The Telairity BE8500, a versatile H.264/AVC video encoder capable of hot-switching between a high-definition (HD) or standard-definition (SD) video source, was introduced today by Telairity, Inc. at HD World.

The newest model in the Telairity family of H.264 encoders, the 1-RU BE8500 enables users to encode either as a full-featured HD encoder: identical to the company's top-of-the-line BE8100 HD/SDI encoder; or as an SD/SDI encoder, configured to operate either as a Telairity low-latency 7000-series or low bit rate 9000-series channel.

Unique among today's dual encoders, the BE8500 auto-senses whether the video source is SD or HD, and enables users to switch live between the two video formats without powering down. Switch-over conversion is virtually instantaneous, enabling a smooth transition for live or live on tape programming.

"Our new BE8100 combines features widely sought by our customers in mobile production trucks and OB vans, small-market stations, IPTV, ITV, and government and military installations," said Richard Dickson, Telairity president. "Operations that need to switch smoothly between HD and SD feeds now have the choice of a single cost-effective unit able to satisfy both of their encoding needs. Moreover, they can combine Telairity's top-of-the-line Series 8000 HD performance with either our 150ms low-latency Series 7000 or our 500Kbps low bit-rate Series 9000 technology. This is a system that, quite literally, can do any sort of H.264 encoding a customer might need or want."

Dickson also announced that Telairity is introducing new 110 single-channel models across all its lines with dual-mode upgrade capability. Any model 8110 HD encoder can add SD dual-mode capability just by downloading a new firmware package. Likewise, any model 7110 or model 9110 SD encoder can add HD dual-mode capability by a firmware download - provided it was ordered with the field upgrade option pre-installed. Otherwise, upgrading an SD system to dual-mode HD/SD capability requires a factory modification.

Like all Telairity encoding products, the BE8500 delivers leading-edge H.264/AVC (MPEG-4) compression technology capable of achieving more than twice the compression efficiency of the older MPEG-2 standard. Since the BE8500 is based on Telairity's proprietary TVP2000 video processor, which delivers a lightning-fast 50 billion operations per second, and Telairity's custom direct-execute AVClairity encoding software, the BE8500 features the same "instant on" capability, encode latencies as low as 150ms, exceptional reliability, simplicity of operation, and full software upgradeability that characterize Telairity's earlier encoder models.