both performance and quality.

As part of our commitment to providing leading edge technology, we have developed our encoders to provide you with your video content in a format that will not only save time but also save you money.