Thomson Video Networks New Quad-Channel Multistandard ViBE™ EM4000

Thomson Video Networks has launched a new quad-channel multistandard version of its ViBE™ EM4000 MPEG broadcast encoder, delivering another step up in efficiency for broadcasters seeking to deploy more HD and SD channels within bandwidth limits.
Developed for satellite, terrestrial, cable, and IPTV applications, the ViBE EM4000 provides optimized compression performance and greater flexibility and density. The encoder's capacity for four channels within a single 1RU chassis allows each channel to consume only 70W of energy. Using the latest generation of Thomson's Mustang compression technology, the ViBE EM4000 can deliver efficiency improvement of 15 percent or more when encoding in MPEG-4 AVC, freeing up bandwidth that enables broadcasters to run an extra channel per multiplex or transponder.
The Thomson Mustang 2.0 encoding engine increases HD MPEG-4 AVC encoding efficiency through improved motion estimation, refined multipass encoding, and advanced pre-processing. The ViBE EM4000 can deliver further efficiency benefits when configured as part of a statistical multiplexing system using Thomson's new Flextream™ 2.0 technology, which frees up bandwidth provisioned for the processing of service components such as audio, teletext, subtitling, and closed captioning, allowing it to be reallocated to improve video quality.
The ViBE EM4000 is now multistandard with HD, SD, MPEG-4 AVC, and MPEG-2 encoding capability, providing superior flexibility in headend deployments and extensions.
"The ViBE EM4000 platform offers enormous potential in almost any broadcasting scenario, now and into the future," said Hervé Congard, chief operating officer at Thomson Video Networks. "From the launch of the first version last year, it has provided the next big advance in compression performance, and this new quad-channel configuration is the second stage of our ambitious development program for the product, which will see 30 percent gains in efficiency over the previous generation of technology."
The ViBE EM4000's comprehensive feature list includes unmatched support for multichannel audio compression; Dolby® Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and AAC/HE-AAC support; DVB subtitling from teletext input; and the ability to input from 3G sources.
A future-proof platform with ample development potential, the ViBE™ EM4000 MPEG broadcast encoder can be deployed as a stand-alone encoder or as part of a headend infrastructure with multiplexers and a network management system.
Thomson Networks