Grass Valley adds H.264 Support to MEDIAEDGE-4 HD Content Delivery System June 11, 2009 Continuing to advance technology for A/V professionals, Grass Valley will demonstrate the latest version of its MEDIAEDGE digital signage and on-demand content delivery platform, now with support for the H.264 MPEG-4 compression standard. This enables the Grass Valley MEDIAEDGE4 platform to store and distribute more high-definition (HD) content from a single server than ever before. In addition, the HDMI output on the system’s set top player allows it to send HD images to more many more screens. Ideally suited for retail digital signage, sport venues, corporate training, corporate communication, distance learning, decision support, and media asset management, the MEDIAEDGE system makes content easier to locate, schedule, and play out for a variety of video-on-demand and point-of-presence display applications – all while leveraging the cost advantages of a standard IT infrastructure. Due to its cost-effective deployment and file-based content management capabilities, the MEDIAEDGE platform continues to gain in popularity and is now deployed in hundreds of locations around the world, including major retail chains, global corporations and public and private schools. The new MEDIAEDGE4 system set-top box can decode H.264 content as well as MPEG-2 content from existing MEDIAEDGE3 systems and includes a new HDMI output connector. This allows users to take advantage of a far more common standard and a wider variety of HD monitors and displays. By incorporating support for H.264, MEDIAEDGE4 users can now store and deliver HD content at a substantially lower data rate - about 30 percent less than MPEG-2. “With the latest version of MEDIAEDGE, users can make better use of their network distribution pipeline and the hard disk space on the server,” said Jeff Rosica, Senior Vice President of Grass Valley. “With disk storage continuing to come down in price, this could dramatically increase the capacity of a MEDIAEDGE server and lower equipment costs. It will help a variety of applications get the most value for their investment and launch new services quickly and cost-effectively.” Existing MEDIAEDGE3 customers can upgrade to version 4 for a small fee. All version 3 content and equipment is fully compatible with version 4 when used in MPEG-2 mode. In addition, the physically smaller version 4 set-top players will play all version 3 content and new H.264 encoded content as well. Pricing and Availability The new Grass Valley MEDIAEDGE4 system will be available in the third quarter of 2009. Contact your local Grass Valley MEDIAEDGE dealer for pricing.  |
