We are developing compression recorders and peripheral equipment with the aim of developing full-featured 8K SHV recording equipment. In FY 2017, we added a video compression (ProRes) feature to our compression recorder, improved the recording and reproduction speed of our small memory package and developed a system that shows real-time previews of recorded content on a PC(1).
In our work on compression recorders, we implemented a video compression capability into our prototype compression recorder(1) to input/output recorded content via files to/from general-purpose editing software for direct editing. We also enabled 40-Hz or higher real-time compression processing by using the pipeline processing of three ProRes compression IP cores implemented into one FPGA. A ProRes compression IP core can perform 15-Hz processing of 8K resolution. We implemented this system into the three FPGAs on the compression signal processing board, which realized 120-Hz compression. To allow the simultaneous processing of 2K proxy video and 8K video, we incorporated a circuit that switches between 2K images and 8K images at high speed within the IP. The combined use of a decoder IP core that we implemented in FY 2016 and the compression IP core that we newly developed achieved the simultaneous recording of 8K video and 2K proxy video and 8K reproduction at 120 Hz. In addition, we implemented support for a general-purpose remote controller to enable operation on an outside broadcast (OB) van (Figure 1-5).
Regarding the small memory package, we increased the speed of the NVMe interface which we developed in FY 2016 and implemented support for two slots. We investigated a way of maximizing the device performance of a small memory package with the NVMe interface and found that it is necessary for the host interface to support the simultaneous issuance of multiple commands and a larger transfer data block size. We therefore modified the host interface to support these capabilities, which enabled our compression recorder to achieve a recording speed in excess of 20 Gbps. We also equipped our small memory package with two slots and enabled it to record twice the number of hours of our prototype recorder fabricated in FY 2016. In addition, we developed backup software for small memory packages to enable data backup in raw data and video formats.
To allow easy previews of the content recorded in the compression recorder on a PC, we developed an 8K ProRes real-time preview board. Since the decoder IP core that we implemented into the compression recorder can operate at 8K/60 Hz if a sufficient memory bandwidth is secured, we implemented the decoder IP core into an FPGA evaluation board and developed a PC driver. By installing these on a PC, we achieved the real-time preview of recorded video (Figure 1-6).
[References] | |
(1) | T. Kajiyama, K. Kikuchi, K. Ogura, E. Miyashita, M. Tecchikawahara, H. Watase, Y. Nagai and H. Takashima: “Development of Compression Recorder for Full-featured 8K Super Hi-Vision,” ITE Journal, Vol.72, No.1, pp.J41-J46 (2018) (in Japanese) |