HD video codec enables remote system analysis

Cisco Systems, a Silicon Valley-based company that makes the Internet possible, knows better than anyone how a company can use network-based resources to improve operational performance. Now, with the use of ADI's Blackfin processor, Cisco's new telepresence visual collaboration solution is expected to drive enterprise productivity to new heights, leveraging its programmable flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

Futurists have envisioned telepresence systems as an experience enabled by technology that accurately replicates the existing environment in a remote location. In order to properly apply the term telepresence to its new IP-based video collaboration solution, Cisco had to build a product with very high-resolution video (HD Video) and best-in-class latency (imperceptible time delay) that communicates over the limited bandwidth and uncertainties of current enterprise network infrastructure.

Only by providing a better experience to users of new devices can Cisco enable more effective remote business relationships between colleagues, partners, vendors and customers. The computing power required to achieve ultra-high-resolution 1080P/30fps low-latency HD video codecs is difficult, not to mention the cost, heat dissipation and programmability requirements of Cisco developers for remote presentation products.

Cisco finally adopted an array of Blackfin ADSP-BF561 processors to handle the computationally intensive telepresence applications. The ADSP-BF561, with dual symmetrical 600MHz Blackfin cores, has the right combination of features for Cisco's advanced video processing applications.

What is Telepresence

Telepresence is a set of technologies that allow users to host and collaborate as if all participants were physically present in the same room. Where traditional video conferencing solutions are often impossible to set up or make users uncomfortable, a well-designed telepresence solution provides an immediate connection to the remote location, with real-looking, live video images of participants in a natural environment, and high-fidelity, low-latency directional audio that perfectly syncs with facial expressions and follows participants as they move around the room.

Cisco's Blackfin-based telepresence products include the CTS1000, designed for executive offices, and the CTS3000, a complete gathering solution for conference rooms. These solutions include everything needed to host live meetings in two locations. The conference room system includes ceiling lights to reduce display glare, an oval table, chairs, three 65-inch plasma displays, three cameras and a system cabinet that houses the Blackfin processor.

All of these things can be replicated in the remote user's conference room, creating the illusion of connection: the two conference tables will seamlessly merge into one. The CTS1000 system includes a 65-inch plasma display, a high-definition 1080p camera and a system cabinet. Enterprises only need to provide an empty conference room and an Ethernet port, and Cisco will perform network checks to ensure that there is appropriate quality of service through the network from end to end.

Cisco's experience in unified communications and IP telephony has made the telepresence system easy to set up and use. With just a few clicks, users can immediately start a face-to-face meeting with colleagues thousands of kilometers away, and the system's HD video images are so real that users often forget that other colleagues are not really in the room.

HD video high resolution video

There is an advanced video codec standard called H.264, which can achieve very high data compression at a lower bit rate than previous standards, and the compressed original video can be connected through an economical enterprise WAN (wide area network). Cisco's video codec is based on the H.264 video codec standard, which provides the best latency, up to 1080p/30fps real-time video resolution. By minimizing the latency of HD video codec, Cisco's solution gives the network more latency space, allowing new applications to be handled with minimal network software and hardware upgrades, making deployment faster.

With dual symmetrical 600MHz high-performance Blackfin cores, the Blackfin ADSP-BF561 processor is an ideal choice for Cisco to meet challenging and complex video applications. Cisco's video codec functions are distributed to multiple Blackfin ADSP-BF561s for processing, providing 0.5MIPS of processing power to drive the video subsystem with optimal performance, enabling the deployment of practical solutions.

The Blackfin ADSP-BF561 processor, which is often selected for high-end multimedia and telecommunications applications, includes two independent Blackfin processor cores. Each core includes the latest processing engines with two 16-bit multiplier/adders (MACs), two 40-bit ALUs, four 8-bit video ALUs, a 40-bit shifter, plus the advantages of a pure, orthogonal RISC-like microprocessor instruction set, and single instruction, multiple data (SIMD) multimedia functions, all integrated into a single instruction set architecture.

Easy programming/low power

The Blackfin ADSP-BF561's RISC-like registers and instruction mode are designed for easy programming, which Cisco says can reduce development costs, risks, and time to market. Blackfin's programmable architecture also allows upgrades over the network without expensive ASIC hardware re-spins. Cisco also uses A.

DI's software and hardware development tools accelerate time to market and reduce costs. These tools include the Visual DSP++ development environment, which allows programmers to develop and debug applications, and simulator hardware that can be used to test and debug hardware and software.

Cisco has implemented a sophisticated system-on-a-chip system using many common digital video interfaces integrated into the Blackfin ADSP-BF561 processor as a telepresence system codec. Common interfaces to the Blackfin ADSP-BF561 include: two parallel peripheral interfaces (PPIs) supporting ITU-R 656 video; a glueless interface to the analog front-end ADC; two dual-channel, full-duplex synchronous serial ports supporting eight stereo I2S channels; two 16-channel DMA controllers and one internal memory DMA controller; 12 common 32-bit timers/counters with PWM capability; an SPI-compatible interface; a UART with IrDA support; two watchdog timers; 48 programmable flags; and a built-in phase-locked loop (PLL) with 1x to 63x multiplication capability.

Blackfin's low power consumption helps Cisco limit the heat dissipation of its telepresence system to a small, quiet fan that provides airflow in the system cabinet, which is critical to maintaining the ambient environment in the conference room. Designed in a low-power and low-voltage manner, the Blackfin processor allows developers to change the voltage and frequency of operation to significantly reduce overall power consumption. Cisco describes the result as "a group of Blackfin processors that don't heat up" to drive its video subsystem, so no heat sink is needed in the design.

Using the Blackfin processor, Cisco now has the highly compressed HD video required for its next-generation telepresence system; the result is reduced travel time, expense and stress for business executives and employees who are tired of traveling. They can now use IP-based video to meet with partners, colleagues or customers in a way that is as real as face-to-face communication, and the increased productivity and collaborative operation results will be unprecedented.