10 th November 2009 High-definition video recording in defence and aerospace applications Andrew Haylett

2 Outline introduction and platforms technology review – analogue and digital hard versus soft recording video interfaces and metadata raw video bit rates and recording time video compression technologies storage media recording file formats the replay/debrief facility digital video distribution

3 Introduction – the need acquisition and storage of video signals a key feature of modern defence applications new sensor/camera technology brings higher resolution images need to capture complex displays as well as multiple sensors and complex metadata application areas include training, debrief and forensics solution must be rugged, cost-effective and scaleable, minimizing size, weight and power

4 Typical platforms US air: Joint Strike Fighter, P-8A Poseidon UK air: Nimrod MRA4 US land: Bradley Fighting Vehicle, Abrams Tank, Stryker family UK land: Warrior armoured vehicle Many platforms undergoing modernization and capability enhancement

5 Analogue video recording mechanical ruggedization a challenge limitations on media capacity and recording time limited video resolution and quality difficult to make acceptable copies vulnerable to electrical interference access is sequential rather than random cannot easily scale to multiple video streams cannot achieve comprehensive data fusion

6 Soft digital recording soft digital recording system: uses graphics card to capture framestore with simple software compression

7 Hard digital recording uses custom hardware to capture, compress and record multiple video streams

8 Soft recording No extra hardware required Loads processor/graphics system Localized; not readily scalable across multiple sources Focuses on display video capture Hard recording Hardware acquisition and compression Independent of rest of system Flexible scalable architecture includes entire installation Captures sensors, displays, metadata Soft vs. hard digital recording

9 Video interfaces Analogue Composite/RGB TV (NTSC/PAL), including STANAG 3350 High-resolution analogue RGB – VGA to WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Serial digital DVI/HDMI Firewire (IEEE 1394), CameraLink, USB SD-SDI, HD-SDI (SMPTE 292M) GigE Vision – video over GbE

10 Metadata and audio Need to capture events or data streams from multiple sources Operator-initiated signalling of events Navigational data (GPS) Time source (IRIG-B) MIL-STD-1553/1773, MilCAN, ARINC 429, GbE Data streams should be reconstituted or stored at debrief station Recordings should be searchable by metadata Support multiple audio channels

11 Raw video bit rates TV HD WSXGA 250Mbps 110GB/hour 1400Mbps 615GB/hour 2400Mbps 1TB/hour GbE = 1000Mbps

12 Raw video recording time TV HD WSXGA 140 minutes 25 minutes 15 minutes recording times assuming use of 256GB memory cartridge

13 Video compression technologies – JPEG JPEG (ISO/IEC IS ), M-JPEG Widely used, performs well for photographic images, suffers from artefacts at high compression JPEG2000 (ISO/IEC 15444), Motion JPEG2000 Improved compression and reduced artefacts, enhanced feature set, adopted by DoD NITF for highest quality storage

14 Video compression technologies – MPEG MPEG-2 (ISO/IEC 13818) Widely used in consumer applications including broadcast TV and DVD MPEG-4 (ISO/IEC 14496) Adds extra coding complexity to deliver improved compression MPEG-4 Part 10 Advanced Video Coding (ITU H.264) Used on high-definition DVD; current standard for low bitrate encoding

15 Frame-by-frame vs. inter-frame encoding Intra-frame coding – uses only spatial redundancy Inter-frame coding – uses spatial and temporal redundancy IPPPPI

16 M-JPEG2000 vs. MPEG-4 AVC JPEG2000 symmetric: encoding and decoding computationally demanding intra-frame coding only optimum for very high- resolution images and synthetics decimation supported visually or mathematically lossless MPEG-4 AVC asymmetric: decoding less computationally demanding inter- / intra-frame coding optimum for medium to high-resolution images decimation non-optimal visually lossless only JPEG-2000 vs. MPEG-4 AVC

17 Rugged implementations HD JPEG2000 AC XMC card TVJPEG2000 CC PMC card

18 Compressed video bit rates TV 12Mbps 5.5GB/hour HD 70Mbps 30GB/hour WSXGA 120Mbps 50GB/hour GbE = 1000Mbps TV 250Mbps 110GB/hour HD 1400Mbps 615GB/hour WSXGA 2400Mbps 1TB/hour assuming 20:1 compression ratio

19 Compressed video recording time 46 hours TV HD 8 hoursWSXGA5 hours TV140 minutes HD25 minutesWSXGA15 minutes recording times assuming use of 256GB memory cartridge

20 Storage media – requirements Requirements for military / aerospace applications mechanically robust withstand extreme environments: shock, vibration, temperature, humidity high reliability and long life maximum storage capacity easily transportable security of recorded data

21 Storage media – alternatives Conventional magnetic disks single units up to 2TB capacity need careful system design to protect from environment not ideal for transport between locations Solid state drives ruggedisable, transportable, reliable, low mass available as PCMCIA, CompactFlash, PCIexpress, FiberChannel array up to 5TB single rugged unit up to 512GB capacity

22 PCIexpress storage Solid-state media 256GB removable cartridge 512GB VPX3 module CompactFlash module

23 Fixed or removable? Fixed Potentially greater capacity available Easier to design for rugged environment Streaming off recorder time-consuming Problems of security if sensitive data left on platform Removable Can be swapped during operation if necessary Convenient to transfer data to debrief station

24 Recording file formats Common formats include AVI (Windows standard), MPG (MPEG-2/4) – support for video and audio Ideal format will encompass video, audio and metadata Open file formats support any video encoding standard; e.g. the Matroska MKV format is codec- neutral and allows arbitrary metadata attachments to recorded files Key design elements are random access with rapid search, jump to event/time

25 Open container file HeaderVideo 1Video 2Video 1Video 2 Audio1Audio2Video 1Video 2Metadata Video 1Video 2Video 1Audio1Audio2

26 Replay / debrief facility Typically based on COTS equipment, e.g. desktop PC May use software decoder or hardware accelerator depending on compression asymmetry and graphics card capability Will provide scaled multi-window presentation with jump to arbitrary time and metadata search Will accept removable media from recording system and optionally support archival to long- term media (e.g. Blu-Ray)

27 Digital video distribution Video recording and video distribution closely related Video streams transferred to digital domain may be easily sent point-to-point or broadcast over standard network infrastructure Video over IP is readily scalable to emerging technologies such as 10GbE Video recorder becomes node on digital video distribution network Standard video distribution protocols such as RTP provide quality of service and encapsulation of various compression formats

28 Example architecture coder video network switch GbE recorder GbE decoder/ display GPSIRIG-B

29 Conclusions Digital video recording offers: Environmentally robust solution with emphasis on cost, size, weight, power Enhanced recording time and video quality Advanced features such as play-while-recording, record only last N hours of mission Integrates sensor video, display video, audio, events and metadata into single stream Scalable to high sensor density Part of comprehensive video distribution system

30 Any questions? Andrew Haylett