video server

The task of a video server is to prepare and providedigitalaudio and video signals for transmission over packet-oriented data networks. In addition to the conventional preparation, archiving and management of video data, video servers have hardware and programs for the digitization and compression of analog video signals.

Signals treated in this way can then be packed into data packets and transmitted in live stream ing or with streaming media over the Internet or other IP networks. Video servers can be used for the distribution of television programs, for the creation and distribution of internal and external information services, for video conferencing and video surveillance.

The video server is a complex system with diverse special hardware and large background storage on different media. The most important feature of its architecture is scalability in hardware, software and firmware for adaptation to different tasks and performance ranges. This includes multi-streaming where the video server simultaneously transmits different video streams over a network to multiple heterogeneous devices with a wide variety of display formats.

The term video server is also used in video surveillance( CCTV). In contrast to CCTV, this is a digital technology in which analogvideo signals are digitized and transmitted to the video server via IP networks. This concept is comparable to video surveillance with IP cameras.