FFV's DVR Board Records High-Resolution Deep-Sea Video for The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research Outrider IDE low-profile, board-level DVR records high-quality images, stores significant volume of video, and allows collection of data at lower ocean depths IRVINE, Calif. — April 11, 2006 — FFV, a recognized innovator of digital video recorder (DVR) technology for broadcast, industrial video, presentation, and military applications, has supplied its Outrider™ IDE board-level DVR to The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ). The Outrider DVR is being integrated into six deep-sea video recording systems capable of providing up to 20 hours of recording over the course of a year at depths up to 6,000 meters. "The key advantages that FFV Outrider IDE provides for our underwater research efforts are its ability to record high-quality images and to store a significant volume of video, as well as its compact form and low power-consumption," said Bob Koster, head of marine technology electronics at NIOZ. "By building a self-contained recording system with such a high storage capacity, we're able to capture up to 20 hours of high resolution video for long-term seabed observations or in-situ instrumentation monitoring. Also, for making deep-sea video surveys, the self-contained recording system with it's significant extended recording time offers new possibilities. The high-quality images become available after the recovery of the recording system. The video images can be replayed with random-access control or be copied using a high-speed USB 2.0 connection. To improve the video-survey results, we have included an online digital streaming video module that provides a real-time image over a single (copper) conductor cable as long as 9,000 meters. It's quite a unique system." The first deep-sea unit employing the Outrider IDE DVR board is a self-contained video recording system comprising two color video cameras, two high-efficiency gas-discharge light sources, and an internal battery. Koster has equipped the NIOZ recording system with an 80-GB hard disk, which will store time-lapse video recorded at compression rates from 10:1 to 20:1. The preprogrammed system will be installed into a tripod-shaped "bottom lander," which will be launched early this spring. FFV's Outrider DVR board, measuring only 4.69 inches by 2.21 inches, is designed for OEM applications and is ideal not only for deep-sea exploration, but also for high-resolution recording in surveillance, law enforcement, emergency first responders, and portable broadcast systems. The Outrider IDE has a USB 2.0 port for file transfer and records to a standard 2.5" Hard Drive. The Outrider is also available with dual CompactFlash slots for recording to removable CompactFlash media, which replaces the hard drive for more extreme recording applications where solid state recording is required. Featuring video capture and playback at 30 frames per second, the Outrider offers a resolution greater than 550 lines at 4:1 compression, user-selectable compression ratios ranging from 4:1 to 20:1, and recording times averaging from 4 to 20 minutes per GB. The Motion JPEG compression utilized by the Outrider Boards allows discrete access to every frame of video recorded, which enables features such as seek or scan forward/backward; single-frame forward/reverse; delete clips; play/pause; and perfect single still-frame viewing. Outrider also features a time/date stamp and character overlay, time-lapse recording, NTSC/PAL compatibility, composite and Y/C inputs and outputs, pre-event record, and loop record. Files can be recorded in QuickTime format and downloaded via USB 2.0 to a PC or Mac for instant viewing or editing. External control is available via serial command protocol, external GPI triggers, or through the supplied DVR Master™ PC software. # # # About The Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research About Fast Forward Video |