SANTA BARBARA, CALIF.: Visionary Solutions announced that NASA has chosen the company’s AVN443 encoder to transmit HD video signals from the International Space Station to Earth, providing NASA with a real-time video signal that will be used to produce coverage of missions and events, documentaries, archival video, and other unique programming for NASA TV.

NASA is upgrading its internal cameras onboard the International Space Station to commercial standard 720p/1080i formats, thus requiring new encoders capable of transmitting a high-definition signal. Through a combination of Visionary Solutions H.264 hardware compression and transmission technology, the AVN443 encoders provide an HD, full-frame rate, IP video stream from within the ISS, as well as an external view of the ISS and a view of Earth.

Prior to being installed aboard the ISS, the AVN443s survived a rigorous evaluation, including radiation tolerance testing. The AVN443s installed onboard the ISS are currently the only encoders certified for spaceflight.

Paired with Sencore’s MRD 3187B modular receiver decoders, the AVN443 encoders compress the video signals from multiple high-definition video cameras onboard the ISS. The Sencore MRDs receive the IP video streams back on Earth and decode them into HD video feeds for NASA’s monitoring and rebroadcast use. The modular architecture and multichannel capability of both products provide a space-saving and bandwidth-efficient solution to the challenges of delivering multiple high-quality HD video services from an orbiting space station.