Video transcode acceleration engine saves $500,000

Artesyn’s SharpCaster accelerator is aimed at broadcast and streaming equipment such as encoders, transcoders, video on demand (VOD) playout servers, and video content delivery network (CDN) servers, estimated by Infonetics Research to be a $1.39bn (USD) market in 2013 and expected to grow at 4.1% from 2012 to 2017 (Broadcast and Streaming Video Equipment and Pay TV Subscribers Biannual Worldwide and Regional Market Size and Forecasts: 2nd Edition. November 18, 2013. Infonetics Research).

Available as either a plug-in PCI Express card for easy deployment in a customer’s own server or as a pre-configured Artesyn server, the SharpCaster video accelerator can eliminate the need for proprietary appliances and associated support infrastructure for broadcast quality video. A SharpCaster solution can offer a similar footprint and density as dedicated video processing appliances, but gives customers the flexibility of using more readily available servers as hardware platforms. Compared to software-based alternatives, a SharpCaster accelerator offers better density, less rack footprint, and more high-quality features such as hierarchical motion estimation with large search ranges, all available mode decisions, and up to 80Mb/s Context-adaptive binary arithmetic coding (CABAC). With its versatile form factor, as customers upgrade or change their servers, the SharpCaster card can continue to be deployed in the new infrastructure, meaning a smooth deployment experience.

Using proven transcode-class media processing silicon, Magnum D7 Pro and its robust library of transcoding and encoding API support, a single Artesyn SharpCaster accelerator card can support up to eight HD channels or sixteen 720p ABR multiscreen channels. Using a common hardware base, the solution can be software-configured to address multiple applications across the broadcast network from content generation through production, primary and secondary distribution to enterprise or multiple dwelling unit (MDU). Configurations include transcoding for linear broadcasting, adaptive bit rate streaming for multiple devices, and high and standard definition video and audio encoding.

Artesyn’s SharpCaster accelerator is a half-length, full-height PCI Express card, which makes it universally-deployable in a variety of 1U and 2U standard servers. With interfaces for both PCI Express and optional SDI input connectors, the Artesyn SharpCaster accelerator enables access to both baseband video and transport streams.

An Artesyn white paper (available on the company's website) outlines the changes in broadcast equipment driving the need for a complete change to the cost model that enables broadcast equipment vendors to make better use of their available resources by innovating in software-based solutions.