Envivio Inc. announced today that its 4Caster™ B3 encoding system was chosen by Globecast Spain to provide the first MPEG-4 contribution feed in Spain. Globecast Spain is the first company in the country to deploy MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 contribution feeds commercially, resulting in a significant reduction in terrestrial and satellite network transmission costs.

Globecast Spain, formerly a division of Globecast Worldcom, is now part of a joint venture with Abertis Telecom and MediaPro working under the new name Overon. Globecast Spain purchased the encoding and decoding equipment needed to deploy a long distance contribution feed to be configured with 1+1 redundancy.

The B3 video encoder using D1 resolution was selected by Globecast Spain because of the broadcast-grade quality of its video, feature set, its analog and digital inputs and its IP outputs for E1 lines. This is the first MPEG-4 contribution feed project in Spain. By progressively deploying this advanced video encoding technology throughout the country, Globecast Spain expects to significantly reduce its terrestrial and satellite network transmission costs. The encoders are configured with 1+1 redundancy over two E1 feeds at 2 Mbps each.

“We had to take into account the severe bandwidth limitations of an E1 interface, and we only proceeded after a detailed review of the market participants and a thorough analysis of the various technological alternatives,” said a project representative. “In the qualification tests that were performed in real time against competing systems, the Envivio B3 clearly demonstrated its superior implementation of the MPEG-4 standard.”

The Envivio Caster B3 provides the highest quality, full resolution video at less than 2 Mbps. B3 offers broadcasters and IPTV service providers greater processing power for advanced compression capabilities and noise reduction for bandwidth constrained applications. Increased bandwidth efficiency combined with high quality video in lower bit rates, allows broadcasters and network operators to expand service offerings while optimizing throughput over their distribution networks. 4Caster B3 delivers the most complete implementation of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 compression techniques available and is ideal for SD broadcast contribution and distribution applications and IPTV.