Tech Source Launches H.264 XMC Card to Ease Video Compression Challenges in UAVs

Tech Source, Inc., an independent supplier of high performance embedded video, graphics and high end computing solutions, has unveiled the low power Condor VC 100x H.264 video capture and compression card designed to ease the video compression challenges in unmanned aircraft systems and in other surveillance, image detection and video recording applications.

Selwyn L. Henriques, president and CEO of Tech Source Inc., said: “This card has been designed for use in UAS and for other mission critical video streaming applications that require low power and yet high profile H.264 compression in a compact, lightweight form factor.”

The XMC form factor module – featuring an H.264 video encoder with baseline, main and high profile support up to Level 4.1 – supports up to 4 composite video inputs (NTSC/PAL/SECAM) or up to 2 SDI inputs (SD-SDI/HD-SDI), all of which are selectable through the provided API. Condor VC 100x also has 2 stereo or 4 mono audio inputs.

The Condor VC 100x card performs H.264 encoding in hardware to minimize CPU usage. Video data is captured and stored in files and made available to customer applications for processing, analysis or display on a local graphics card.

The Condor VC 100x XMC configuration also supports transfer of the video stream via UDP or TCP/IP using RTP and RTSP protocols for remote display of captured data with low latency. An API is provided to manage captured video data. IO is handled either through the front connector or through the rear Pn4 connector.

Condor VC 100x is available in various ruggedized levels and has conduction or convection cooled variants. While Windows or Linux drivers are available by default, other real time operating systems (RTOS) such as VxWorks, Integrity and LynxOS may be optionally supported on both X86 and PowerPC platforms.

Tech Source will demonstrate the Condor VC 100x – and other products – on Booth 1949 at AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, 6-9 August 2012.