Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 20, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Fast, powerful and user-oriented, this is how the latest software package from Teracue AG presents itself. MultiCoder is the name of the newest product from the software and hardware forge in Odelzhausen, Bavaria.
Direct streaming of local desktop surfaces or the creation of live streams from VGA and DVI signals: With MultiCoder, screen views can be transmitted in high quality to set-top boxes and PC’s. In addition, stream structures, formats, resolutions and bit rates of existing network streams can be changed and corrected. MultiCoder also enables text and logo overlays as well as the insertion of visible metadata in the video image. At the output, the formats MPEG-2 SD/HD as well as MPEG-4 H.264 SD are supported simultaneously.
Teracue AG is thus reacting to the market, because video and audio signals arise today at a whole series of modern workplaces. This information must be managed. New IPTV streams must be provided additionally. Video streams in existing systems or in IPTV headends often have to be changed or adapted. The various MultiCoder modules handle these special tasks. Areas of application are IPTV applications within banks, universities, clinics, fire and police centers, aerospace companies as well as in military and other federal facilities.
Thanks to MultiCoder, almost any signal can be encoded in real time and converted into an IPTV stream (MC-SCREEN, MC-VGA, MC-DVI and MC-ENC): Powerpoint presentations or other office applications with small fonts and fine image structures can be transmitted in HD quality, for example, so that all details are preserved. The blurred transmission of VGA computer signals is thus a thing of the past, since scan conversion and video scaling can be dispensed with using MultiCoder.
If video and audio signals are supplied to MultiCoder (MC-ENC) then a software-based multiformat encoder for MPEG-2 SD/HD and H.264 SD is available.
The delay is less than 500ms depending on the output format. Encoding takes place as a pure software solution on PC’s and workstations. For some MultiCoder modules, an additional grabber card is necessary in order to use VGA/DVI or video signals as a streaming input, for example. The signal can be output as unicast (one-to-one) as well as multicast (one-to-many).
With MultiCoder (MC-QUAD), Teracue AG also offers the option of observing live signals, return channels or multi-camera perspectives in parallel. Up to four signals can be transmitted simultaneously in a single stream. In practice, this means a 75% saving in network bandwidth.
On-the-fly, moreover, during transcoding and transrating (MC-TRANS), MPEG formats, bit rates and resolutions can be individually adapted, SD/HD up/down conversion or different stream types e.g. homogenized to SD/HD streams.
Together with the MC-ROUTE application, in which the conversion and bridging of different streaming types is the focus, this results in a particularly attractive package. MC-ROUTE enables conversion from multicast to unicast and vice versa, because not all networks are always multicast-capable. However, multicasting represents the most efficient distribution method for video over networks. With a single stream, any number of viewers can be reached without overloading or flooding the network.
„Existing, older networks and evolved network structures that do not permit multicasting in some subsections can nevertheless be supplied with professional video streaming and modern intranet IPTV thanks to MC-ROUTE“, says Technical Director Karl-Heinz Wenisch about the company’s latest product.
Further Links:
- Teracue
