Gannett-owned NBC affiliate WXIA-TV in Atlanta, has selected a Snell & Wilcox Memphis encoder to ingest uncompressed HD content and enable file-based storage and delivery over its SD and HD broadcast channels.
The Memphis encoder incorporates Snell & Wilcox Ph.C phase correlation motion estimation technology and Prefix compression preprocessing to provide image quality at lower bit rates. It serves as a platform for real-time processing of HD-SDI signals, which are output as ASI streams onto the facility's Omneon Spectrum media server system for storage and playout in the right format for each channel.
WXIA-TV feeds uncompressed HD signals into Memphis, which creates a high-quality MPEG-2 signal and places it within an ASI transport stream. The ASI stream is then passed to the Omneon Spectrum, where the MPEG-2 material is de-multiplexed and stored as a file-based asset and when required by a playout schedule; the HD clip is then retrieved from storage and decompressed to create an uncompressed HD signal. The HD clip is simultaneously downconverted to provide an SD feed for playout.
"We selected the Memphis encoder from Snell & Wilcox not only for its superior MPEG-2 processing technologies, but also because of the respect it has earned from other key vendors involved in our new HD-capable technical operations center," said Leonard Thomas, chief engineer at WXIA-TV. "The support we received from Snell & Wilcox during the integration and installation was very impressive, and once the Memphis encoder was configured, it operated smoothly, providing reliable day-to-day operation without the need for any adjustment."
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