Allegro, the Digital Video Technology company focused on the H.264/AVC standard, will demonstrate its AL1000 Audio/Video Real-Time Encoder for broadcast applications at next IBC 2005 in Amsterdam.

The AL1000 performs H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile Level 3 (Standard Definition) broadcast quality real-time encoding without any frame drop, with bitrates ranging from 1.5 Mbps to 2 Mbps. It can be used for both VBR operation (e.g. for satellite multiplexing) and CBR operation (e.g. for IPTV).

In addition, the AL1000 supports several audio compression formats including MPEG-1 Layer II, Dolby AC-3 and AAC.

Its dedicated hardware platform is specifically designed to handle H.264 heavy computational requirements. It supports all advanced compression tools such as new intra modes, new inter modes partitioning, 1/4 pel motion estimation, CABAC, deblocking filter, progressive and interlace coding.

"The AL1000 is perfectly suited for Satellite, Cable, Terrestrial and Video-over-IP broadcasting. Thanks to its state of the art H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression, the AL1000 allows service providers to significantly reduce their transmission costs. Our H.264 Compliance Test Suites demonstrated Allegro's expertise in the H.264 encoding techniques. The AL1000 now takes advantage of our know-how, and confirms Allegro to be key player in the H.264 market," says Pierre Marty, Allegro's co founder and CEO.

The encoder is packaged in a single rack unit (1RU). AL1000 hardware platforms will support MPEG-2 encoding in the future.

AL-1000 can be seen at IBC 2005 Hall 2 stand 315.