ViBE EM4000 HD/SD Encoder Will Get Flextream 2.0, SCTE104 Support in October Software Upgrade

At IBC, Thomson Video Networks plans to show its ViBE 4K encoder [top] being used to encode HDR content in real time for UHD distribution. 

A single HEVC stream can carry a non-HDR picture along with HDR metadata, allowing the stream to be used for viewing on both HDR and non-HDR display hardware, Thomson said. The ViBE 4K supports live compression of UHD sources at up to 60fps with 10-bit color. 

For demo purposes, Thomson will send a UHD HDR signal from an SMPTE 2084-compliant broadcast feed into the ViBE 4K, which will encode it to a standard HEVC Main10 compressed stream with HDR metadata that can be decoded using any HEVC Main10-compliant decoding device, the company explained.

HDR support is expected to be added to the ViBE 4K early next year.

In more IBC news, Thomson said the new update to its ViBE EM4000 HD/SD encoder [above] will include support for non-video components, allowing operators to allocate bandwidth for DVB subtitling, audio description, and more.

The EM4000 will enable that support via Thomson's statistical multiplexing technology, Flextream 2.0. The company said it should improve performance while simplifying configuration and monitoring tasks.

Also included in the October software upgrade will be SCTE104 support for targeted advertising insertions. "The new SCTE104 handling feature, the result of a direct request from two of Europe's largest DTH satellite providers, enables customers to develop new revenues through highly targeted premium advertising," said Thomson VP of Marketing Eric Gallier in a prepared statement.

"And with Flextream 2.0 support, users can lower bandwidth costs and free up bandwidth to improve picture quality or add a channel per multiplex — a valuable capability, especially as available bit rate becomes more and more scarce."