Streambox and Toyo Engineering Corporation (TEC) sign MOU

To improve distribution of IP-based digital video surveillance and remote monitoring systems (RMS) to Japanese industrial customers, Streambox Inc. and Toyo Engineering Corporation (TEC) have signed an agreement to streamline delivery of next-generation solutions.

The eXpressDSP-compliant Streambox RMS codec, running on a networked camera with an integrated Texas Instruments (TI) TMS320C6000 DSP and its own client/server technology, will allow real-time encoding and transmission of digital video over IP networks at speeds from 50 kbps to 8000 kbps.

“Increasingly, high-quality video surveillance systems are becoming essential to security for commercial, industrial and governmental facilities around the world,” said Bob Hildeman, Streambox, Inc CEO. “The Streambox RMS system is a scalable and flexible digital solution for today’s security-conscious customers requiring high-quality video monitoring over both low and high-speed IP networks.”

Streambox RMS codec was specifically designed to address the requirements of remote monitoring in terms of image quality, bit rate, network and computational efficiency on DSPs embedded in video surveillance cameras. Streambox’ codec and video technology allow for the aggregation, management and distribution of real-time and archived video to both PCs and TVs.

“The video surveillance market demands high image quality, high video channel density and flexibility to handle multiple video formats,” said Pradeep Bardia, worldwide marketing manager, DSP Video and Imaging. “Combining the industry’s highest performance, fully programmable TMS320C6000 DSP platform with Streambox’s eXpressDSP-compliant RMS codec will deliver the real-time video surveillance solution the market is looking for.”

TEC will supply system integration and support services to Streambox RMS for the Japanese industrial market. “It is our belief that the TEC-Streambox partnership can fulfill the growing demands of industrial customers in remote surveillance and video monitoring of chemical and nuclear plants, industrial and R&D facilities, government premises and traffic,” said Yoshitaka Ogata, managing director, TEC. TEC is currently in the process of looking for manufacturing partners for Streambox’ encoder.

The agreement between Streambox and TEC, the porting of Streambox’ codec to TI’s DSPs, the clout and market presence of TEC, and the current availability of TI’s 600 MHz C64x DSPs, which incorporate special purpose instructions to speed image handling, are likely to have a strong impact on future digital remote monitoring solutions.

TEC will demonstrate Streambox RMS video surveillance software at INCHEM 2001 (November 27-30, 2001, Tokyo, Japan).