HEVC
H.265 or HEVC (High Efficiency Video Codec) has been making waves in the broadcast and content delivery space for a little more than a year. It is the most highly anticipated upgrade to encoding efficiency in a decade. With H.264 there was a revolutionary 50% improvement that led to the success of Blu-Ray and the HD roll out in PayTV services. HEVC promises another 50% over H.264 and prepares us all for new technologies like 4Kx2K(UHD) resolution, HDR and more broadband bandwidth efficiency for our insatiable demand for OTT.
The Content Value Chain
Hollywood has been shooting a significant amount of cinematic content in 4K for a while now. Currently HEVC tools are being rolled out to prepare new titles using the new efficient CODEC standard. As a next step, broadcasters also require real time encoders from companies like Harmonic and Envivio in their headend to encode streams into HEVC. These are in the process of being rolled out in trials with operators worldwide and as a decoder SoC provider Sigma Designs uses their 4K streams to test our video decoders. Also, in the background content preparation facilities and studios are preparing server and network infrastructures to manipulate larger file sizes of raw 4K content and processing horse power required for HEVC.
Network Efficiency is still the game
Over the last year there have been several demonstrations of HEVC but focused on the resolution value proposition of HEVC with 4K resolution content. However, not all operators are prepared to become early adopters of 4K. The most important commodity for them to manage is Network bandwidth. HEVC still means a lot for operators in broadcast and IPTV by providing a 50% network utilization efficiency. This can be significant for their VOD revenues, household coverage and carriage of more OTT on their broadband networks.
HEVC for all
Sigma Designs' strategy has been to offer solution for all operators alike, the ones bullish on 4K for subscriber growth and others wanting to expand with FHD and improve their ROI on existing network bandwidth. All Sigma SoCs for Set Top Box devices will include HEVC going forward, at all resolutions and with new ARM CPUs at multiple performance levels. The goal is to enable HEVC with no premium over H.264 solutions from last year at any resolution. HEVC is for all to benefit from and not only premium STBs for 4K services but also entry level zappers and hybrid broadcast STBs.
Take the HEVC plunge with Sigma Design
Sigma Designs HEVC SoCS today feature:
- SMP865x for FHD HEVC an SMP876X for UHD support
- ARM in multicore configuration
- OpenGL ES cores for new UI/UX and possibly gaming applications
- New interfaces like PCIe and USB3 for the peripherals of tomorrow
There are hardware RDKs and software SDKs available on Linux or Android OS'es to jumpstart development for STBs. The reference hardware is form factor ready to meet costs associated legacy H.264 STBs from a year ago. So, explore your next HEVC ready STB plans with Sigma Designs.
