NAB Show, Las Vegas, United States – April 24, 2017 – NHK and Village-Island have developed a new innovative system, called VICO-8, that makes possible to transport 8K 4:2:2 60p 10bits on a single 12G-SDI cable using intoPIX TICO(*1) compression technology.
VICO-8 takes 8K video as 4x 12G-SDI input as compress by a factor of 4 to 1, in visually lossless (*2) quality, generating a single TICO 8K stream output mapped on a single 12G-SDI interface with a delay of few video lines, so less than 1msec.
8K 60p 4:2:2 (10bits) usually requires 16x 3G-SDI or 4x 12G-SDI for raw quality transport.
Such high number of SDI cables implies many drawbacks such as big space constraints, high costs and high complexity of wiring. Furthermore, a UHD signal spread on multiple SDI cables brings concrete problems for signal distribution, switching, transmission, and other basic operations.
The gain to bring 8K to a single 12G-SDI is huge. It enables to achieve 8K with 4K-ready appliances, wherever it is about switching, distributing, transmitting the signal on optical fiber or other support. Dividing dramatically the cost of infrastructure (*3), the gain of VICO-8 is even exponential when considering matrix switcher where VICO decreased the number of required input by 4, while decreasing the number of required output by 4, dividing the number of required node by 16.
The VICO-8 was developed in collaboration with the NHK, a pioneer in Super Hi-Vision technology. “The gain of using VICO-8 can be dramatic within our 8K OBVAN where the constraints on space, heat, wirings, energy are the most challenging” says Miyazaki san, senior manager of Engineering Administration Department at NHK. “8K on a single SDI cable simplify our operations and reduce risks inside the OBVAN”
The VICO-8 can be configured as an encoder or a decoder. As an 8K decoder, it can also be configured to output a down-converted 4K output, thanks to the internal down-scaler available in the TICO compression. It is saving the cost of heavy 8K professional displays, when 4K display are available to monitor the 8K signal.
“All of this would not have been possible without intoPIX TICO supporting resolution up to 7680x4320 pixels, while keeping all its famous performances” says Yoshizu Taira, OEM Manager at Village Island. “Our customers are just expecting to work with raw quality and near-to-zero delay, and only TICO would bring this reality on affordable FGPA”.
“TICO technology eases the access to 8K to a wide range of users and applications. 12G-SDI is getting more and more popular in new broadcast infrastructures”, says Jean-Baptiste Lorent, marketing director at intoPIX. He adds: “intoPIX is happy to accelerate the transition to 8K broadcasting, the so-called Super Hi-vision. Enabling 8K on TICO for NHK with the development of new FPGA IP-cores was a natural evolution for us”.
The VICO-8 is available as 1RU appliance, or as OEM and ODM boards as well and will be showcased at NAB on the TICO Alliance booth C8525
(*1) TICO is said “high-efficiency codec” for its video quality and delay compared to the implementation cost (ex: cost of computing or FPGA)
(*2) The PSNR (Peak signal-to-noise ratio) is measured commonly as above 48dB.
(*3) The VICO-8 can be configured to generate the 8K TICO stream on 4x 3G-SDI as well, making it possible for 4K (4x3G-SDI) devices to handle 8K.
About intoPIX
intoPIX is an innovative technology provider of compression, image processing, and security solutions to audiovisual equipment manufacturers. We are passionate about offering people a higher quality image experience and have developed FPGA IP-cores and software tools that enable leading edge TICO and JPEG2000 compression, security, video over IP and hardware enforcement. More information on our company, customers, and products can be found at www.intopix.com
About Village Island
Village Island, with head-quarters in Japan and subsidiary offices in Singapore and Malaysia, is a well-known supplier of audio-visual hardware and solutions for the broadcast and telecom industry. Village Island proposes state-of-the-art, affordable and flexible technology in response to evolving customer needs. Village Island integrates, distribute and represent many technology vendors from around the world. Village Island also develop software and hardware from and for its key partners. Village Island offers professional services, seminars and trainings regularly through the year. Village Island is an IABM member and a TICO Alliance member. Since, its foundation in in Tokyo in 2005, Village Island has been deploying thousands of equipment and systems to key players in the broadcast industry.
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