Tokyo, JAPAN – March 21, 2017 – Village Island, a video equipment supplier and integrator head-quartered in Japan, announces VICO-4 from the VICO series enabling UHD smart transport and powered by TICO, the revolutionary high-efficiency compression engine from intoPIX.  

Thanks to the new VICO-4 appliance from Village Island, it is now possible and practical to transport 4K base-band video over a single 3G-SDI, without losing any noticeable video quality and with zero-frame delay.

The VICO-4 Encoder takes in 4K as 4x 3G-SDI or 1x 12G-SDI and convert it into a single 3G-SDI. The VICO unit can be easily switched between Encoder and Decoder. 

The VICO is powered by TICO, the high-efficiency compression engine from intoPIX enabling 4:1 Visually Lossless compression with a total delay (encoder plus decoder) of only a few video lines (less than 1ms). 

Why VICO?

-        As broadcasters need to move towards 4K, they desire to make a smart use of their current SDI facilities. The resulting 3G-SDI code-stream signal can be interfaced with 3G-SDI uncompressed traditional devices such as Distribution Amplifiers, Storage/Playout system, Optical Transmitters, Matrix-Switchers and Routers, etc..

-        Because broadcasters operators have preference to ideally transport video as raw data (or equivalent to raw quality) and with near-to-zero delay.

-        To respond to the needs for SDI practical connection when IP is not an option or when the existing IP network is bringing inadequate constraints or complexity.

-        To offer a mission critical hardware that is simple to configure without requiring additional peripherals or software.

-        To offer ready-to-integrate appliance for OBVAN, studios and contribution system.

-        To resolve 4K SDI cabling issues related to limitation of space and of distance between devices.

The VICO handles 4K video as 4x 3G-SDI in both 2SI (2 Sample Interleave) and SQD (Square Division) modes, in Level A and B. It also supports 12G-SDI which makes it a unique gateway for new 12G-SDI devices.

The SDI transport of TICO video data is done according to the SMPTE RDD 35 (*1) specifications. This enables interoperability with third-party vendors which follow the same specification. In regards, several interoperability testing have been conducted successfully. According to this spec, the resulting 3G-SDI code stream sees the SDI video active area replaced with the 4K compressed data. The complete ancillary data (ex: audio, time-codes, sub-titles and proprietary information) is transported as is.  

intoPIX TICO Visually Lossless compression enables to preserve the original video quality without any artefact detectable by the human eye (*2). TICO encoding and decoding is achieved within a few video lines delay. 

Therefore VICO enables the transport of 4K over 3G-SDI in Visually Lossless quality coupled with Ultra-Low Delay.