WHOA NELLIE!!!!
read this in context with Logline's post: never know...
March 28, 2001 Firm demos streaming video on a cell phone
Israel-based Emblaze Systems rocked the CTIA Wireless 2001 exhibition in Las Vegas last week with a groundbreaking demonstration of multimedia streaming over a cell phone. The demo utilized the company's A2 video ASIC chip. In addition, the company now offers Emblaze A3, a full-duplex MPEG-4 codec that designers can use to incorporate two-way videoconferencing capabilities into cell-phone and PDA designs.
The Emblaze-enabled Samsung SPH-X2000 video cell phone is compatible with existing CDMA systems, offering speeds from 9.6 to 64 kbits/sec. In addition, the handheld unit can achieve a data transfer rate of 144 kbits/sec over CDMA2000 IX carrier networks.
Scheduled to take its bows in Asia and Europe before rolling over to America's shores, the Emblaze-enabled cell phone plays back video content that is being streamed over IS-95B and IS-95C networks. To display streaming video on the phone's color LCD, the viewer simply presses the handheld device's video function key to select from a list of available content. The experience is amazingly similar to watching regular TV.
Packaged in 133-FlexBGA, the A2Plus ASIC features a 1.8-volt core, 3-volt inputs and outputs, a maximum internal frequency of 100 MHz, and an average active power consumption of 150 milliwatts. The chip has the ability to tailor the viewing experience in terms of image size (up to QCIF resolution, 176 pixels by 144 lines) and quality to best match the available bandwidth. As bandwidth increases, the user can enjoy images within a larger display area as well as smoother transitions from frame-to-frame (up to 30 fps) along with improved image quality.
Optimized to run on an ARM CPU core, the A2Plus ASIC decoder with on-chip memory can enable a variety of multimedia applications, including on-demand video and audio, as well as live streaming, playback from memory, and still-picture viewing. The chip offers support for a variety of video and audio standards, including MPEG-4, H263 MP3, G.723.1, GSM-AMR, and AAC.
According to Rani Plaut, Emblaze's director of wireless terminals, the wireless player and encoder can be implemented in software and hardware in ways that can meet the design requirements of virtually any mobile device, operating system, and Internet browser. The main breakthrough, Plaut says, is the company's thin-client product featuring minimal memory requirements, low power consumption, and low CPU usage whenever video or audio streams are being decoded.
When deployed within a "typical" multimedia cell phone, the Emblaze A2Plus chip is integrated with an off-the-shelf baseband chip, which serves as the host. An LCD controller, together with its associated color display, supplies the cell-phone viewing screen functions. The A2Plus chip may also be interfaced with a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) for music playing, as well as a voice codec for voice capture and replay. When processing streaming video and audio, the baseband chip receives the compressed media stream from the source and then retransmits it to the A2Plus chip, which performs the decoding and sends the media on to the LCD controller, the voice codec, and/or the audio DAC. In addition, one or more optional flash-memory devices may be included to permit the phone to store content for later replay. Applications such as a video or an audio player may also be downloaded to flash memory for later use in tandem with the chip.
But what really sets Emblaze Systems apart from the pack, Plaut claims, is the end-to-end nature of the Emblaze multimedia technology. The modular architecture of the Emblaze Wireless Media Platform (WMP) can provide wireless carriers and content providers with MPEG-4 video encoding and streaming capabilities over current wireless networks. In addition, the platform can also be scaled up to next-generation networks and devices once they become available.
The Emblaze platform server is responsible for receiving, managing, storing, and streaming video content that has been received from an Emblaze Encoder, which receives, compresses, and transforms the incoming video feed into MPEG-4 format. If the Encoder is geographically located in close proximity to where the multimedia content is being created, then the content can be streamed directly to cellular users in real-time through the Emblaze Server. Or, the Emblaze Server can store the content that it receives for later distribution.
Emblaze Systems has also entered into a licensing agreement with Microsoft, under which the two companies will collaborate in the development and integration of Windows Media Technologies into Emblaze's wireless streaming technology. As a result, all future cellular phones or other devices using Emblaze technology will be able to access Microsoft Windows Media content.
Under the terms of the agreement, Emblaze will develop a customized chip that will be implemented on various RISC and DSP architectures—as well as software-only media players—to permit audio and video content to be accessed in the Windows Media format. Emblaze has also agreed to adapt its wireless backend technology to incorporate Windows Media Services running on Windows 2000 servers. In addition, Emblaze will be developing a system for carrier-grade delivery of Windows Media for telecom companies, cellular operators, and media networks. Both Microsoft and Emblaze will be jointly promoting the co-branded backend system to wireless device vendors and carriers worldwide.
—Mark Long, News Correspondent
