Minerva Networks has announced that Ringgold Telephone Company, a local exchange service provider in Georgia, has deployed its VC8000 video pre-processing and encoding platform to expand its channel line-up and enhance the quality of its premium channels.
After evaluating several encoding platforms, the Ringgold Telephone Company chose the Minerva VC8000, which features a proprietary video pre-processing engine that delivers high video quality at low bit rates.
Serving 14,300 customers in Catoosa County, Georgia, Ringgold has been providing a “triple play” of bundled voice, video and data services over its ADSL network since spring 2002. Hundreds of subscribers are already using the service.
In fall 2003, Ringgold decided to take advantage of advancements in MPEG-2 compression technology to expand its channel line-up and improve the quality of its premium channels. After evaluating several encoding platforms, the telco chose the Minerva VC8000, which features a proprietary video pre-processing engine that delivers high video quality at low bit rates.
The Minerva VC8000 encoder blades feature VLSI compression engines combined with a programmable video pre-processor module running proprietary algorithms. This combination enables network operators to offer broadcast quality television services to two TV sets over a single ADSL line.
The VC8000 chassis features ten hot swappable video processing blades. The MPEG-2 encoder blades, video pre-processor modules and DVB-to-IP gateway blades are currently utilized for MPEG-2 based IP Television deployments.
Fully programmable MPEG-4 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) profile encoders and MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 AVC transcoders will be available in the second half of 2004.
For more information visit www.minervanetworks.com.
