Curtiss-Wright Debuts New Video Distribution System for Aerospace/Defense IP Network
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CAMBRIDGE, UK – November 25, 2008 -- Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, a leading designer and manufacturer of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) VME, VPX and CompactPCI products for the aerospace and defense market, has announced VDS, a new digital video distribution system suite comprised of middleware and a comprehensive selection of video hardware. VDS facilitates the implementation of applications that require high performance video distribution over a network. The elements of VDS combine to create deployable solutions for a wide range of aerospace and defense applications such as ship-wide naval distribution, local situational awareness, airborne distribution, and simulation systems.
“The demand for real-time distribution and storage of high quality video in the deployed military market continues to grow,” said Alan McCormick, Managing Director, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, radar and video group. “Our family of hardware interfaces and compression engines, together with the VDS middleware and Sentric recording and playback solutions offer systems integrators a cohesive set of capabilities for these critical applications.”
The VDS Video Distribution System
Curtiss-Wright’s VDS digital distribution systems support the capture, compression, and distribution of video from a wide variety of sources to any display or recording station available over a local or wide area network (LAN, WAN). When configured using Curtiss-Wright's Orion JPEG2000 PMC board, VDS provides real-time video compression and decompression.
JPEG2000, the primary compression algorithm employed in the VDS family, provides an optimal mix of quality, robustness and performance with compression that enables the transmission of multiple video streams over standard Gigabit Ethernet or other suitable network connections. JPEG2000 compression also offers superior (i.e., lower) latency compared to alternative algorithms which makes VDS ideal for applications where it is critical to minimize the time from capture to display.
Networks and the video data flowing across them can be reconfigured with ease due to the scalable nature of VDS and its publish/subscribe paradigm. Quality-of-Service and bandwidth control is also provided to ensure in real-time that the application’s most critical video is given the highest priority and sufficient bandwidth allocation.
VDS Middleware and Interface
The VDS middleware supports the streaming of video to multiple destinations simultaneously using network multicast and broadcast capabilities. VDS also supports the RTP (real-time protocol) standard used commonly for real-time video and audio distribution requirements. RTP controls the flow of video data to ensure optimized transmission over IP networks.
VDS is controlled by a browser-based interface (primarily useful during development) and via an embeddable API.
The VDS middleware has been developed to be agnostic of target applications’ underlying operating systems and architectures. Furthermore, VDS is extensible so that data of different formats (such as MPEG) is also supported. VDS systems take advantage of other aspects of Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing video product range including high-resolution video recording, video windows display and video crosspoint switching.
VDS Features
• High-performance video distribution over IP optimized for aerospace and defense applications
• Low latency transmission
• UDP, RTP protocol support
• Scalable and flexible
• Quality of service and bandwidth allocation controls
Video Capture
• VDS video capture capabilities are capture hardware specific
• Curtiss-Wright’s capture/compression hardware will support
- NTSC/PAL
- HD (720i, 720p, 1080i)
- RGB up to 1600 x 1200
- Composite, Y/C, YPrPb, RGB
- DVI up to 1920x1600
• For higher resolutions please consult the design center
Video Compression
• JPEG2000 compression
- 4:2:2 video coding supported
- Configurable compression rate to match quality with bandwidth
• For MPEG compression please consult factory
Video Distribution
• Distribution over Ethernet (GbE)
• Supports multiple video streams
• RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol) compliant
• Multicast / unicast transmission using UDP protocol
• Low latency
Decompression & Display
• Hardware accelerated decompression
- Supports full frame rate decompression
- Output to frame buffer or direct to display
• Software decompression
- Display of decompressed video via standard PC Multimedia applications
Recording
• High-resolution digital screen recorder support
Software Support
• VDS software suite comprising
- Web-based interface for system configuration
- Socket-based interface for system configuration
- Top-level API providing library support for all core functionality
• OS environment support: Linux, Windows
• Host support: PowerPC, Intel x86
Pricing for VDS starts at $4,500. Availability is Q4 2008.
For editorial information regarding Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing Multi Computing products or services, contact John Wranovics, Director of Media Relations, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Tel: (925) 640-6402; email. jwranovics@curtisswright.com. Web site: www.cwcembedded.com.
Inquiries: Please forward all Sales and reader service inquiries to Jerri-Lynne Charbonneau, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Tel: (613) 254-5112; Fax: (613) 599-7777; e-mail: sales@cwcembedded.com.
About Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing is the industry’s most comprehensive and experienced single source for embedded solutions, ranging from Processing, Subsystems, Data Communication, DSP, Video & Graphics to the most advanced board level components and fully integrated custom systems. The Embedded Computing group serves the defense, aerospace, commercial and industrial markets and is part of Curtiss-Wright Controls Inc. For more information about Curtiss-Wright visit www.cwcembedded.com.
About Curtiss-Wright Controls, Inc.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Curtiss-Wright Controls is the motion control segment of Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW). With manufacturing facilities around the world, Curtiss-Wright Controls is a leading technology-based organization providing niche motion control products, subsystems and services internationally for the aerospace and defense markets. For more information, visit www.cwcontrols.com.
