Live Encoding - A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression - page 273

Ateme supplies a Texas Instruments DSP-based processor that is reprogrammed
with different encoding/decoding algorithms on demand. That might lead to in interest-
ing hybrid hardware/software solution. These codec reloads happen so quickly that they
can be switched as the user changes channels. Demonstrations with the codec carried in
the bit stream suggest that downloadable decoding software is feasible.
For high-performance modern codec implementations, Envivio manufactures a
range of encoders, which are designed to yield very high compression factors with the lat-
est H.264 codec. Encoder hardware is also available from Snell & Wilcox, Tandberg,
Philips, and other manufacturers. Refer to Appendix B for a list of manufacturers of encod-
ing hardware.

15.9.2 Software-Based Solutions

Your software solutions are obtainable from Real Networks, Popwire Technology,
Sorenson, Apple, and Microsoft. The Popwire, QuickTime and Sorenson live encoders are
used with the QuickTime streaming server while the other two are used with their own
proprietary servers. As yet, there are limited options for live encoding with open source-
and open standards-based solutions but that will change as the H.264 codec becomes more
widely accepted and used.
Table 15-1 summarizes a list of products you should check out when you are looking
for a live-encoding solution. Note that this list is not exhaustive but covers the most pop-
ular alternatives.

Table 15-1 Live Encoder Products

Product Notes

QuickTime Broadcaster Available as a free download.

Popwire Broadcaster Runs on Mac OS X.

Popwire Live Engine Runs on a Linux foundation.

Sorenson Broadcaster A commercial product available across several platforms.

Helix live encoder Real Networks encoding is done with Helix

implementations.

Microsoft Windows Media These encoding tools are the obvious choice for WM9

video.

Cleaner Live Currently only available on Windows.

Envivio: http://www.envivio.com/
Digital Rapids: http://www.digital-rapids.com/
Tandberg TV: http://www.tandbergtv.com/
Philips: http://www.philips.com/index.htm
Thomson—Grass Valley: http://www.thomsongrassvalley.com/
Thomson: http://www.thomson.net/
Snell & Wilcox: http://www.snellwilcox.com/