Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc. — Vic Herring, Senior Director, Video Solutions Group

Vic HerringQ. What kind of products or services does your company offer for broadcasters?
The Fujitsu IP-9500 offers real-time H.264 High Profile at Level 4 encoding with data rates from 4 to 27 Mbps for High Definition Television Contribution and Distribution. With its best-in-class picture quality, the IP-9500 also supports an industry leading 300 millisecond total encode/decode latency for exceptional HD satellite news gathering and sports broadcasting.

The Fujitsu IP-900 is a new, compact MPEG-4 AVC encoder for the real-time IP transmission of HD signals for news gathering and other remote applications. The Fujitsu IP-900 reduces cost and improves efficiency while offering the same low latencies and best-in-class picture quality at the lowest possible bit rates as the Fujitsu IP-9500

Q. What's new that you will exhibit at the NAB Show and what should broadcasters look for there?
Fujitsu will demonstrate the IP-9500 4.0, the latest version of its MPEG-4 encoder. Fujitsu will also be showcasing our new IP-900 solution at the booth.

In addition, Fujitsu will share its booth at NAB with Cisco, a long-time Fujitsu partner. The companies will announce an OEM relationship that will extend this partnership to provide video contribution services to broadcasters worldwide.

Q. How is your new product offering different from what's available on the market?
The Fujitsu IP-9500 4.0 is the industry's first encoding solution to enable the simultaneous transmission of high-definition (HD) signals using 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 chroma subsampling, allowing broadcasters to efficiently and cost-effectively utilize either format based on their existing infrastructures. The IP-9500 4.0 also integrates a cutting-edge process for maintaining non-degraded 4:2:0 chroma resolution to preserve picture quality throughout the entire communications link.

As for the Fujitsu IP-900, it combines best-in-class performance, low power consumption and compact size — 1 RU high by half-a-rack wide — making it the industry's most complete, comprehensive encoding solution for a wide variety of remote applications. The IP-900 is ideal for cost-effective mobile newsgathering because broadcasters are no longer required to transport standard equipment to distant locations. The versatility and high-performance capabilities of the IP-900 also enable broadcasters to deploy the solution in traditionally unfavorable environments while upholding the integrity of the communication link to ensure that the entire transmission is delivered intact.

Q. How has your company been affected by the current economic situation and what are you doing to get through it?
I can not speak for the entire Fujitsu group companies but Video Solution Group has seen some impact on our sales but we are still expanding our business just at a slower pace than anticipated. The appeal of our HD/SD products is that Fujitsu provides cost savings to our customers in both lower bandwidths over satellite and over IP.

Q. Where are you based, and how many employees do you have? Anything else we should know about your company?
Fujitsu Computer Products of America Inc. conducts engineering and marketing activities in Sunnyvale, California, and sales operations throughout the United States. The company of over 300 employees offers products and services including high-performance hard disk drives, scanners and scanner maintenance, high-end broadcast video products, palm vein recognition technology and 10Gb Ethernet switches.