Following a competitive process, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) on behalf of the DND, awarded the contract to VITEC. As a worldwide leader in advanced video encoding and streaming solutions, VITEC was able to meet all the requirements of the request for proposal. Through this contract, DND acquired over 1,500 of the company’s MGW Diamond TOUGH HEVC and H.264 quad-channel video encoders. Housed in ruggedized enclosures, these military-grade appliances are designed specifically to support intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) from ground vehicles, manned or unmanned airborne platforms, and marine vessels operating in extreme conditions. Each MGW Diamond TOUGH enables IP video delivery over RF or satellite links from multiple analog and digital sources.
Through the LAV upgrade program, MGW Diamond encoders are installed in the hulls of LAV's, most of which will have an additional unit in their rotating turrets. This meets the DND’s requirement for two independent encoders of the same model on the turret-equipped vehicles. Each encoder provides up to four 3G/HD/SD-SDI or composite inputs for video capture and live streaming. In addition to providing H.264 encoding, the MGW Diamond TOUGH offers an option for advanced HEVC compression for streaming HD/SD video (up to 1080p60) with bandwidth savings up to 50 percent compared to current H.264 standards.
Designed to meet the growing demand for real-time imagery in the most demanding environments, the MGW Diamond TOUGH includes extensive capabilities for supplying ISR or situational awareness video generated by military craft and vehicles working in extreme conditions. The MGW Diamond TOUGH is one of the industry’s first ruggedized encoders to bring bandwidth-efficient HEVC compression technology into field video streaming applications, and it’s one of the newest members of VITEC’s family of encoding and decoding appliances, IPTV solutions for desktops and mobile devices, and PCI cards with SDK for integration projects.