Systems
Indigo Vision
- Location: Scotland
- A system vendor with internal chip design capability
- IndigoVision is primarily a system vendor in the video over internet
protocol (IPTV) business, but also opportunistically licenses
semiconductor intellectual property (IP) cores.
Digital Vision AB
- Location: Sweden
sells media mastering and media networking products
Oasis SiliconSystems
Modulus Video
- Location: Sunnyvale, CA
- dubs themselves "The AVC Company"
- rack mounted encoder and decoder equipment for H.264 ("AVC") over IP or QPSK and ASI
- Products:
- ME6000 video encoder encodes H.264 (AVC) at Level 4 and supports B frames and CABAC,
searches 2 reference frames, 16x16 down to 8x8 block sizes (not 4x pixel sizes), MBAFF,
and runs at up to 1080i or 720p
- ME1000 video encoder encodes H.264 (AVC) at Level 3 and supports B frames and CABAC,
searches 2 reference frames, 16x16 down to 8x8 block sizes (not 4x pixel sizes), MBAFF,
and runs at up to 720x576i
- $10M series B venture investment in 2005, September
Harmonic Inc.
- Location: Sunnyvale, CA
- rack mounted encoders, gateways, and other broadcast equipment for cable,
satellite, terrestrial, and telecom networks
- Customers:
- The Harmonic DiviCom MV 100 encoder system is used for H.264 (AVC) broadcast
encoding by Island Media for the
Race Track Network horse and dog race IPTV
broadcast network.
Tandberg Television
- Location: Southampton, United Kingdom
- Products:
rack mounted encoders for standard definition and high definition transmission over cable,
DSL, fibre, IP, satellite and terrestrial networks using MPEG-2, WMV9, and H.264 (AVC).
integrated receiver decoders
modulators
multiplexors
and much much more...
- Acquisitions:
- Tandberg acquired Sunnyvale, CA maker of rack mounted MPEG-4 and H.264 Level 3 (SDTV)
IPTV head end, edge, and content delivery systems, Skystream Networks, in 2006 for $80M
in cash and stock. Skystream customers included:
- Tandberg acquired GoldPocket Interactive, vendor of software for managing content
on interactive television, wireless television, and set-top boxes, in 2005 for
$78.5M.
VBrick Systems
- Location: Wallingford, CT
- EthernTV (ethernet TV) including encoding appliances, video on demand servers,
media control server, decoding appliances and software using MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and
MPEG-4 at standard definition
- 5-Nines Video high reliability video equipment
Pixel Instruments
- Location: Los Gatos, CA
- equipment for audio/video synchronization
RGB Networks
- Location: San Mateo, CA
- Products:
Simulcast Edge Processor 48 (SEP48) in a rack mount chassis decodes multiple digital
streams simultaneously and outputs analog (carrier modulated?) NTSC video signals
- Partners:
- Motorola markets and supports RGB Networks
products for cable and telco operators
- RGB Networks is a SeaChange Certified Partner
- Investors:
Harris
- Harris is primarily a defense contractor
Inlet Technologies
- Location: Raleigh, NC
- sells to the broadcast and video post-production markets
- sells products that encode in WMV-HD / VC-1 format, not H.264 (and not MPEG-2?)
- Products:
Optimized Compression, Encoding and Analytics (OCEAN), software that does what its name
suggests, in real time. What computer hardware does it run on? What resolution, frame
rate, and bit rate can it achieve?
Fathom VC-1 Main or Advanced profile encoder PCI board supporting real-time single pass at
up to 1080p24 or non-real-time multi-pass encoding with support for CBR or VBR up to 2k
bps operating on live HD SDI, SD SDI or file-based source material.
Aastra Telecom
- Location: Concord, Ontario, Canada
- Toronto Stock Exchange: AAH
- The former digital video business unit of Lucent (formerly AT&T)
Bell Labs, part of the HDTV
Grand Alliance
- OEM for Harris and others
- Products:
WaveStar DVS digital video system for real-time encoding, decoding, and multiplexing of
DTV data streams
VideoRunner video networking system for interconnecting television production and
broadcast facilities, including MPEG-2 multiplexing, demultiplexing, and ATM and TCP/IP
networking
Videm EMS element management system for provisioning video and network bandwidth for
digital video over IP systems
Videotron
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
- 45 employees, established 1972
- Products:
super imposing systems for superimposition of images
systems for recording color key and filler images and for pattern generation
telop lettering generation and correctors
video distribution amplifiers
system synchronizers
routing switchers
multi-channel on-air video server feeding up to two
Avid / Pinnacle Systems broadcast servers
multi stream screen splitter
video timers and format converters
Auroras
- Location: Kalispell, MT
- founded in 2004
- developing head end, gateway, and network edge routing solutions for IPTV using AVC
video compression for SDTV and HDTV resolution video streams.
