The Minerva VNP™ features high-quality MPEG video encoding technology. Designed around LSI Logic's video processor, a PowerPC CPU, and VxWorks Real-Time OS, the system is built to offer broadcast-quality video with high reliability.

It is designed as a dedicated network appliance that operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Through the use of high quality integrated circuits, a real-time operating system and silicon storage, Minerva has maximized Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) for this encoding product.

The Minerva VNP is a plug-and-play device.Simply connect the video and audio inputs, assign the IP addressing information, and connect the VNP to the existing network via an Ethernet cable. Once the system is operational, it will automatically begin transmitting audio and video data to the selected IP address in unicast, multicast, multiple unicast, or broadcast mode. The compressed video streams can be received by Windows PCs, IP set-top boxes, or stored on video servers for later viewing. The Minerva VNP comes with an embedded HTML server, allowing complete access and control of all of its configuration parameters by any web browser from anywhere on the network.

To date, over 3,000 VNPs have been shipped worldwide supporting a wide range of applications, including:

The Minerva VNP supports MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 compression and decompression in NTSC, PAL, and SECAM formats at data rates from 1 to 15 Mbps. Its flexible CODEC architecture provides encoding and decoding for one- or two-way communication and for point-to-point or point-to-multipoint delivery. Offering a variety of unique features, the Minerva VNP support advanced capabilities, including: