An efficient parallel video transmission system including codecs with functions of failure detection and coding noise evaluation

Abstract

For contribution and primary distribution of television, i.e., television transmission to broadcasting stations, parallel transmission links that include codecs are often set up for reliability. However, this configuration still faces the following issues: 1) during normal periods, the reserve link is totally wasted and 2) when a failure occurs, the disrupted signal continues to be transmitted until the system switches to the reserve link. In addition, in digital video transmission, automatic assessment of received video quality is an important issue. To address these issues, the authors developed a processing system for parallelly transmitted video signals, which mainly consists of the following three elements: 1) when both links are normal, outputting the average signal of both links reduces compression coding noise and improves picture quality compared to only one link (efficiency); 2) comparison of the pictures from the two links enables failure detection in either link, to switch to the normal link (support of failure detection); and 3) comparison of the two normally decoded pictures enables evaluation of picture quality (automatic coding noise evaluation). This unique system improves the reliability and operational efficiency of conventional parallel video transmission links.