Imagine Communications is unveiling its very first product, an Interchangeable Compressed Elements broadcast system, which the company claims gives cable operators the ability to carry up to 50 percent more HD/SD digital broadcast signals within their same digital spectrum without and degradation of video quality.
The San Diego-based company's ICE Video Platform is comprised of a suite of products for digital broadcast—including switched digital video (SDV) and video-on-demand (VOD)—using its ICE and video quality measurement technology to address bandwidth efficiency requirements.
The system works this way: ICE broadcast processors accept and re-process compressed MPEG-2 digital signals using Imagine's ICE algorithms. Next, using the ICE multiplexer, the signals are statistically multiplexed for multiple-program transport streaming of digital broadcast over cable. As a result, said the firm, cable operators are now able to broadcast three HD (or 15 SD) signals in a 256-QAM channel while sustaining video quality.
