Gennum develops new A/V interface

BURLINGTON, Ontario, February 25, 2009 – Enabling equipment manufacturers to leverage existing coaxial cable infrastructures, Gennum Corporation (TSX:GND) has developed a new audio video (A/V) interface for professional and industrial applications, such as advanced video security and surveillance systems. Aviia (Advanced Video Interface for Industrial Applications) is a robust interface for high definition (HD) video over coaxial cable lengths up to 100 meters. This allows users to easily upgrade their existing analog over coaxial systems, the dominant technology implemented in surveillance systems today, to full bandwidth HD video, up to 1080 lines progressive. Gennum’s Aviia solutions will be demonstrated next week at the Security Show 2009 in Tokyo.

The new interface expands Gennum’s A/V technology, currently the proven standard in the professional broadcast and consumer connectivity industries, into new markets including video surveillance, machine vision, medical, digital signage, passenger infotainment, industrial imaging and video conferencing.

Today, most closed circuit television (CCTV) systems used in video surveillance applications use coaxial cable, which, until now, has been unable to support the high resolutions of HD. As a result, users have either maintained their analog systems with lower video resolutions or have resorted to costly infrastructure changes to Ethernet-based networks. By using Cat-5 cable to bring HD video into their environments, the network systems compromise the video immediately by compressing video in the camera for transmission over the network. In addition to incurring the obvious infrastructure costs, there are significant security concerns such as hacking, bandwidth availability and down-time typically experienced with a network-based approach, which has made an HD-over-coax option desirable but, to date, unattainable.

”With millions of miles of coaxial cables installed, many users want to upgrade their surveillance video applications to HD video, but are hindered by the expense and disruption associated with an infrastructure change,” said Martin Rofheart, Senior Vice President and GM of Analog and Mixed-signal Products at Gennum. “By leveraging the technology we have developed for many of the world’s leading broadcast equipment manufacturers, we are able to bring a cost-effective, high quality solution to a wide range of industrial applications. Moreover, camera, DVR and monitor manufacturers can now develop low cost, high-performance HD solutions, enabling customers to experience full bandwidth HD over their existing coaxial cables.”

Solving the HD over Coax Challenge

Applying its advanced signal integrity expertise, Gennum developed the Aviia interface and accompanying suite of products that can be easily integrated into the architecture of digital video equipment, such as cameras, monitors and digital video recorders (DVRs). Featuring transmit and receive functions to enable bi-directional transmission, the Aviia solutions create a new I/O that enables equipment manufacturers to provide their customers with a cost-effective, high quality HD product capable of transmitting across coaxial cables. Moreover, the use of this interface ensures that the HD stream from source (camera) to destination (DVR, monitor, etc.) is transmitted at full bandwidth with no video compression needed.

According to IMS Research, the worldwide video surveillance market is forecast to be worth $9.5 billion in 2009, growing to an estimated $14.3 billion in 2012.

“The global market for video surveillance equipment is expected to grow well beyond 2012, with the highest growth coming from China, Latin America and Eastern Europe,” said Alastair Hayfield, market analyst at IMS. “The megapixel camera market is a rapidly growing segment of the total camera market with high double-digit revenue growth forecast beyond 2012. The improved image resolution that megapixel and HD surveillance brings is appealing to a wide range of verticals where better object detection or person recognition is a much sought after commodity.”

"Physical security demands video resolutions beyond D1 without incurring significant increases in system price and without compromising the evidentiary norms built up around DVRs," said Todd Rockoff, Vice President for Global Sales of the ODM Business Unit of EverFocus, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of physical security equipment. "We see tremendous latent demand for high-definition CCTV that plugs in directly to the large installed base of coaxial cable. HDCCTV promises to deliver high-resolution far more conveniently and inexpensively than IP Cameras. EverFocus expects hybrid DVRs, accepting both SD and uncompressed HD TV signals over coax enabled by Aviia, to become a high-growth product category."

Suite of A/V Products Brings Low-Cost Alternative to Ethernet, Cat-5 Implementations

Gennum applied its advanced serializer/deserializer technology to achieve an end-to-end upgrade path for HD video transmission over 100 meters plus of coaxial cable. Currently, Gennum is delivering 100 meter coaxial solutions with its ActiveConnect product, which is being used in custom home theater applications to provide a low cost, long reach HDMI interface solution.

Gennum’s new Aviia suite of products leverages this expertise to deliver an innovative high-bandwidth, all-digital, long-reach A/V interface for professional and industrial applications. Seamlessly integrating into existing digital architectures, the products provide high-definition video; digital audio; bi-directional control such as pan-tilt-zoom and camera configuration, over a single-wire, delivering a robust and cost-effective interface. Additionally, the Aviia suite of solutions provides for power over the coaxial cable itself, operating at 3 to 25 volts DC, up to 25 watts.

Specifically, Gennum’s Aviia suite includes the GV7500/01 Aviia SD transmitter/receiver; the GV7600/05 Aviia transmitter/receiver (supports both SD & HD video) and the GV7601 Aviia receiver (SD and HD support with integrated cable equalizer technology).

With support for 720p, 1080i and 1080p video formats, as well as 525i and 625i (D1) video, Gennum’s new Aviia solutions enable HD video to be transmitted without the use of in-camera compression, providing an improved operator experience and higher quality evidence, in the case of surveillance systems. Providing a single 75-ohm coaxial bi-directional multi-media interface, the new suite of products can provide link bandwidth up to 3 Gb/s downstream and can support up to 8 channels of linear PCM audio at 48 kHz sampling. Additionally, Aviia solutions provide support for 6 Mb/s auxiliary data channel, for applications such as up-the-cable control, “intercom” audio back channel, and remote status and monitoring.

Demonstration Showcases Robust Video Solution over Coaxial Cables

Gennum will provide a demonstration of its new Aviia products in Tokyo at the Security Show 2009, in Gennum booth # SS2403. Attendees will see first hand the high quality HD that is streamed from a digital camera across 100 meters of coaxial cable, maintaining full signal integrity.

Pricing and Availability

A complete reference design for the HD over coaxial cable solution will be available from Gennum, in April. The GV7600/05 HD devices are available now in high volume and are priced at $7.56 each in quantities of 10,000/month. The GV7601 receiver will be available in September. For more information, visit www.gennum.com/aviia.