Transcoding content for tactical mobile computing devices

Integration of mobile computing devices and high-speed wireless networks into the tactical domain provides the warfighter with unprecedented access to information on the battlefield. Challenges in information delivery for these handheld computers can be solved by optimizing content through transcoding services. Employing commercial software, video and Web content can be dynamically customized to meet the unique processing, storage and network requirements for mobile devices. Transcoding can be applied to current operational systems to provide content to the mobile warfighter. A prototype transcoding platform was built to demonstrate the integration of global broadcast service (GBS) streaming video and wireless handheld devices. VLC media player was used to transcode high quality 1.6 Mbps MPEG-2 video received over GBS into low bitrate MPEG-4 for playback on wireless handhelds. This prototype used commercially available tools to optimize operational resources for mobile devices and demonstrates how GIG net-centric services can be extended to tactical edge users.