ABC News has licensed On2 Technologies’ video compression technology for use by journalists broadcasting from Iraq to the network’s bureaus in New York and London.
ABC News will purchase 15 licenses for On2’s Laptop News Gathering (LNG) system. The technology enables field correspondents to heavily compress their video reports before transmitting them over a satellite phone or narrowband Internet connection. Despite the extreme compression, On2 said little of the original video quality is lost.
The VP5 compression software used in the LNG system allows fast action video sequences to be encoded at a bit rate of 2 Mb/s. Slower sequences can be processed at 750 kb/s to obtain similar results. The compression system is used in conjunction with Avid Technology editing software on laptop computers.
On2’s compression system was developed with software companies TVZ and Fourth Broadcast Network.
On2 has completed a similar licensing agreement with the BBC, which will install the system so that journalists covering the Persian Gulf can transmit feeds via the Internet or satellite phone back to its headquarters in London.
For more information visit www.on2.com.
