Telarity launches hot-switching HD/SD encoder

Targeting mobile production trucks and small-market stations, Telairity has introduced a new H.264/AVC video encoder capable of hot-switching between an HD or SD video source. The new BE8500, in a 1RU frame, can be operated as a full-featured HD encoder, or as an SD/SDI encoder.

The BE8500 auto-senses whether the video source is SD or HD, and enables users to switch live between the two video formats without powering down. Switch-over conversion is virtually instantaneous, enabling a smooth transition for live or live-on-tape programming.

For end-to-end H.264 encoding, users can combine Telairity’s series 8000 HD performance with either the 150ms low-latency series 7000 or the 500kb/s low bit-rate series 9000 model, providing a system that can perform any type of MPEG-4 encoding functions required.

Telairity has also announced new 110 single-channel models across all its lines with dual-mode upgrade capability. Any model 8110 HD encoder can add SD dual-mode capability just by downloading a new firmware package. Likewise, any model 7110 or model 9110 SD encoder can add HD dual-mode capability by a firmware download — provided it was ordered with the field upgrade option preinstalled. Otherwise, upgrading an SD system to dual-mode HD/SD capability requires a factory modification.

The BE8500 delivers H.264/AVC (MPEG-4) compression technology capable of achieving more than twice the compression efficiency of the older MPEG-2 standard. Since the BE8500 is based on Telairity’s proprietary TVP2000 video processor, which delivers 50 billion operations per second, and Telairity’s AVClairity encoding software, the BE8500 features the same “instant on” capability, encode latencies as low as 150ms, exceptional reliability, simplicity of operation, and full software upgradeability that characterize the company’s earlier encoder models.