SeaChange Adds H.264 Support for Broadcast Playout

Support of Panasonic’s AVC-Intra 50 & 100 Codecs Deliver H.264 Capabilities for SeaChange Digital Video Platform

ACTON, Mass. - SeaChange International (NASDAQ: SEAC), a leading global supplier of HD and SD broadcast playout and workflow solutions, announced today that its broadcast play-to-air platform includes native support of the Panasonic AVC-Intra 50 and 100 H.264 codecs, giving broadcasters even further flexibility to build tapeless HD workflows from ingest to playout using the latest Panasonic AVC-Intra format.

“AVC-Intra is rapidly becoming the acquisition format of choice for many broadcasters worldwide, and Panasonic is very pleased that SeaChange is supporting the AVC Intra format,” said Tadao Simozuru, Director of Professional AV Systems B.U., AVC Networks Company, Panasonic Corporation. “SeaChange’s support of AVC-Intra is providing more broadcasters with a clear migration path to tapeless HD workflows from acquisition to play to air, using one of the most advanced and highest quality codecs available on the market today.”

Panasonic’s AVC-Intra compression technology provides higher-quality intra-frame encoding utilizing the Hi-10 and Hi-422 Intra profiles of H.264 in two modes: AVC-Intra 100 for full-raster mastering video quality and AVC-Intra 50 for DVCPRO HD comparable quality at half the bit rate.

“SeaChange’s support of Panasonic AVC-Intra is one more way in which we are providing broadcasters with the flexibility and tools to migrate toward tapeless HD workflows,” said Stephane Jauroyou, director of product marketing for broadcast solutions, SeaChange. “Particularly as more non-linear editing systems begin to include AVC-Intra support, the SeaChange play-to-air platform is ideally suited to serve as the foundation for complete ingest-to-playout workflows with no degradation whatsoever in video quality.”

SeaChange’s Broadcast MediaLibrary/MediaClient architecture comprises distinct capabilities that have made it the infrastructure of choice for over 200 broadcasters worldwide, including Mediaset, TSR, VTM and more than 40 PBS affiliates: Broadcast MediaLibrary servers, which cost-efficiently provide fault-resilient storage of any type of Media file; and highly flexible SeaChange MediaClient codecs that easily fit with any device in a broadcast operation’s workflow and any video output, from SD and HD play-to-air to broadband streams.