The folks at Stretch Inc., specialists in software configurable processors, have announced their VRC6000 series of PCIe DVR add-in cards. Leveraging the processing power of the Stretch S6000 family of software configurable processors, the VRC6000 series delivers real-time D1 H.264 encoding and (according to Stretch) unsurpassed channel density in a short form-factor PCIe add-in card.
The VRC6000 series comprises three cards: the VRC6016, VRC6008, and VRC6004 with 16, 8, and 4 channels respectively. Compression is achieved using the Stretch Intelligent Encoder, which delivers multi-stream, multi-CODEC capability with video preprocessing and embedded analytics.
"Many of our customers have asked for a production-ready solution for their PC-based DVR applications," said Craig Lytle, Stretch president and CEO. "We've taken our very successful PCIe Reference Design Kit and performed the necessary design optimizations, qualifications and certifications, including RoHS, FCC, and CE, resulting in an entire series of DVR add-in cards for OEMs and system integrators."
Low-cost, full-resolution, and high-channel density
The folks at Stretch say that the low cost of the VRC6000 series cards is derived from the use of their S6000 family of software configurable processors. Designed for video surveillance applications, S6000 devices include integrated PCI Express interfaces, high-speed chip-to-chip interconnects, and glueless interfaces to video-capture devices, which removes the need for FPGAs or PCI bridge chips.
The processing power of S6000 devices enables a single chip to perform 4 channels of full D1 H.264 encoding at 30 frames per second (fps) NTSC or 25fps PAL per channel, reducing device count and providing the highest channel density cards in the industry. The VRC6016 is said to be the only add-in card that offers 16 channels of D1 H.264 encoding at 30fps per channel.
"Compressing streams at their full resolution and frame rate retains all the detail within a scene with complete fluidity of motion. Current solutions compromise on frame rates and resolutions because they lack processing capability," said Bob Beachler, Stretch vice president of marketing. "The VRC6000 series cards capture the complete video transmitted by today's CCTV cameras."
Intelligent encoding provides flexibility and bit-rate management
The VRC6000 series employs Stretch's Intelligent Encoder software, which supports multiple encoding and decoding standards, including H.264, MPEG4, and MJPEG. The Intelligent Encoder includes video analytics to dynamically adjust frame rates and resolutions to ensure the lowest possible bit-rate, reducing disk space usage.
Software provides fast time-to-market and reduces risks for OEMs
All VRC6000 Series cards come complete with a DVR software development kit (SDK) and share a common, intuitive application programmers interface (API), simplifying integration with host DVR software.
The firmware for VRC6000 series cards, which includes the Intelligent Encoder software, is stored on a hard disk and loaded at runtime. This feature enables OEMs and Systems Integrators to adapt to the latest versions of the Intelligent Encoder.
As Stretch introduces new encoding standards such as H.264 Scalable Video Codec (SVC), customers can easily make a rolling change to their products, and even upgrade systems in the field. The result for OEMs and system integrators is fast time to revenue and the end of obsolete inventory or expensive, manual reprogramming of cards.
Availability and pricing
VRC6000 Series cards are available immediately. For information on available accessories and volume pricing and delivery, please contact Stretch Inc. at www.stretchinc.com.
FYI Stretch will be demonstrating many of its products at the upcoming ASIS show September 15-17, 2008 at the World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
