Now that the major codecs can deliver quality that is acceptable--or better--for most video, the next challenge to be overcome for streaming is latency. New products from HaiVision and W&W Communications aim to bring latency down to the point where streaming becomes tenable for high-speed surveillance apps.

Video compressions look pretty good these days. From Real to VC-1 to H.264 to VP6/7, innovative compression technologies have coerced remarkable quality out of even the most complex video sequences. With the exception of compressing HD signals into small enough bandwidths to meet the needs of the average broadband user (defined, according to Congress, as having 200Kbps of sustained data throughput), online video has entered the consciousness (and homes) of most of the U.S. population.

Yet one issue remains a consistent thorn in the side of video compression, especially those technologies based on legacy streaming technologies instead of, say, videoconferencing or other two-way technologies. That issue is latency, and has continually limited streaming video's usefulness when it comes to key applications.

Granted, for most traditional or web broadcasts today, excluding horse races or other games of skill or chance, latency is not an issue: Who cares if the video is delayed by 6 - 10 seconds? But for applications such as mobile videoconferencing, surveillance, or other very time-sensitive delivery of content, latency is a huge issue precisely because it builds upon itself in such a way that it moves from annoying to incapacitating.

If you're unfamiliar with latency, think of the way that overseas calls used to sound when back in the mid 1980s (or how most online Voice over IP sounds). There was the echo, and there was the excruciating pause where one person had to wait until the other finished before (pause) waiting to speak. If one didn't wait for the other, the conversation would be fraught with missed words or phrases. It was almost equivalent to today's cheap speakerphone, but with the requirement to wait a second or two to begin speaking.

Market intelligence firm iSupply estimates global video surveillance camera revenue will grow from $4.9 billion in 2006 to more than $9 billion in 2011, with unit shipments of video surveillance equipment expected to more than double from 29.8 million in 2006 to 65.7 million in 2011. The market of most interest to StreamingMedia.com readers--that of surveillance-camera chips that would use low latency codecs--is forecasted to reach $1.25 billion by 2011.

Fortunately, as streaming codec providers are beginning to tackle real-time high-definition video encodes--on display in several booths at last month's InfoComm show in Anaheim--they are also finding that the processing requirements for real-time HD encoding yield the additional horsepower to deliver standard definition encodes much faster than today's SD-only compression schemes.

The upshot is that these newer codec implementations (most are H.264) and complementary encoding boards yield both HD and low-latency SD, with the latter being ideal for the applications mentioned above.

Take for instance, the HaiVision hai1000 MAKO-HD, which the Montreal-based company showcased at InfoComm. The MAKO-HD, according to the company, is an encoder/decoder board that uses a new H.264 codec implementation to achieve less than 120 milliseconds end-to-end latency. The end-to-end latency comment has the caveat of assuming a full quality-of-service delivery network (something those of us involved in videoconferencing are constantly aware of). Given the right network, though, the MAKO-HD has been demonstrated to support high definition resolutions up to 1080p; and, combined with HaiVision's multi-blade chassis, users can achieve up to 5 bi-directional channels of HD within a single system.

HaiVision Hai 1000 MAKO HD Chassis Front

"As H.264 establishes itself in the market, it is fulfilling its promise to serve a very broad range of applications," said Michelle Abrahams, principal analyst for multimedia & consumer markets at research firm In-Stat. "Low-latency H.264 video codecs contribute to the fulfillment of this promise by addressing applications in the video surveillance, video conferencing and wireless video networking space. The combination of [low] latency, multi-channel processing and high-definition opens up new and exiting opportunities in these markets."

Hai Vision Hai 1000 MAKO HD Chassis Back

Expect to see words like millisecond on a variety of marketing brochures in the near term, including the term "zero latency" which is marketing fluff for saying that a codec has very low latency. As a rule of thumb, as long as it's below 150 milliseconds for end-to-end transmissions, the latency is low enough to allow bi-directional communication.

Hai Vision Hai 1000 MAKO HD Chassis Boards

Another company approaching the low-latency HD and SD market is W&W Communications. Founded by James Liu as a codec-only company, W&W has branched out to include hardware/software solutions after it merged with DSP Research a few years ago. W&W has set its sites on very low latencies with claims--not yet substantiated--of latencies around 2 milliseconds end-to-end transmission, again assuming a QoS network delivery infrastructure.

While HaiVision's H.264 HD architecture is available now, the new W&W architecture, dubbed Taos, should be available for sampling in late Q3 of this year with processing bandwidth to encode and decode 1080p60 video or any equivalent up to a 1080p60 stream (in other words, two 1080p30, four 720p30, eight D1 or 32 CIF streams at 30 frames per second).

[via Streaming Media]