Wavelet video codec (compatible with nothing)..........................
Analog Devices' Low-Cost Wavelet Codec's High-Quality Compression
Enables New Mass Market Video Applications
$14.95 Price Makes Record & Playback Affordable for Consumer, PC &
Surveillance Electronics
Applied Magic and Quadrant International Announce ADV601LC-Based Products
NORWOOD, Mass., Dec. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- The new ADV601LC video codec from
Analog Devices, Inc. (NYSE: ADI) is expected to ignite the consumer market for
integrated digital video recording, editing, and playback. Applications such
as digital VCRs, TV set-top boxes with instant replay, a wide range of home
video editing and other record and playback applications had been previously
constrained by the cost and space of existing solutions.
"The ADV601LC has enabled us to bring a new class of home video recording
and media creation products to the consumer market," said Robert Wallin of
Applied Magic which will bring a new disk-based digital video set-top box to
the consumer electronics market later this year. "Thanks to ADI, we will
bring the world's first digital video recording and multimedia creation
platform to the living room market. Consumers have access to a wide variety
of technology such as DVD, digital camcorders and the Internet, and it is
unacceptable that there is no standalone system that enables consumer to
integrate these technologies for increased utility and enjoyment. We will
change this with the ADV601LC."
The ADV601LC draws on wavelet compression and decompression technology: to
operate both as a video encoder, which compresses video, and a decoder, which
expands the same video to its original form. The chip attains compression
ratios ranging for a visually loss-less 4:1, suitable for professional studio
applications, all the way up to an impressive 350:1, suitable for less
demanding surveillance applications.
According to Rick Doherty, director of the Envisoneering Group Labs, who
conducted an extensive performance evaluation of the ADV601LC, "The
compression range of the ADV601LC is amazing, from digital video studio and
special effects range down to ISDN-rate security and video conferencing. The
ADV601LC is the most efficient digital video coding chip we've seen, gate for
gate, pin for pin, pixel for pixel." What's more, because the ADV601LC
conforms to the CCIR-601 international standard for representing studio-
quality digital video, it can be used in a range of field sizes and field and
pixel rates, yielding high-quality results in both NTSC and PAL equipment.
Quadrant International (QI), Malvern, PA, has just completed a new low-
cost video capture and editing card based on the ADV601LC. "Wavelet
compression continues to deliver the best price and performance to PC video
editing applications" according to David Brott, strategic marketing manager at
QI. "The new Tommahawk VCC board is the first full D1 resolution video
editing board to integrate audio and break through the $100 price barrier.
All of this can be accomplished with standard IDE disk drives thanks to the
ADV601LC." This new PCI board is available for licensing to OEMs and was
displayed at Comdex 97.
With the ADV601LC, even PCs configured for price-sensitive consumers can
be used for video production. Compressed video can be stored with an off-the-
shelf hard disk drive. For example, the ADV601LC can compress 25 minutes of
VHS-quality video to fit in 1 gigabyte of space. Other editable compression
techniques, such as MPEG2 I Frame or Motion JPEG, can require up to two times
the recording space or transmission bandwidth.
In addition to consumer and computer applications, the ADV601LC will
enable a variety of remote security and surveillance solutions for retail and
enterprise protection and anti-theft systems. ADI also has developed the
VideoPipe evaluation board which facilitates the evaluation of all ADV601LC
features in real time.
Seeing Is Believing: VideoPipe Evaluation Board
"We can safely say this is one of the cleverest digital video evaluation
systems ever devised," said Doherty about the new ADV601LC evaluation board.
The VideoPipe is a small 3 inch by 5 inch stand-alone board permitting
simultaneous compression and decompression in real-time. This is a big
departure from expensive and difficult to install PCI cards that did not
permit real-time viewing of compression performance.
Wavelet Signal Processing Technology
Wavelets are high-performance compression schemes for audio, and images
involve the linear transformation of the source signal into frequency
components. Wavelet signal processing is an important advance over Discrete
Cosine Transform (DCT), used in MPEG, in that it allows for the easy
implementation of perfect reconstruction frequency-selective filter banks for
sub-band coding of source signals without requiring that the data be processed
in limited-length blocks. As a result, entire images can be economically
processed by a single wavelet filet bank, making blocking artifacts a thing of
the past.
Price and Availability
Available now, the ADV601LC comes in a 120-pin TQFP package and sells for
$14.95 each in quantities of 10,000 units. The VideoPipe evaluation board is
available now for $199.95. Additional information on the ADV601LC can be
found on Analog Devices' website at
www.analog.com/products/sheets/ADV601LC.html
About Applied Magic, Inc.
Applied Magic, Inc. is a San Diego-based company specializing in the
development, licensing and marketing of powerful and intuitive solutions for
professional video editors, audio engineers and multimedia producers. For
more information contact Applied Magic Inc. at 1-888-MAGIC-55, by email at
support@amagic.com, or visit their website at www.applied-magic.com.
About The Envisioneering Group
The Envisioneering Group is based in Seaford, NY and operates two of the
industry's most complete analog and digital video contract test labs in the
industry. Computer, consumer electronics and communications engineering firms
turn to it for frank opinions on their silicon, software and subsystem
performance.
About Quadrant International
Quadrant International (QI) plays a major role in the development of
convergence technologies and works with customers to develop convergence
solutions. QI was founded in 1994 and is currently headquartered in Malvern,
Pennsylvania. For more press or sales information, contact Lori Crenny,
Marketing Coordinator, at +1-610-251-9999 ext. 219 or visiting their web site
at qi.com.
About Analog Devices, Inc.
With sales of $1.2 billion for fiscal 1997, Analog Devices is a leading
manufacturer of precision high-performance integrated circuits used in analog
and digital signal processing applications. Headquartered in Norwood,
Massachusetts, the company employs approximately 7,500 people worldwide and
has manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, California, North Carolina,
Ireland, the Philippines and Taiwan.
READERS SHOULD CONTACT: Analog Devices, Inc., Three Technology Way
Norwood, MA 02062, Tel: 800-262-5643, Fax: 800-446-6212.
SOURCE Analog Devices, Inc.
/EDITORS' ADVISORY: Send sales leads to: Analog Devices Literature
Distribution Center, One Technology Way, Norwood, MA 02062. Fax sales leads
to: 781-461-3700/
/CONTACT: Dave Jackson of Analog Devices, 781-461-3136,
david-b.jackson@analog.com/
/Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax, 800-758-5804,
ext. 054550/
/Web site: analog.com
(ADI) |
