Media Excel was the last company that I saw at NAB, but last was certainly not least in this instance. The company’s real time encoders for mobile, web and IP TV, recently anointed by MTV and MobiTV, looked very, very impressive.

The company targets broadcasters and other very high volume streaming producers and builds their Hera real time encoding boxes using Texas Instruments DaVinci DSP (digital signal processor). The chip is programmable, so it will support later codec updates, and reportedly scary fast.

At the booth, the company showed their Hera 3200f producing nine consecutive streams ranging from MPEG-4 @ 30 fps @ 384 kbps to H.263 @ 10 fps @ 96 kbps. Video quality looked very good, but I didn’t have to trust my eyeballs, since MTV reportedly performed extensive quality comparisons before choosing Media Excel.

What I found particularly interesting was how the TI chip changed the economics of producing high quantities of streaming files compared to server farms of Intel-based computers. For example, Media Excel’s marketing documents included a total cost of ownership analysis for the ability to convert 20 stream to ten bitrates apiece in real time (200 output files). Considering acquisition cost, licensing, rack space, power consumption and maintenance, the total cost of ownership for the Hera-based system was about 14% of the cost of an Intel-based system (and 20% of an AMD-based system).

I didn’t have my slide rule so couldn’t double check the figures, but if they’re anywhere close to being accurate, they present a compelling case for a TI-based solution like the Hera 3200f. Check to make sure that Media Excel can produce your required output formats, however, since while MPEG-2/H.263/H.24 are currently supported, the spec sheets indicate that Windows Media, VP6 and RealVideo are forthcoming.