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NTT Does UltraHD at 4:2:2

Japan’s NTT showed off a new professional video encoder LSI, capable of handling UltraHD at 60fps, in real-time. The encoder supports the HEVC codec.

According to NTT, the LSI is the first every to comply with the Main 10 (4:2:2) profile. The single-chip nature of the encoder also reduces footprint to as low as 1/16 of existing implementations, and results in 1.5 times higher compression performance.

We heard that NTT has developed new hardware algorithms for intra- and inter-frame prediction. These are adaptable to HEVC-specific variable block sizes, so a wide search range and high prediction efficiency is achieved. The LSI also features multiplexing functions, resulting in simplified encoding system configurations.

As well as UltraHD, the LSI has an extension interface for multi-chip functions; this enables encoding for higher-definition images, beyond UltraHD.

Systems using the new encoder LSI are being verified for upcoming UltraHD transmission services now, and are planned to be launched in Q4’15.