comboSwitch Media Encoder

Product Overview

comboSwitch Media Encoder is a robust and scalable headend encoder/transcoder designed for implementation in IPTV, Video-on-Demand, Audio-on-Demand, and Pay-per-View infrastructure. The product receives audio and video feeds from multiple sources and performs stream encoding or transcoding to MPEG4, H.264 or MP3 formats. comboSwitch easily integrates with SysMaster’s VoiceMaster^® Content Management and Billing, iptvSwitch Streaming Server and Tornado Digital Media Center into a fully integrated IPTV delivery solution.

Real-time Encoding of many Video Streams

Depending on the compression method, comboSwitch Media Encoder can encode many video streams in real-time. Utilizing MPEG4 compression, the product can encode many video streams. Alternatively, comboSwitch can encode one video stream in the newer H.264 format, which is more complex and demands more CPU resources. Video streams are delivered to comboSwitch via Audio/Video RCA, S-Video, Component Video, Component Audio, DVB-S, DVB-C, DVB-T, HDTV-T, HDTV-C, and HDTV-S interfaces.

NTSC, PAL and SECAM Support

comboSwitch Media Encoder is compatible with all major television broadcasting standards, including NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. The product also supports a number of PAL variations, including the more common B and G, and the less common I, D, K, 60, M, and N.

Support for MPEG4 and H.264 Video Encoding

comboSwitch Media Encoder supports both MPEG4 and H.264 video compression, enabling the delivery of high quality video streams over broadband networks with limited bandwidth. The product can generate MPEG4 and H.264 compressed video streams requiring as low as 350Kbps bandwidth per stream at 640x480 VGA resolution. Such low bandwidth requirements enable providers to deliver high quality TV and video streams to subscribers over standard DSL or cable lines.

Multiformat Stream Transcoding

comboSwitch Media Encoder supports transcoding of the most popular audio and video formats. The product can receive feeds in MP3, WMA, AVI, WM9, and MPEG2 and transcode them to MPEG4 or H.264 video, or MP3 audio formats, thereby reducing bandwidth requirements per stream.

Direct Transcoding of Satellite and Cable Feeds

Service providers with existing satellite or cable infrastructure can easily upgrade to MPEG4 or H.264 compression with minimal infrastructure changes. comboSwitch Media Encoder offers on-board transcoding capabilities which allow it to convert directly MPEG2 encoded satellite or cable feeds into MPEG4 or H.264 compressed streams.

Support for Multiple Streaming Servers

In a typical WAN environment, a single comboSwitch Media Encoder can upload audio and video streams to multiple streaming servers. For each streaming server and each stream, comboSwitch utilizes UDP Unicast or TCP distribution. The number of streaming servers that comboSwitch can support depends on the number of streams per server and the bandwidth per stream.

Web-Based Remote Management

comboSwitch Media Encoder offers convenient configuration and maintenance via a GUI console. Administrators can securely login to the console via a web browser and perform all necessary tasks remotely. That feature enables providers to easily outsource product administration to third parties and minimize operational costs.

Fully Integrated IPTV Delivery Solution

Providers who want to offer voice, video and data services but want to minimize equipment integration costs will certainly appreciate the comboSwitch Media Encoder. The product easily integrates with SysMaster’s VoiceMaster^® Content Management and Billing, iptvSwitch Streaming Server and Tornado Digital Media Center into a fully integrated solution for delivery of IPTV, Video-on-Demand, Pay-per-View, Audio-on-Demand, Online Radio, and other triple play services.

Optional Analog MPEG4/H264 Encoding Card /MONO Audio

The server allows integration with an optional Analog Input MPEG4/H264 card that bring up the encoding capacity to 16 channels. The card allows RCA/BNC video input and mono RCA/BNC audio input.

Optional Carrier Capacity

comboSwitch Carrier supports up to 4 channel encoding in H264/MPEG4 mode with a single DVB digital input. This is a new addition to the popular product for high capacity processing in a single blade.

Content Time-Shifting*

Content time-shifting allows TV and other real-time content to be delivered with a delay of up to 24 hours to the end-user. Time-shifting is typically required by IPTV providers who offer international TV content or by providers who serve end-users located in multiple time zones. Additional benefit of time-shifting is the increased quality of the delivered content streams as the time-shifting server acts as a content buffer, thereby reducing minor network problems that could otherwise decrease the quality of the content streams.

* Optional feature; requires additional hardware.