VITEC, a worldwide leader in advanced video encoding and streaming solutions, today announced that its MGW Ace Encoder — the industry-leading HEVC video streaming appliance engineered to deliver broadcast-grade, low-latency video streams — is the first HEVC encoder to receive certification from the Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). JITC also certified VITEC's MGW Pico and Pico TOUGH encoders.

"VITEC has been at the forefront of the HEVC revolution with best-in-class encoding, streaming, decoding, and distribution solutions for the enterprise and military markets," said Dan Quinn, federal sales director, VITEC. "We are committed to assisting our customers by providing the benefits of remarkable bandwidth savings and performance that HEVC technology offers. And now, with the first-available JITC-certified military-grade HEVC encoder on the market, government agencies and military units can confidently procure and rapidly integrate our hardware-based appliance, ensuring interoperability into existing video and metadata workflows."

JITC is the DoD's joint interoperability certifier and the only non-service operational test agency for information technology/national security systems, responsible for ensuring Joint Warfighting IT capabilities are interoperable. Following rigorous testing of VITEC's MGW Ace, MGW Pico, and Pico TOUGH encoders at its Imagery Standards Conformance test and evaluation center in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, JITC has added VITEC's cutting-edge Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) appliances to its list of systems tested and certified for conformance to standards defined by the National Geospatial Agency's Motion Imagery Standards Profile.

The MGW Ace Encoder is the industry's leading portable, hardware-based HEVC IP encoding appliance. Using VITEC's second-generation HEVC codec (Gen2) that scales up to 4:2:2 10-bits, the hardware-based MGW Ace Encoder yields the highest HEVC compression efficiency, achieving unmatched video quality in any bandwidth allocation. In addition, MGW Ace Encoder supports the legacy H.264 format to ensure existing systems smoothly transition to the HEVC era.

The MGW Pico and Pico TOUGH are ultra-small power-efficient H.264 HD/SD portable video encoders, featuring 3G/HD/SD-SDI and composite inputs, KLV / STANAG metadata processing, and low latency streaming. The MGW Pico TOUGH is designed to meet the growing demand for real-time imagery in the most demanding environments, packing all of the needed capabilities for any ISR sensor or Situational Awareness video in a rugged, airborne, and marine certified enclosure.

More information on VITEC's full line of products is available at www.vitec.com.