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The U.S. Army PEO-EIS Technology Applications Office (TAO) is requesting information from responsible sources and commercial agencies concerning video transcoder products that are or will be available.

This Request for Information (RFI) is for planning purposes only and shall not be considered as an invitation for bid, request for quotation, request for proposal, or as an obligation on the part of the Government to acquire any products or services. Your response to this RFI will be treated as information only. No entitlement to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses to this announcement or the Government use of such information. The information provided may be used by TAO in developing its acquisition strategy, statement of work/statement of objectives, and performance specifications. The Government does not guarantee any action beyond this RFI.

Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. The Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this request for information or to otherwise pay for the information submitted in response to this RFI. TAO is requesting industry comment on its ability to provide non-developmental, multi-functional devices with the maximum number of attributes as described below. Those not able to provide all preferred features are still encouraged to submit information on the features currently available in their products and propose an applicable schedule for those features that are planned for the future.

The intent of this RFI is to understand what products are or will be available in the video transcoder market. As video source systems become more complex and user needs and capabilities become more disparate, there is a need to develop network centric and convenient means to meet different objectives. A transcoder offers a partial solution to the problem. In the example below, a typical transcoding scenario is described:

A video transcoder ingests a UDP multicast MPEG-2 TS with an H.264 elementary stream consisting of 1280x720p, 30fps video at 6 Mbps and a KLV metadata elementary stream consisting of MISB STD 0601 metadata. No audio is present. The transcoder produces a UDP multicast MPEG-2 TS with an H.264 elementary stream consisting of 720x480p, 30fps at 1.3 Mbps and the same KLV metadata elementary stream, and maintains PTS synchronization between the H.264 and KLV elementary streams. Additional latency due to the transcode process is preferably less than 250ms and no more than 500 ms. Loss of video interpretability or intelligence is no greater than one V-NIIRS level at this level of transcoding.

Interested parties shall respond within 2 weeks after release of this RFI, and describe existing or near-term mature capabilities, features or products that meet or exceed those in the aforementioned scenario. A written response shall address which of the following list of capabilities are supported and describe the vendor's approach, support, and limitations for these capabilities and any unique or special variations or extensions to these capabilities.

Supported Video transcoding (transcode pairs supported)
o Example: H.264 to H.264, H.264 to MPEG-2, MPEG-4 to MPEG-2, MJPEG to H.264, etc.
Encoding Control options
o Example: Frame Rate, Quality, GOP, I-B-P formats, Scalable Video Codec, multiple bit rate encoding, etc.
Rate Control options
o Example: VBR, CBR, etc.
Data Transport Protocols (receive and transmit)
o Example: MPEG-2 TS, RTSP, RTP, Serial, etc.
Input Formats
o Example: UDP/IP, SDI, Analog, etc.
Output Formats
o Example: UDP/IP, ASI, etc.
Video Stream Performance
Number of Simultaneous Transcoded Streams
o Example: 10 HD streams, etc.
Max Bandwidth (if applicable)
o Example: 100 Mbps total throughput, maximum 10 Mbps per stream, etc.
Total System Latency
o Example: <250ms at 30 fps, etc.
Output Stream Options
o Example: change # of TS per IP, Bit-rate change @ 1 kbps, etc.
Management Interfaces (and security options)
o Example: Web GUI, Terminal, Telnet, etc.
Storage capabilities for real-time stream storage:
o Example: SAS, 500GB, 10k RPM
Video Processing capabilities
o Example: scaling, cropping, letterboxing, stabilization, filtering, etc.
Supported Metadata format and metadata embedding methods
o Example: KLV, ESD, CC/Line 21, MPEG-2 TS, VANC, metadata manipulation
Supported standards
o Example: MISB, SMPTE, ITU-T, ISO, etc.
Physical Interfaces (Input and output and function)
o Example: 6 Ethernet ports 10/100/1000 BaseT, VGA, USB, RS-232, etc.
Physical dimensions
o Example: Handheld size (ex.2"x5"x5"), 1 RU x 12", 1 RU x server depth, etc.
Physical Configuration
o Example: Portable, rack mount enclosed unit, rack mount chassis, etc.
Physical weight
o Example: <5 lbs, 10 to 30 lbs, <50 lbs, etc.
Power requirements
o Example: 100-240 VAC, 9-32 VDC, etc.
Temperature requirements
o Example: 0-50oC operational, 0-70oC non-operational, etc.

White Papers are the preferred submittal format for capability packages. Responses should be no longer than 10 to 12 pages. The Government is not interested in marketing responses, instead responses should be about actual transcoder capabilities or future proposed capabilities. The submitted package must be clear, concise, complete and shall also include at a minimum; 1) Identify the organization's name, address, telephone number, and point of contact (with title, phone, and email); 2) Proprietary information must be clearly marked; 3)Organization Size/Ownership of Business, i.e. large, small, disadvantaged, 8(a), disabled-veteran, veteran, woman-owned, etc.; 4) CAGE code, DUNS number, Tax ID number; 5) Identify if you are a GSA Schedule holder.

The North American Industries Classification System (NAICS) code for this RFI is 334310.

Technical questions regarding this RFI should be directed to Mr. Brian Eichelberger at [email protected].

The Government requests responses to this RFI be submitted no later than 12pm EST, Friday, December 2, 2011. Please limit responses to 10-12 pages. Marketing material is not a sufficient response.

Please submit your responses to Mr. Brian Eichelberger at [email protected].

Bid Protests Not Available