Advanced Television

Nevion Virtuoso extends video compression options

August 21, 2024

Nevion, a Sony Group Company and provider of virtualised media production solutions, is increasing video encoding choice in its versatile Virtuoso software-defined media node with the addition a low latency H.265/HEVC capability. The new media function, which provides low bitrate and low latency encoding and decoding without compromising on quality, is the ideal solution for bandwidth-constrained contribution, remote-production and GCCG (ground-to-cloud-cloud-to-ground) applications.
A key component of Sony’s Networked Live offering, Nevion Virtuoso has been widely deployed across the world to transport, process, and monitor signals in real-time. Virtuoso is a core component of many IP-based production facilities, with SMPTE ST 2110 adaptation, and media processing functions. Virtuoso is also used to cover most major high-profile events, including global sports tournaments, competitions and games.
Virtuoso already supports a variety of high-quality codecs for video transport, including JPEG XS, JPEG 2000 and TICO. The latest addition to Virtuoso’s video compression capabilities, the Virtuoso H.265/HEVC media function, provides low bit rate encoding and decoding with both high picture quality and low end-to-end system latency. It extends Virtuoso’s versatility further to cover situations where bandwidth is limited, and production quality cannot be compromised.
Virtuoso’s low latency H.265/HEVC offering is built on Sony’s cutting-edge and proven technology, integrated into a new Low-Bit Rate (LBR) media accelerator card. Several media accelerators can be housed in either Virtuoso MI or Virtuoso RE appliances, with each card able to handle multiple simultaneous encode or decode channels – offering one of the industry’s highest densities for H.265/HEVC in a 1RU chassis. This flexibility and density ensure that the system can be scaled to the required level.
The initial release of the HEVC media function provides low latency 10-bit 4:2:2 encoding and decoding capability. The standards-compliant TSoIP (Transport Stream over IP) encapsulation ensures the perfectly synchronised transport of video, audio, and ancillary data, as well as interoperability with third-party equipment. An upcoming software release will also add support for Ultra-Low-Latency (ULL) mode. The combination of the H.265/HEVC media function and Nevion’s advanced protection mechanisms enables the real-time transport of professional media with low bandwidth utilisation, along with high reliability and availability.
Jan Helgesen, Head of Product and Solutions at Nevion explains: “Broadcasters, media companies, production houses, eSport companies and telecom service providers all over the world rely on Virtuoso to transport their mission critical signals between locations, sometimes many thousands of kilometers apart. Now, thanks to Sony’s cutting-edge H.265/HEVC technology, they will be able to benefit from an additional choice when they want to want to select the most appropriate codec for their application.”
Helgesen concludes: “Offering versatility at the fingertips is what Virtuoso is all about. The H.265/HEVC capability extends our compression offering for bandwidth constrained environments without compromising on quality or latency.”

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