High definition video transcoding for transport over satellite (April 2012)

As high definition (HD) sensors on aerial Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms continue to be deployed, the appetite for high definition video transport and dissemination has been increasing rapidly. HD video is allowing analysts to achieve a level of detailed exploitation that was previously unimaginable with low-resolution full-motion video (FMV). Missions requiring targeting and object recognition have especially benefitted from the high resolution FMV that HD provides. Analyst are able to make critical distinctions like determining the difference between a person holding a loaf of bread, and a person holding an AK-47 machine gun. The majority of airborne sensor FMV across the global information grid (GIG) has historically been low-rate standard definition quality until recent sensor advancements have enabled the capture of high resolution video. Unfortunately, as satellite resources remain expensive and scarce, the demand to transition to HD is quickly outpacing the DOD's ability to transport these desired high-bandwidth HD feeds. One available solution is to use a device called a transcoder to adjust incoming airborne video rates in real-time at the tactical level. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has recently completed a study that examined three different transcoders' ability to manipulate high definition video. Transcoders were evaluated based on a number of criteria including: qualitative video quality, quantitative video quality, Key Length Value (KLV) metadata compatibility, and latency impact. A 6Mbps high definition video capture from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was used as the baseline test file. The file was streamed onto the test network as an MPEG-2 transport stream where it was processed by each respective transcoder into different combinations of bitrates, frame rates, and resolutions and analyzed based on the criteria mentioned above. The goal of testing was to evaluate the feasibility of transcoding HD video for transport over satellite while satisfying DOD video requirements.