Communitek Video Systems now offers Minicaster, a stand-alone encoding system designed specifically for live streaming of HD and SD content for Internet video broadcasts and IPTV applications. With real-time MPEG4/H.264, Adobe Flash and Windows Media encoding, the compact device is ideal for live broadcasts from both field and studio locations via IPTV services as well as over the Internet.
Streams can be generated at bit rates ranging from 100kb/s to 15Mb/s in real time from HD-SDI, SD-SDI, S-Video or composite video sources with either discrete or embedded audio. The Minicaster can also be equipped with up to 2TB of internal disk storage for simultaneous archiving of live streams during broadcasts. The self-contained unit can be powered by AC or DC sources.
Employing a combination of hardware and software encoding, the Minicaster gives producers complete creative control over the compression process, which supports all of the major SD and HD formats used in broadcast, including 1080i, 720p, PAL 625 and NTSC 525. Frame rates include 30Hz, 29.97Hz, 25Hz and 24Hz progressive as well as 60Hz and 59.94Hz interlaced. Video images can be cropped, scaled, deinterlaced and formatted for a wide range of software video players. Both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratios are supported, and captions and bitmap logos can be overlaid on the outbound stream. Dual Gigabit Ethernet output ports are provided for high stream capacity and redundancy.
