Gennum and NuMedia Drive Next-Generation Industrial Connectivity with New Aviia™ HD Visually Lossless CODEC and Reference Design

Enables Long-Distance Digital Transmission of High-Definition Video Over Coaxial Cable Beyond 300 Meters

BURLINGTON, ON, April 13 /PRNewswire/ - Gennum Corporation (TSX: GND), a global leader in advanced high-definition (HD) broadcast video signal integrity solutions, and NuMedia Technology Ltd., an emerging leader in the development of cutting-edge products for the professional broadcast, AV and media markets today announced the availability of a new Aviia™ HD Visually Lossless CODEC (HD-VLC™) and reference design, which provides a turnkey solution for the transmission of high definition (HD) video over long runs of coaxial cable greater than 300 meters. The new solution will be demonstrated live in Gennum's booth (#M204) at the CompoSec 2011 Conference and Exposition taking place April 20-22 in Taipei, Taiwan.

The new Aviia HD-VLC and reference design are part of Gennum's Aviia (Advanced Video Interface for Industrial Applications) family, which introduced the industry's first HD video-over-coax solution for surveillance (HDcctv), digital signage and industrial imaging applications. The new solution provides a visually lossless CODEC, meeting the requirements for the long distance transmission of flawless, low-latency HD video-over-coax in a low cost, simple, yet high-performance way. It includes both FPGA code and a hardware platform, helping equipment manufacturers cut development costs and speed time to market.

"We are excited to work with Gennum to create this new, extended-reach HD-over-coax video solution," said Stuart Sommerville, Managing Director of NuMedia. "Not only is the picture quality at these distances amazing, but by enabling what is essentially HD at standard definition (SD) rates, the new CODEC and reference design allows for the reuse of existing SD infrastructure and test equipment, providing savings in deployment costs."

The reference design uses the Aviia GV7600 HD transmitter and Aviia GV7601 HD receiver, while the CODEC itself is simple enough to be implemented in a low-cost Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA. The Aviia HD-VLC is based on a proprietary, visually lossless encoding algorithm that reduces the HD video bandwidth down by a factor of approximately 5.5:1, allowing the compressed data to be transmitted at a data rate used for standard definition (SD) video. This "link rate reduction" technique has been widely used in broadcast applications to carry HD video, normally transmitted at 1.485 Gb/s, over longer-distance 270 Mb/s video data links. Both the reference design, including schematics and layouts, and the FPGA code itself, are licensable from Gennum.

"With the new Aviia HD-VLC and reference design, Gennum extends its track record of delivering innovative video signal integrity solutions to HDcctv and industrial imaging customers," said Bharat Tailor, Director of Video Marketing for Gennum. "The availability of a complete solution for the transmission of HD video over more than 300 meters via a single 75-ohm coax cable enables the rapid development of next-generation connectivity that takes advantage of existing infrastructure."

The Aviia HD-VLC reference design has two modes of operation: encoder mode would typically be used in HD cameras, where the FPGA-based HD-VLC encoder and the GV7600 transmitter portion of the design can be implemented. In decoder mode, the GV7601 receiver and HD-VLC decoder design can be combined for HD Digital Video Recorder (DVR) applications.

The complete Aviia HD-VLC reference design can be used to implement cable extender boxes, enabling longer distance transmission for existing 1.485 Gb/s based HD products and solutions, currently limited to around 100m using CCTV quality coax. The CODEC is also being proposed for incorporation in the widely anticipated V2.1 HDcctv standard.

"Gennum continues its leadership of the HDcctv industry through providing advanced technologies and product solutions for the Alliance's Manufacturing Members," said Todd Rockoff, HDcctv Alliance Executive Director. "Practical solutions like HD-VLC incorporated in the rapidly evolving HDcctv standard enable the Alliance to facilitate the development of high-quality, readily interoperable HDcctv-compliant devices."

Gennum Aviia HD-VLC at CompoSec 2011
The unprecedented signal integrity capabilities of the new Aviia HD-VLC will be featured in booth #M204 in a live demonstration of HD video running between two HDcctv cameras and a DVR, over both 300m of RG59 coaxial cable and 100m of Cat-5e cable using NuMedia cable extenders.

In addition to the live product demo, Aviia Market Manager Gareth Heywood will present on the topic "The Evolution of HDcctv Connectivity" in the conference's Transmission & Interfaces track on Thursday, April 21st at 2:00 p.m. in room 402c.

Availability
The FPGA code will be initially available under license as an encrypted netlist from Gennum with the purchase of Gennum's GV7600 and GV7601 solutions. FPGA code and reference design documents are available under license through Gennum sales representatives. The Aviia HD-VLC reference design hardware and extender products are available now from NuMedia. See www.numediatechnology.com for ordering information.

About Gennum
Gennum Corporation (TSX: GND) designs innovative semiconductor solutions and intellectual property (IP) cores to serve the rising global demand for high-speed data transmission products in the broadcast, networking, storage and telecommunications markets.  Gennum offers proven optical, analog and mixed-signal solutions with uncompromising signal integrity to support standards such as high-definition (HD) video, Fibre Channel, InfiniBand®, Ethernet, SONET and PCI Express®.  The company is headquartered in Burlington, Canada, and has global design, research and development and sales offices in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Germany, United States, Taiwan, India and the United Kingdom. www.gennum.com.

About the HDcctv Alliance
The HDcctv Alliance is an industry body that publishes standards for the security industry in which broadcast quality, uncompressed, all-digital HD video is transmitted over coaxial cable. In an HDcctv-based system, HDTV signals are transmitted digitally over conventional or existing CCTV media without packetization or any perceivable compression latency, resulting in a plug-and-play HD upgrade for the installed base. Further information is available at the HDcctv Alliance Web site: http://www.highdefcctv.org.

About NuMedia Technology
NuMedia Technology, Ltd. is a UK-based company founded in 2004 to develop innovative and cutting-edge products for the professional broadcast, AV and media markets.  In conjunction with BBC R&D, NuMedia has pioneered the development of low latency contribution codecs using the new SMPTE 2047 standard. NuMedia codecs enable the transport of HD and full HD over existing video networks while meeting SMPTE transport protocols, thus allowing the reuse of existing networks and equipment infrastructure. NuMedia manufactures a range of contribution codecs in both rack-mount and portable ruggedized format suitable for camera mounting. www.numediatechnology.com

Gennum, the Gennum logo, Aviia and HD-VLC are trademarks of Gennum Corporation. NuMedia is a trademark of NuMedia Technology  Limited. "HDcctv Alliance" and the HDcctv logos are trademarks of HDcctv Alliance Limited. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. Copyright Gennum Corporation, 2011.

SOURCE Gennum Corporation