- targetting telephone companies as customers
- Auroras also sells set-top box systems
Newtec
- Founded: 1985
- Products:
Satellite broadcast and communications equipment
Frequency converters
modems
DTV uplink stations
DTV receiver stations
SDH satellite backbone equipment
DVB and RCS-2way satellite communication equipment
DVB-S and DVB-S2 modulators
DVB-S, DVB-S2, and SDH demodulators
IP network trunking equipment
IPTV broadcast equipment
- Took over Philips Microwave communication
equipment division
Symmetricom
- telecom and government/military timing test equipment vendor
- Acquisitions:
- QoSmetrics
- Founded: 1999
- acquired 2007 for $16M cash
- Makes quality monitoring systems for broadband providers.
- Products:
NetAdviser central management system
NetWarriors multimedia probes
NetAgents software probes
- Agilent Technologies' precision clock source business
Tektronix
- Acquisitions:
- Minacom International
- based in Canada
- IPTV network probing tools
- acquired in 2006
Scopus Video Networks
- Location: Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel
- Nasdaq: SCOP
- Sells encoders, multiplexers, receivers, video gateways, management systems, and
conditional access systems to cable, satellite, and telco video service providers.
Optibase
- Location: Herzlia, Israel
- Nasdaq: OBAS
- Products:
MGW5100 IPTV platform
MGW1100 IPTV platform
MGW5100 IPTV platform
MPEG-2 HD Encoder
MPEG-2 Encoder
MPEG-2 Mac Encoder
MPEG-4 Encoder
MPEG-1 Encoder
MPEG-2 HD Decoder
IP receiver
MPEG-2 SD Decoder
MPEG Composer 200 encoding management software
MPEG Commotion Pro streaming software
Optibase player software
MGW 2000e IPTV streaming video server
MGW 2400 Windows Media encoding and streaming gateway
MGW 1100 integrated carrier grade TV streaming server
MGW 200 single channel streaming video server
MediaPump MPEG-2 DVB to IPTV gateway
Video Furnace
- Location: Libertyville, IL
- sells video content distribution equipment for internet protocol (IP) networks
- Customers:
Focus Enhancements
- Location: Campbell, CA
- Founded: in 1997 as a spin-off from Philips Consumer Electronics
- Video Production eqipment
- Media Asset Management equipment
- Digital Signage
- PC-to-TV video scan converter chips
- Ultra-Wide Band (UWB) chips
Evertz Microsystems
- Location: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
- Founded: 1966
- 360 employees
- sells IPTV and HDTV broadcast and distribution equipment
- Acquisitions:
- Evertz acquired Reading, UK, company Quartz Electronics in 2005 for its router and
master control technology.
Layered Media
- Location: Rochelle Park, NJ
- sells video inter-networking technology
- little public info
- ??? involved in scalable video coding (SVC) ???
- Thomas Wiegand is an advisor
Huawei Technologies
- Location: China
- leading networking equipment vendor in China, including IPTV distribution
infrastructure equipment
- A backer and implementer of the AVS video coding standard
- the "Cisco" of China
ZTE
- Location: Shenzhen, China
- wireless infrastructure equipment vendor
- A backer and implementer of the AVS video coding standard
- Customers:
China Telecom
- the largest telecom company in China
- favors H.264 over AVS for video coding
3D (Stereoscopic) Cinema
Because of the large numbers sold, common standards are essential to digital consumer
applications. The number of systems sold to cinemas is so much smaller that many equipment
vendors use proprietary formats. The following is a list of vendors with a brief overview
of each's format.
Sharkboy
- Film (not digital) projected from two synchronized projectors viewed with read/green
polarized glasses
Imax
- Location: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
- Two films (not digital) in a single projector with 2 lenses, one with vertical and
one with horizontally polarized light viewed through glasses with a vertically polarized
lens over one eye and a horizontally polarized lens over the other eye.
RealD
- Projects left-hand circularly polarized light through one lens and right-hand circularly
polarized light through the other lens onto a mirror (not white) screen viewed through
glasses with oppositely aligned birefringent lenses.
In-Three
- Location: Agoura Hills, CA
- sells a system with active-shutter glasses, synchronized to an infra-red beam synchronized
to the projector. Works with a standard white screen. Glasses can be manufactured for about
$20.
