In Broadcast - December 2014 - 68


I N T E R N A T I O N A L

WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 38 - DECEMBER 2014

N E W S

InFORM

Digigram & KALRAY
In HEVC Partnership
T

68

he High Efﬁciency Video Coding
(HEVC) standard coming into
widespread use is proving to be a
disruptive advance in compression
techniques and standards.
This successor to H.264/AVC
enables a bit rate reduction of
up to 50% in video transmission,
presenting valuable new
opportunities for broadcasters and
other content providers.
Digigram has enhanced its all-IP
video product line to address these
new opportunities, demonstrating
best-in-class density and power
consumption for live HEVC
encoding. At IBC2014 the company
showcased a prototype capable
of encoding one UHD (4Kp30) or
four HD (1080p30) formats in a
single 1U rack.
To achieve this feat, Digigram
partnered with KALRAY, a
developer and manufacturer of
many core processors, to create
high-quality, high-density real-time
HEVC video encoder solutions
based on KALRAY's massively
parallel Multi Purpose Processor
Array (MPPA) chip.
The resulting
technology is
being

integrated by Digigram into new IPbased products and solutions that
offer efﬁcient high-density HEVC HD
and Ultra HD (4K) video encoding
in broadcast and OTT applications
including point-to-point contribution
for live 4K and IPTV/OTT distribution.
In doubling the potential
compression ratio compared with
earlier standards, HEVC can be used
to provide the same level of video
quality at a signiﬁcantly lower bit
rate, in turn enabling IPTV providers
to address new customers whose
available ISP bitrate would not allow
reception of HD content with H.264/
AVC. With the ability to provide the
same perceived video quality at a
lower bit rate, OTT content providers
also can reduce the cost of CDN
delivery and, in turn, lower OPEX.
Alternatively, HEVC can be used
to support much higher video quality
without a jump in bit rate. This
capability not only affords greater
ﬂexibility in working with higherresolution content, but also makes
a variety of video transmission
scenarios much more affordable.
Applications enabled by HEVC

HEVC deal: CEOs Eric Baissus (KALRAY) with Philippe Delacroix (Digigram)

include contribution of live 4K
content from remote locations to
the studio, as well as delivery of 4K
UHD content to the home as part of
premium subscriptions.
Since its acquisition of Ecrin
Video & Broadcast in 2011, the
company has produced two lines
of H.264/AVC encoders for live
video streaming. The AQILIM
range of software-based solutions
is dedicated to OTT
applications,
and the

AQORD range of hardware-based
encoders is dedicated to point-topoint contribution.
Digigram has leveraged this
strong H.264/AVC background
in collaborating with KALRAY
to develop the company's first
HEVC encoder.
Digigram's expertise in video
quality metrics, encoding, and live
streaming complements KALRAY's
expertise in parallel processing
programming on MPPA, taking
full advantage of both the MPPA's
unique parallel architecture and
its video-optimised instruction set
to bring a game-changing video
encoding offering to market.

AQILIM *FIT/LE Video Encoder

GatesAir Transitions WRLY-LP To Intelligent IP Networking Solution
G

atesAir has transitioned a
low-power FM station in
North Carolina to an IP transport
a r c h i te c tu r e fo r s tu d i o -to transmitter link (STL) connectivity.
With the GatesAir Intraplex IP
Link as a foundation, the intelligent
networking solution solved the
challenge of efficiently moving
programme audio and data over
a studio-to-transmitter path that
offered no line of sight for traditional
ﬁxed RF STL connections.
WRLY-LP in Raleigh made the
switch following its studio relocation
to more accessible commercial
space, creating a greater distance to
the transmitter facility. Unlike higher
power stations, low-power stations
typically do not transmit signals off
high towers, making RF STL links
impractical. Transitioning to IP
proved the most budget-friendly
option for the station.
WRLY selected the IP Link

based on its feature-to-price ratio,
including support for the emerging
Ogg Opus audio codec. GatesAir
was the first broadcast codec
adopter of Ogg Opus audio coding,
which incorporates technology from
the Skype-developed, speechoriented SILK codec and CELT, a
low-latency, next-generation music
codec. Broadcasters beneﬁt from
Opus' combined strengths of highquality audio and very low delay,
which distinguishes it from audio
codecs that excel in one area but
fall short in the other.
"I'm very budget-constrained as
a low-power station. IP was readily
available, more cost-efﬁcient than
an enterprise T1 solution, and
eliminated the challenges of erecting
rooftop structures in a commercial
zone," said Steven White, owner of
WRLY-LP. "I was an early adopter
of voice over IP technology, and
had been monitoring the capabilities

of Opus from an audio quality
perspective. Much of our music
library has been encoded in highend formats, so I needed a codec
that wouldn't over-compress the
audio and develop artefacts in the
stream. GatesAir was the only codec
supplier that built Opus into the
feature set, and since there was no
extra expense for Opus, the overall
costs remained low. The ﬂexibility of
the IP Link and its software-driven
features struck the right balance of
features, cost and quality."
WRLY is also benefiting from
built-in redundancy that shares
IP packets across a dual-path
stream. Called Dynamic Stream
Splicing, this IP Link feature allows
the primary stream to borrow data
from the secondary stream in the
event of dropped packets en route
to the transmitter.
"The IP Link provides excellent
statistical information that show if,

and where, packets have dropped,"
said White. "The dual-path
architecture of the IP Link ensures
that instances of dropped packets
that make it through are very, very
rare, and never noticeable on the
air. The reliability is exceptional."

GatesAir Intraplex IP Link supports
the Ogg Opus audio codec

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/?first=Phillip&last=Izzard&search=Go https://twitter.com/inbroadcast http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpzEatLsHdE&feature=youtube_gdata_player https://www.facebook.com/InBroadcast http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/inbroadcast/id468652679?mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.branded.inbroadcast&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5icmFuZGVkLmluYnJvYWRjYXN0Il0. http://WWW.INBROADCAST.COM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JgbfzjIbpY&feature=player_detailpage http://www.digigram.com/products/product_infos.php?prod_key=19200 http://www.gatesair.com/products/transport/stl-audio-networking/intraplex-ip-link.aspx

In Broadcast - December 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - December 2014