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Thomson's ViBE Encoders Support Eurosport's New HD Channel

By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Thomson’s (News - Alert) high-definition (HD) MPEG-4 ViBE encoders have been selected to provide HD video contents to European sports multimedia channel, Eurosport HD, said an announcement from the video solution provider on Monday.

 

Eurosport HD is a new HD channel from Eurosport, a sports satellite and cable network in Europe. Launched in May, the channel is currently available in 24 countries across Europe. The channel provides live sports coverage for many events such as Wimbledon Championships, the French Open Roland Garros, UEFA EURO 2008, and the Beijing Olympic Games in HD video format.

 

Thomson's ViBE HD MPEG-4 encoders leverage the video-compression architecture of Mustang chip developed at Thomson. Mustang chip allows for the delivery of HD video in as low as 4 Mbps, and it is the only compression solution to use the complete MPEG-4 tool kit. As a result, it delivers a clearer picture with increased depth and clarity, says Thomson.

 

The ViBE encoders feature Dolby Surround Sound with good audio quality. Its improved picture quality enables Eurosport to provide HD video contents even at places where bandwidth is limited.

 

Eurosport’s broadcasting infrastructure has been already supported by Thomson equipments. Eurosport uses Thomson’s ViBE equipment to encode its standard definition channels. Also, Eurosport’s production center consists of a huge K2 HD storage area network (SAN) from Thomson. The K2 server has a capacity of 1000 hours of online storage, according to Thomson.

 

Vincent Gerard-Hirne, technical director, Eurosport, said, “We selected Thomson's MPEG-4 HD encoders as we aimed to provide the best ever viewing and audio experience in HD to our customers.”

 

“Thomson's ViBE encoders provide maximum compression capacities but with the best picture quality we have seen. In fact, this has been confirmed since the first channel's launch, as several online user forums have shown viewers to be delighted with the picture quality,” added Gerard-Hirne.

 

“Eurosport is a big broadcaster with ambitious plans for the future,” said Patrick Montliaud, senior vice president of Thomson's Networks and Integration Solutions, Systems Division. “Thomson is supporting them right across the board, from our 44-channel, multi-format K2 media server to the output codecs, which are the critical component in delivering the best possible quality to the home. Sports viewers are very critical, and with ViBE Eurosport is maximizing their HD experience,”

 

Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani’s articles, please visit her columnist page.