Thomson Launches Multistandard ViBE EM4000

RENNES, FRANCE: 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’s capacity for four channels within a single 1RU chassis allows each channel to consume 70 watts 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.

ViBE EM4000 is now multistandard with HD, SD, MPEG-4 AVC, and MPEG-2 encoding capability. It can be deployed as a stand-alone encoder or as part of a headend infrastructure with multiplexers and a network management system.