Vitec Unveils MGW Pico Tough HD ISR Encoder

Vitec, a worldwide provider of advanced video encoding and streaming solutions, today unveiled MGW Pico Tough, its latest innovation in airborne encoding and streaming appliances.

The dual-channel H.264 HD/SD encoding solution weighs less than 400 grams, and is designed for manned and unmanned airborne platforms, military vehicles, and ground units. The MGW Pico Tough consumes less than seven watts of power for 1080p encoding with KLV/STANAG metadata.

MGW Pico Tough features simultaneous, low-latency streaming of two sources from HD-SDI and analog composite signals, JITC-compliant metadata processing AES encryption, forward error correction technology, real-time resolution scaling, and image cropping. The credit-card-sized, rugged enclosure uses MIL-DTL-38999 connectors and is certified for extreme environmental conditions.

“Vitec has a long history of providing innovative, high-performance solutions to military forces and the aerospace industry. MGW Pico Tough builds on our experience processing video in these unique environments and is designed to allow our customers to meet the growing demand for high-quality, full-motion video streaming anywhere, anytime,” said Philippe Wetzel, CEO of Vitec. 

“With government agencies and military forces increasingly relying on manned and unmanned platforms for situational awareness and tactical video, the encoding devices responsible for streaming video and metadata are more critical than ever,” said Eli Garten, VP of product management at Vitec. “MGW Pico Tough is the most technologically advanced HD H.264 airborne encoder available. We designed it to include all the capabilities needed to support any type of mission while providing operational advantage in all domains — video quality, weight, power, connectivity options, and physical footprint.”

MGW Pico Tough is available for immediate deployment as a turnkey appliance or as a PCB for integration into other systems. The unit will be on display Nov. 17-20 at Milipol 2015 in booth 5 D 153.