Advanced Television

Imagine Communications announces ICE Broadcast System 4.0

May 25, 2011

Imagine Communications, an innovator in advanced digital video solutions, hasannounced version 4.0 of the ICE Broadcast System , a significant upgrade to the already widely deployed video processing platform.  Imagine plans to demonstrate ICE Broadcast System 4.0 at NCTA’s The Cable Show  in Chicago, June 14-16 in booth #ES-55.

Imagine’s ICE Broadcast System platform is a powerful video processing solution providing video service providers the ability to deliver an unparalleled viewing experience, while realizing the most efficient network resource utilization.  Imagine’s technology serves thousands of live streams to over half of all US digital cable subscribers and is recognized today as the most powerful multi-codec, multi-rate, multi-resolution video processing platform.  Version 4.0 of the ICE Broadcast System is planned for initial deployments in June with several North American service providers for IPTV, broadcast multiplexing and switched digital video staging.

“ICE Broadcast System 4.0 is an important evolution of our industry leading video processing solution, enabling our customers to efficiently launch new services on existing deployments and leap-frog their competition with richer viewing experiences, more choice and unmatched picture quality,” said Imagine Communications’ VP, Product Marketing Chris Gordon.  “The ICE Broadcast System carrier-class blade server platform empowers our customers to greatly improve solution resiliency, flexibility, and operational efficiency.”

The ICE Broadcast System 4.0 many features and benefits include:
Increased Flexibility & Interoperability – Multi-codec audio and video transcoding, allows service providers to receive content in any format and distribute across their network in any format (any-to-any audio and video conversion).
Sharper Pictures and Lower Bit-Rates – Imagine’s ICE Illustrate™ Pixel Processing technology enables the most immersive image environment possible across a wide range of video display devices. ICE Illustrate filters sharpen images, remove noise, enhance face detection, reduce the appearance of macroblock artifacts and manage contrast. In short, they reduce random signals and preserve and enhance important visual details.
Mobile and Internet De-Interlacing – Today there is a mismatch between interlaced (i) displays for HDTV 1080i video and the progressive (p) displays for mobile phones, PCs, tablets and smartphones.  Converting these 1080i signals to a progressive format is a critical new requirement for service providers to ensure high quality and consistent picture display across all devices. The ICE platform’s unique hybrid architecture leverages MAPA (Motion Adaptive Pixel Accurate) de-interlacing technology not available in competing solutions.
High Reliability and Density – Imagine’s ICE Broadcast System is available on  a carrier-class blade system chassis with proven resiliency redundancy systems ensuring the highest degree of system uptime and reliability. The ICE Broadband System is also available on a high-density 1 RU (rack unit) platform capable of delivering up to 8 HD (high definition) or 32 SD (standard definition) video channels with unmatched power savings and cooling efficiencies.
Operational Savings – Since digital broadcasting of HD and SD services occupies a relatively large part of an operator’s available spectrum, the ICE Broadcast System enables service providers to cost-effectively deliver up to 50 percent more HD programming without sacrificing video quality.

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