Conexant strengthens video surveillance product portfolio

NEWPORT BEACH, USA: Conexant Systems Inc. has announced a next-generation family of multichannel audio/video (A/V) decoders targeted at video surveillance systems with digital video recording capabilities, video capture cards, and motion sensors.

The highly integrated CX25838 and CX25858 deliver the industry’s lowest power consumption and heat dissipation per channel, and enable up to eight video streams, or up to 16 video streams when in a cascaded configuration, to be captured and recorded simultaneously.

The CX25858 also includes an industry-standard PCI Express (PCIe) 1.1 interface, which allows uncompressed video to be quickly and cost-effectively transmitted to a personal computer for viewing, software compression, or video analytics applications. The new decoders are shipping to customers globally now. Complete hardware and software evaluation kits are also available.

“We leveraged our existing eight-channel decoder platform to deliver a second-generation family of solutions that further raises the bar in terms of value and performance,” said Phil Pompa, senior vice president of product marketing for Conexant.

“Our new, highly integrated decoders also feature a flexible architecture, allowing manufacturers to quickly and cost-effectively develop a broad range of video surveillance and security products for this growing segment. Conexant has more than 20 years of experience in video technologies, and we will continue to apply this knowledge to further strengthen our product portfolio and market position.”

The multichannel CX25838 and CX25858 integrate eight industry-standard NTSC/PAL video decoders with 10-bit analog-to-digital converters and five-line comb-filtering to enable superior digital quality output while minimizing noise and facilitating low compression bit rates. The decoders also include eight high-quality mono analog-to-digital converters with integrated Inter-IC Sound (I2S) audio inputs.

Additional features include programmable motion detection logic, and 48 general input/output (GPIO) pins to maximize design flexibility and product customization.

Both decoders are offered with an optional double data rate (DDR2) interface to enable frame-interleaved video outputs for direct connection to multi-channel H.264 codecs, eliminating the need for external “glue” logic and lowering bill-of-material costs. It also supports a 2x2 common intermediate format (CIF) tiling mode, in which four CIF images are tiled into a single D1 video stream.

The new decoders require as little as 150 milliwatts of power per channel, which results in industry-leading low heat dissipation and significant annual power savings for video surveillance products used in continuous operations.

The decoders have been optimized to lock on to low-level video signals and line-locked cameras commonly used in video surveillance systems. Each decoder can be scaled independently and supports a variety of interleaved digital video outputs including ITU-R BT.656. The CX25858 can downscale digital video from 4:2:2 to 4:1:1, reducing bandwidth requirements from 16 to 12 bits per pixel.

The CX25858 supports the bridging of up to four upstream channels of digital video and audio from the PCIe bus, and can output these streams over pins in BT.656 or I2S-style interfaces, respectively.

Conexant’s video product portfolio includes decoders and media bridges for surveillance and security products with digital video recording capabilities. The company also offers video encoder solutions with support for passive infrared technology that are targeted at residential “smart home” and commercial security applications.

The CX25838 and CX25858 available are offered in a 324-pin fine-pitch ball grid array or a 233-pin plastic ball grid array, depending on feature set. Prices range from $9.50 to $12.50 each in quantities of 1000. Evaluation kits are available to qualified customers for $399.00 each.