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 $1.39 billion market in 2013 and expected to grow at 4.1 percent from 2012 to 2017.

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 80 Mbps 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.

Jeff Heynen, principal analyst, broadband access and pay TV, Infonetics Research, said, “Increasing competition and content is driving a transition from traditional, broadcast-focused video processing environments, to ones that can deliver multiscreen and multi-format video - in addition to improvements in the quality of existing broadcast video services. ”

“The transition is heating up globally and Artesyn’s SharpCaster accelerator is perfectly timed for the sustained investments in video infrastructure required. The ability to use standard server architectures with a common media processing platform across a myriad of infrastructure elements and multiple generations of equipment is a compelling argument.”

Features:

－ Complete software and hardware encode and transcode solution for ƒbroadcast applications, including: Main and multi-screen distribution/DSNG and live event contribution encoders with 10-bit 4:2:2 support/Ingest & play-out servers ƒƒ

－ Up to 8 main-screen or 16 multi-screen ABR (Adaptive Bit Rate) HD transcodes per card

－ Up to 4 main-screen or 16 multi-screen ABR HD encodes per card

－ ƒƒMulti-channel Dolby Digital Pro, ƒAAC-LC, HE-AAC and MPEG-1 Layer II audio support

－ ƒƒFull-height, half-length PCI Express form factor compatible with 1RU and 2RU servers

－ ƒƒSupport for High Video Quality Features: Motion Estimation/Real-life Video Coding/IDR, PTS and GoP aligned ABR support/Interlaced to progressive conversion

－ MPEG-2 and H.264 encoding ƒand transcoding