Soliton Systems, the leading manufacturer of mobile H.265 encoding solutions for streaming live video in the Public Safety market over the 4G network, has announced the launch of ZAO-S, the next generation of video mobile encoders

Soliton Systems, a Japanese technology company specialising in mobile video encoding and IT security, were the first to market with an H.265 mobile encoder in 2015 with the ZAO product, which has been used extensively in public safety, broadcast and video surveillance applications throughout the world. It is a mobile device that provides live video streaming in high resolution HD over the 3G or 4G mobile network. The ZAO is a mobile unit that can be easily installed in video surveillance vehicles. The vehicles can then be located in remote places such as natural disaster areas or where there is public disorder to provide live video feeds back to the control centre.

Soliton’s new worldwide announcement of ZAO-S for public safety opens up a range of mobile streaming applications, from body cams and clandestine locations where space and utilities are limited. It is a miniature entry level device that provides H.265 HEVC encoding direct from the camera, that allows streaming over multiple “bonded” 3G/4G telephone carriers, to anywhere in the world.

Shinya Hyakutake, the head of mobile broadcast division at Soliton Systems, claimed:

“The ZAO-S is not much bigger than an iPhone folded in half. Given its miniature size and weight, it has numerous applications where it could be used to stream live HD video to control rooms for use in applications that demand high picture quality such as real-time facial recognition applications.”

H.265 HEVC hardware encoders provide approximately 50% more efficiency in the usage of carrier bandwidth compared to traditional solutions such as the H264/Mpeg 4 solutions. This means it is much more reliable where cellular bandwidth is limited.

Hyakutake continues

“We know the ZAO-S product will change the market, and will open up new applications that were previously impossible with traditional H.264 encoders that rely on the mobile phone signal being strong. There will be no compromise on picture quality or reliability with ZAO-S. In such a competitive and cost sensitive market, we know Soliton is the first to market with such a small H.265 device, but given the sensitivity to production costs, the price will also be extremely compelling”.

The ZAO-S product will continue to use the RASCOW bonding protocol that allows the aggregation of multiple mobile phone carriers to add to the reliability of the solution. This is a real-time algorithm that combines multiple telecom carriers together and adjusts the video streaming through each carrier simultaneously, depending on each of the signal strengths, in real-time. This is ideal for moving vehicles and helicopters that move through different terrains with ever changing signal strengths, giving an extra layer of reliability, encryption and picture quality.

The ZAO-S was launched on the 8^th of September at IBC 2016.

Members of Soliton will also be attending The Emergency Services Show on 21-22 September 2016 at the NEC, Birmingham.