MENLO PARK, California — April 10, 2008 — Abekas, Incorporated announced today the introduction of a brand new digital video server platform at the National Association of Broadcaster’s (NAB) annual convention and tradeshow, held in Las Vegas, Nevada from April 14 through April 17.

Largely intended for use in live broadcast applications in which reliability and ease of use are of critical importance, Kiva is designed to be employed in a variety of demanding user environments. Live sports instant replay, live broadcast playout of one or two high-quality HD animated graphics transitions with associated alpha, and live playout for entertainment and corporate events are just a few of the expected target markets for Kiva.

Kiva is housed within a compact 3RU chassis, and utilizes JPEG-2000 (J2K) wavelet-based compression technology with variable bit rates up to 200Mb/s, at which stunning HD image quality is provided with virtually no visible artifacts. Coupled with this recording method is a very large-capacity RAID.6 disk array, offered in two huge storage capacities: either 40 hours or 80 hours while recording four video streams at 200Mb/s. Even larger storage times are possible when the J2K compression bit rates are reduced by the user; there are ten preset bit-rates available, ranging from 75Mb/s up to 200Mb/s for HD video and from 15Mb/s to 175Mb/s for SD video.

Kiva features eight tracks of uncompressed digital audio, with 48kHz sampling and 24-bit resolution—providing 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 surround sound capability to accompany the HD video. The audio can be routed through Kiva embedded in the HD-SDI or SD-SDI video streams. Calibrated audio metering is provided to ensure proper audio levels are achieved.

Another prime aspect of Kiva is the highly advanced main graphical user interface (GUI) provided on a widescreen DVI output, which is coupled with an integrated multi viewer supplied on an HD-SDI video feed. Real-time, full-motion video streams are incorporated right into the GUI itself—making separate external video picture monitors for the primary operator a thing of the past.

These impressive features greatly simplify and drastically reduce the cost of system installation, and they vastly ease the operational burden on the users themselves. Operators no longer must strain to view video/audio monitors and the separate control interface itself—which is usually located above the user’s line of sight. With Kiva, all of the user’s attention may now be comfortably and ergonomically focused upon a single control monitor surface. The built-in multi viewer eliminates the need for a separate multi viewer machine in many installations—saving on investment costs, reducing installation space and weight, and greatly enhancing the complete operational experience.

About Kiva

Combining state-of-the-art video/audio processing hardware with the latest RAID.6 disk drive technology, Kiva has an extremely competitive price point and comes standard with over 40 hours of recording capacity for HD and/or SD digital video, audio and timecode—all housed inside a compact 3RU chassis; an 80 hour capacity model is also available. Ultra high-quality J2K wavelet compression technology with bit rates up to 200Mb/s is used to record the 10-bit HD digital video; or up to 175Mb/s for SD digital video. Access to the RAID.6 media disk drive array is conveniently provided at the front of the machine, with the RAID.6 parity protection allowing up to two disk drive failures at the same time—without any interruption to user operations. Simple and fast “hot-swap” media disk drive exchange is achieved without the use of any hand tools, with provision for stand-by “hot spare” disk drives with automatic swap and parity rebuild in cases of disk drive failure.

The rich feature set of Kiva includes: four RS422 serial control ports with Sony and Odetics protocols (providing precise control from third-party controllers, including those from Lance Design™ and DNF Controls™); eight tracks of uncompressed digital audio with 24-bit resolution/48kHz sampling; LTC & VANC timecode record and playback; a unique graphical user interface with integrated video/audio/timecode displays; a built-in multi-paned viewer on 1.5Gb/s HD-SDI for live video/audio/timecode “video wall” monitoring; and highly reactive transport controls with instant response.

As a standard feature, Kiva can record or playback one or two sets of video, key, audio and timecode (VKAT) within a single operation under a unified identity. VKAT storage capability dramatically streamlines many production and post applications and greatly simplifies media management. Kiva hardware can be reconfigured by the user to record and play simultaneously using the shared storage, with any combination of the four video streams. These features, along with the aforementioned feature set, provides a powerful HD and SD recording platform for use in live, on-air broadcasting environments.

About Abekas

Abekas, Incorporated (www.abekas.com) is a privately-held company headquartered in Menlo Park, California. Abekas designs, manufactures, sells, and supports a complete line of digital video/audio delay devices, disk recorders, digital special effects and editing tools for use in the worldwide professional television marketplace — encompassing the production, post production, broadcasting and computer video markets.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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