Live Video Broadcast in HD

The shift towards HD video is driving broadcast infrastructure to convert to handle high-definition video throughout the broadcast chain, including the camera head-end. For live video broadcasts it is important to keep delays at the camera head-end very low. In addition, the camera may be wireless, specifically for outdoors shooting, where the video is transmitted directly to a satellite uplink truck. These two features place special constraints on the design of the video encoder that is used with the camera.

We don’t make it, but we help make it better

W&W Communications does not make the live video broadcast systems, but we make the video codecs that make it possible for these systems to:

• Handle video at 1920x1080 resolutions at the camera head-end,
• Utilize available bandwidth of camera head-end transmission links efficiently, and
• Virtually eliminate any noticeable delay associated with insertion of video encoders and decoders.

The encoder efficiency results in bit rates low enough to allow video at 1080p resolution to be carried over the camera head-end connection to the production site.

Industry’s most efficient HD camera head-end encoders

The WW20000 is a single chip implementation of an H.264 Baseline Profile encoder, which supports full 1920x1080 resolutions for broadcast camera head-ends at bit rates and quality levels not achievable by incumbent MPEG-2 HD coding. The built-in adaptive noise cancellation feature filters out camera noise, therefore increasing image quality and encoder efficiency. The flexible CBR feature provides fine control over bit rate versus picture quality to support finite bandwidth transmission channels. The WW20000 implements a complete set of Baseline Profile encoder tools, including 1/2 and 1/4 pixel interpolation and all luma, chroma and inter-frame coding modes.

The WW20001 is a single chip implementation of an H.264 Baseline Profile low-delay HD decoder for broadcast camera head-ends. Built-in error concealment maintains trouble-free video under less than ideal transmission channel conditions. Support for scaling down from 1920x1080 resolution to lower resolutions makes it easy to display encoded bit streams on production room monitors.

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