SIRIUS Satellite Radio has purchased Grass Valley Argos MPEG-4 AVC mobile TV encoders from Thomson for the deployment of its SIRIUS Backseat TV offering.
The Argos MPEG-4 AVC encoder, designed for applications requiring audio and video content to be streamed over broadcast, broadband and wireless networks, can handle very low bit rates while enabling flexible frame rate encoding. Its central hardware platform features statistical encoding, multiple codec support, multistream generation and advanced preprocessing filters and configuration and supervision capabilities.
The encoder supports horizontal resolution up to CIF in 16-pixel increments. Reduced frame rates are also possible. Typical output is H.264 over IP/UDP/RTP. Typical video encoding bits range from 50Kb/s to 500Kb/s.
SIRIUS Backseat TV is a video-viewing service that operates via in-vehicle satellite video receiver and two small roof-mounted antennas. It will be available in select 2008 model Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles, beginning with the 2008 Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan minivans, available later this year.
For more information, visit www.thomsongrassvalley.com.