With 1-RU Chassis, Latest Addition to Company's Robust Portfolio of UHD Solutions Offers Industry's Most Compact Live 4K Encoder

RENNES, France — April 9, 2015 — Thomson Video Networks today announced the launch of the ViBE® 4K real-time encoding solution for Ultra HD (UHD) broadcasting. Built on the company's award-winning ViBE EM4000 premium encoder chassis, the ViBE 4K enables media enterprises to leverage high-efficiency video coding (HEVC) to provide an optimal video experience to consumers through live compression of UHD sources at up to 60 frames per second (FPS) and in 10-bit color.

"Although live UHD broadcasting is not yet in the mainstream, the market is evolving rapidly as consumers demand ever-higher resolutions and image quality. One big driver is the emergence of affordable UHD TV displays; in fact, we expect all screens larger than 50 inches will be UHD by 2018," said Eric Gallier, vice president of marketing, Thomson Video Networks. "We designed the ViBE 4K for forward-thinking broadcasters that are already expanding their infrastructures to provide a premium viewing experience to their customers. The ViBE 4K's state-of-the-art HEVC compression delivers frame rates and precision at bit rates comparable with satellite, cable, terrestrial, and fiber delivery networks. As a result, our customers are able to deliver a truly immersive live UHD experience."

The ViBE 4K is equally at home in an operation launching a permanent live UHD channel or for a one-time broadcast of a live special event in UHD. Housed in a 1-RU chassis, the ViBE 4K features multiple Gig Ethernet interfaces and 3G-SDI interfaces that receive live UHD feeds for encoding. Easily configured from a standard Web browser, the ViBE 4K encodes both audio and UHD video in real time and delivers an MPEG TS signal for broadcast over IP. UHD video is encoded in HEVC 4:2:0 at a maximum of 60 FPS with 10-bit precision, offering the highest video quality. The ViBE 4K's native support for HEVC encoding offers bandwidth savings of more than 50 percent compared to the H.264 standard. 

Gallier added, "With the ViBE 4K, we're taking real-time encoding to a new level. Its compact size simplifies deployments for our customers, the 60p frame rate brings more realistic motion to UHD sports broadcasts, and the 10-bit precision delivers more accurate color gradients. Never before have these qualities come together to enable live UHD with such immersive and true-to-life pictures."

The ViBE 4K is the latest addition to Thomson Video Networks' Behind Every Screen® approach and complements the company's Ultra HD portfolio, which also includes the award-winning ViBE VS7000 multi-screen and HEVC 4K file encoder, the FUZE-1 playout system, and the A/V Codec Analyzer. Also, as part of its 2015 NAB Show UHDTV demonstration, Thomson Video Networks will display premium HEVC UHD content protection using watermarking technology as mandated by the MovieLabs consortium.

Further information about Thomson Video Networks products is available at www.thomson-networks.com.