RGB Launches Content Repurposing Solution for "Real-Time Delivery of Any Video to Any Device"

Network video processing specialist, RGB Networks, on Tuesday unveiled its new content repurposing solution, which it claims enables cable, telecom and other IP video service providers to simultaneously deliver any video program to multiple devices (including TV's, PC's and mobiles) via any network and with "pristine" picture quality. According to the company, this claimed ability to easily repurpose multiple video sources, and to deliver them over multiple networks and to all viewing devices using a single, integrated video processing platform dramatically reduces the operational complexity for video service providers to expand their offerings.

Video services are becoming increasingly personalized, RGB says, with viewers increasingly looking to be able to watch TV where and when they want. In order to make this "any device" vision scale to support all their subscribers, the company says, operators need to be able to upgrade their networks cost-effectively, so as to deliver "a new generation of services" from multiple sources to a wide variety of viewing devices. Until now, according to the company, simple, single-channel transcoders and encoders have been used for this purpose; but as the number of input and output devices grows and the "permutations of formats, resolutions and aspect ratios increases rapidly," a more sophisticated solution is required. In particular, RGB argues, service providers will have to simultaneously process a huge number of video streams to meet the growing demand. RGB claims to have developed its content repurposing solution specifically to address this requirement: it says that the technology can transcode and process an "unprecedented" number of streams in real time, while simultaneously performing such functions as aggregation, grooming, replication, transrating and ad insertion. The company bills this "ultra-high-density, integrated approach" of its content repurposing technology as offering operators a scalable solution that allows multiple video processing functions to be applied to each stream in real time, as needed, in order to prepare the video for its intended receiving device. "Consumer consumption of video services is evolving from simply watching programming on televisions to viewing video on PC's, mobile phones and a growing number of other portable devices," RGB's VP of product marketing, Ramin Farassat, said in a prepared statement. "However, supporting and delivering video to this growing number of viewing devices--which is typically achieved through the use of multiple products from different vendors--has proved a costly challenge for video service providers who have traditionally optimized their networks and programs solely for viewing on televisions. RGB's new content repurposing solution addresses this issue, offering the means to support multiple video processing applications that can be applied to a large number of video streams simultaneously, therefore dramatically reducing the complexity of supporting different sources, networks and devices while ensuring that programs appear as picture perfect as possible."

At the center of RGB's new content repurposing solution, the company says, is its Video Multiprocessing Gateway (VMG), which was formerly called the Modular Video Processor and which is billed as a "carrier-class" video processing platform that "uniquely" combines several key functions, including content repurposing, digital ad insertion, transrating, grooming ingest and aggregation. The VMG's initial content repurposing capability will, the company says, be delivered via a plug-in module--dubbed the TCM--which is billed as being able to convert between MPEG-2 and MPEG-4/H.264 format and as featuring the industry's highest stream processing density--thus enabling what RGB calls an "operationally attractive 'many in, many out' content repurposing scenario via high-capacity 10-Gigabit Ethernet input and output interfaces." RGB claims that its "integrated platform approach" to video repurposing reduces operational complexity and allows for the "seamless" delivery of other video processing applications, such as ad insertion and digital overlays, with easy, license-based upgrading and scalable, "pay-as-you-grow" expansion of services. The company plans to demo "the initial capabilities" of its content repurposing technology at the IBC show in Amsterdam later this month (Stand 5, C14).