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Imagine Launches Initial Product for Digital TV Market
Imagine Communications
January 14, 2008
ICE™ Broadcast System Gives Cable Operators a Powerful Strategic
Weapon in the Escalating Battle for Premium Subscribers
Los Angeles, CA -- Imagine Communications, the leading
innovator in advanced digital video processing and edge multiplexing
solutions, today announced its first available product, the ICETM
Broadcast System. Based on the powerful ICE™ Video Platform, the ICE
Broadcast System gives cable operators the ability to carry up to 50
percent more high definition (HDTV) and standard definition (SDTV)
digital broadcast signals within their digital broadcast spectrum,
without sacrificing video quality. |
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Leveraging its
breakthrough video processing and multiplexing technology, Imagine's
ICE Video Platform delivers the highest video quality at any given
bit rate, solving the fundamental and elusive paradox of how to
cost-effectively increase bandwidth efficiency without sacrificing
video quality. The ICE Video Platform comprises a suite of solutions
and products for digital broadcast, Switched Digital Video (SDV) and
VOD. In each case, Imagine's core technologies of Interchangeable
Compressed Elements (ICE) and video quality measurement (ICE-Q™)
address the video quality and bandwidth efficiency needs of cable
operators.
The ICE Broadcast System, available now, is the solution cable
operators have been seeking to expand their HD and SD services while
maintaining the highest video quality. It is now ready for
widespread deployment, having undergone extensive refinement,
enhancement and stabilization with major cable operators over the
last several months.
Imagine's VP
Product Strategy & Management, Lorenzo Bombelli, stated "With
competitors announcing plans for over 100 HD channels, and video
quality expectations simultaneously rising, due primarily to the
mass consumer adoption of large screen HDTV displays and the growing
popularity of Blu-ray and HD-DVD, all service providers are now
racing to create additional bandwidth to carry dozens of new HDTV
services at excellent video quality. It became an urgent cable
industry issue to quickly adapt our technology for the digital
broadcast market, for both HD and SD applications."
Ron Gutman, Imagine's CTO and co-founder, added, "Our core
breakthrough technology has broad applicability to any digital video
application. While we've mostly associated ourselves to date with
SDV and VOD VBR/StatMux (Variable Bit Rate/Statistical
Multiplexing), for enabling the best video quality at any given bit
rate, the same benefits apply to digital broadcast, and we're
excited to be offering a product that solves such a critical and
timely issue for cable operators."
Benefits of the ICE Broadcast System
- Superior Video
Quality - With Imagine's ICE-Q™ video quality engine, operators
are able to provide the best 3:1 HD (and 15:1 SD) broadcast
quality relative to MPEG-2 re-encoders and traditional statmux
devices.
- Unprecedented
Bandwidth Efficiency - Empowers cable operators with the most
efficient multiplexing of HDTV and SDTV broadcast channels,
allowing them to compete more effectively against DBS and
TelcoTV service providers.
- Video Layer
Quality of Service ("Video Layer QoS") - Starts laying the
foundation for the industry's first end-to-end Video Layer QoS
solution, allowing content providers and cable operators to
pre-calibrate and establish video quality levels which are
sustained, at the video layer, from content origination all the
way to the set-top box.
- Cost Effectiveness
- Relative to other bandwidth expansion options, such as node
splits, Switched Digital Video (SDV), or MPEG-4 upgrades,
Imagine's solution is by far the most cost effective and least
disruptive solution.
- High Reliability -
Imagine's solution has standard IP/GbE inputs and outputs,
enabling seamless interoperability with cable's evolving IP
infrastructure. Moreover, the ICE Video Platform (including the
ICE Broadcast System), leverages standards-based hardware and
highly reliable software components, as well as robust
redundancy schemes.
The ICE Broadcast System consists of ICE Broadcast Processors, which
accept and re-process compressed MPEG-2 digital signals using
Imagine's ICE-Q video quality algorithms. Then, using the ICE
Multiplexer, these signals are statistically multiplexed for
Multiple Program Transport Stream (MPTS) digital broadcast over
cable. In this fashion, for the first time, cable operators are able
to broadcast three digital HDTV or 15 digital SDTV signals in a 256
QAM channel while maintaining excellent video quality.
About Imagine Communications
Imagine Communications has launched the industry's most powerful and
scalable digital video platform, enabling system operators to
cost-effectively increase bandwidth efficiency and video quality of
HDTV, Switched Digital, VOD, and other advanced digital video
services. The Imagine ICE™ Video Platform delivers the best video
quality at any given bit rate, and also provides Video Layer Quality
of Service, offering system operators unprecedented control over
video quality. Imagine is based in San Diego with R&D and
engineering in Israel. Imagine's strong management team includes
industry leaders with decades of experience delivering innovations
in video communications. Founded in 2005, Imagine Communications is
privately held and funded by Carmel Ventures, Columbia Capital and
Court Square Ventures. For more information,
www.imaginecommunications.com
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