Application Needs: Backhaul/ENG/DSNG
Enabling True HD ENG/SNG (Backhaul) Operations with Telairity H.264/AVC Encoders
Live field reporting imposes strong requirements on vendor equipment. First, equipment must be compatible with existing infrastructure. In many cases, this means transmission bandwidths of 6Mbps or lower. Second and equally important, latencies must be kept very low, so that total end-to-end delay stays under a half-second. Third, equipment must be exceptionally reliable, able to tolerate the very wide temperature swings as well as the jolts and bumps of vehicle use. Fourth, when problems do occur, recovery must be possible in a few seconds. Fifth and last (but certainly not least from the standpoint of a field crew), equipment must be virtually fool-proof, extremely simple to operate even under the most adverse, trying, or hectic conditions.
Although HD formats are quickly spreading into studio-based news reporting, the combination of the above five requirements for live field reporting have effectively precluded taking HD cameras out of the studio and into the field for remote operations. Older MPEG-2 compression technology is simply unable to fit HD format video in links of 15Mbps and below. Although advanced MPEG-4 (H.264/AVC) compression technology can solve this bandwidth problem, it also imposes much stronger processing requirements, sufficient to drive encode latency up to several seconds with many current implementations. Also, advanced encoders are frequently complicated to operate, lack key reliability features, and may take minutes to reboot if they have to recover from a serious problem.
However, new technology from Telairity now provides a solution that uniquely addresses all five of the above requirements, opening the way for stations to finally take HD out of the studio and into the field. The Telairity 1RU family of ENG/DSNG H.264/AVC encoders—including the BE8110 HD encoder, configured for ENG vehicles, the BC8110 HD encoder, designed specifically for aircraft, and the BE8500 auto-switching dual-mode HD/SD encoder for backhaul—each based on Telairity's exceptionally powerful 50 billion operations per second (50 Gigaops) T1P2000 video processor and coordinated direct-execute AVClairity encoding software, offer the following features:
- The latest H.264/AVC (MPEG-4) encoding technology, able to deliver a quality HD picture in 6Mbps or less (the same sort of bandwidth required by MPEG-2 for SD today), and a quality SD picture in 1Mbps or less.
- The fact that all Telairity encoders are software upgradeable ensures that Telairity equipment remains state-of-the art in its compression abilities for years to come.
- Since all Telairity encoders implement standard H.264/AVC encoding technology, they are compatible with any standard H.264 decoder. With Telairity equipment, there is never any lock-in to a proprietary solution.
- Telairity's HD encode latency of 150ms is the lowest in the industry today for a full-featured high profile encoder. Not only can a Telairity H.264 encoder deliver an HD frame in about the same bandwidth as an MPEG-2 SD frame, in many cases, it will actually deliver the frame in less time.
- The fact that Telairity's AVClairity encoding software is designed to run directly on Telairity's T1P200 DSP (without any intermediate operating system) means that power-on and reboot times are virtually instant—a matter of a few seconds. As a result, if a problem does occur requiring the encoder to restart, it's possible to get back on the air almost at once, with no more than a momentary interruption of service.
- All Bxx110 single-channel systems offer a front-panel with Telairity's simple “two-button” control. Using Telairity's easy-to-operate graphical user interface, Telairity encoders can be readily programmed to switch from any configuration of encoding parameters to any other configuration of encoding parameters with a press of an up/down arrow key, followed by a press of the enter key.
- The BE8110 HD and BE8500 dual-mode HD/SD encoders, configured for ENG trucks, come standard with vibration-proof construction, very wide temperature tolerance and dual redundant power supplies. The BC8110, designed specifically for aircraft, features a ruggedized half-width chassis, a remote control panel (tethered), and a 28V power supply.
Does your ENG encoder measure up? Check out our backhaul scorecard. Then put our claims to the test by requesting a free 30-day trial of one of our backhaul models. Check the Special Offers box and fill in "ENG 30-Day Free Trial" for the subject. After all, seeing is believing.
