MemoryLink reveals new IP video solution

CHICAGO--

MemoryLink this week announced a new two-way IP video platform, that company officials claim eliminates latency to the level of human reaction time, making the technology ideal for critical real-time video applications.

Called Strongbow personal video, the platform goes against the grain of standard video applications, focusing on latency instead of bandwidth conservation, said Tom Freeburg, CEO of MemoryLink. MPEG technologies today use up a lot of transmission time compressing video at the source and decompressing it at the destination, producing latency issues unacceptable for a two-way video application, like video conferencing or, one-to-one video calls. MemoryLink’s algorithm does away with most compression creating a low-latency, near DVD-quality transmission that reduces standard two- to four-second delays to fewer than 180 milliseconds--faster than human response time, Freeburg said.

The technology does eat up a lot of bandwidth, requiring an 8 Mb/s pipe for maximum resolution and at least 2.5 Mb/s to get a decent picture. But Freeburg said that bandwidth has become such a commodity these days that there isn’t as much need to conserve it as in the past.

“People have trouble with the idea that broadband is cheap these days,” Freeburg said.

The technology’s mass market potential may be limited, however. Because of the capacity limitations of T-1s, DSL and cable modems, MemoryLink has optimized the technology for broadband wireless systems. At Supercomm, MemoryLink demonstrated the technology over Trango and Motorola Canopy gear. But Freeburg said that the product would be used for specific vertical applications in which real time interaction would be critical such as in the medical fields. The technology could also be used among enterprises as an internal video communications system on the LAN or over a VPN connecting offices with high capacity fiber links.