NASA has chosen Visionary Solutions’ AVN443 encoder to transmit HD video signals from the International Space Station, to provide a high-quality, realtime video feed for coverage of missions and events, documentaries, archival video, and other programming for NASA TV, writes David Fox. NASA is upgrading the internal cameras on board the Space Station to commercial standard 720p/1080i formats, and needded new encoders to transmit the signal. Prior to selection, it put Visionary’s AVN443s encoders through a rigorous evaluation, including radiation tolerance testing, and the AVN443s are currently the only encoders certified for spaceflight. The encoders offer also low power consumption of less than five Watts, efficient heat dissipation, and are lightweight, making them well suited for deployment in space. The H.264 encoders provide an HD, full-frame rate, IP video stream from from multiple HD cameras within the ISS, as well as an external view of the ISS and a view of Earth. The encoders are paired with Sencore‘s MRD 3187B modular receiver decoders, which receive the IP video streams back on Earth and decode them into HD video feeds for NASA’s monitoring and rebroadcast use.
The modular architecture and multichannel capability of both products saves space and offer a bandwidth-efficient solution to the challenges of delivering multiple high-quality HD video services from an orbiting space station. The AVN443 encoder’s flexible, modular architecture can adapt to different input resolutions, including 720p, 1080i, and 1080p, providing NASA with a cost-effective and scalable broadcast system. Through a simple upgrade on location, NASA can quickly upgrade its encoders to 1080p in future, without having to send the encoder back to Earth. “After being put to the test, our AVN443 encoders have proven that they’re capable of transmitting superior images from the harshest operating environments. The combined solution — AVN443 encoders with Sencore MRD 3187B decoders — provides NASA with a reliable, future-proof solution that will enable people on Earth to experience images from space in full high-definition glory,” said Yuri Stetner, technical sales manager, Visionary Solutions. www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/www.sencore.com www.vsicam.com
