Niagara Max: Powerful, Pint-Size Encoder

ViewCast’s Niagara Max is one of a new generation of portable Web video (with audio) encoder/servers that can simultaneously encode and serve up to four streams of Microsoft or Real compressed video (or two streams of Microsoft and two streams of Real compressed video). This pint-size dynamo, weighing in at a mere 32 pounds, crams dual 1GHz PIII CPUs; an Osprey 2000 DV-Pro capture card ( see review) and an Osprey 220 capture card; a 17-inch LCD monitor; 512MB of RAM; and a 36GB, 10,000 rpm SCSI drive, all into a very cool James Bondesque, briefcase-size unit that can easily fit into an airplane’s overhead bin.

This system is impressive beyond its looks: It can simultaneously encode up to four unique bit-rate profiles (with multiple bit rates in each profile) from any of two inputs, and sports a very useful software bundle, including powerful remote management.

But although this box and others like it are advertised as capable of serving streams directly to end-users, as well as encoding, we suspect that a scalability wall will prevent this from being practical in all but the most contained scenarios (such as with a very small number of unicast sessions, or multicasting within a private network). In other words, if you’re trying to encode multiple bit-rate video and serve it to your audience at the same time, simply based on the hardware’s capability, you’re likely to become frustrated. Therefore, we consider it to be most appropriate for streaming live to a CDN or other streaming network distribution point capable of scaling all the way up to global audience sizes. With the ProPac upgrade, the Niagara Max weighs in at $27,995.

Simple Setup

Setting up the Niagara Max is a no-brainer. Simply attach your camera(s)/source deck(s) to the unit, plug in a hot Cat 5 cable, input your network configuration, launch the SCX encoder app, and you’re ready to go.

As far as audio and video connections go, the Niagara Max supports XLR, AES/EBU, composite, S-Video, FireWire and SDI. For our tests, we attached video decks to both the composite and S-Video inputs and fed the Niagara Max both a live broadcast video and pre-recorded tape material. In both cases we were pleased with the quality of the compression. Note that only unbalanced audio and analog video were tested.

Performance

When testing the Niagara Max using ViewCast’s recommended settings, encoding four streams using Osprey’s SimulStream and the bundled SCX Manager software, the Max performed beautifully. Processor usage hovered around 70 percent, with four small/medium-size streams being encoded.

However, the performance-built Max has one potential gotcha related to its impressive specs: With its two 1GHz PIII processors and 36GB, 10,000rpm SCSI hard drive stuffed inside such a tight enclosure, we found that the unit gets hot pretty quickly. If you’re going to do any kind of lengthy streaming sessions, the box must be placed in a well-ventilated area. We performed a seven-hour, four-stream encoding session in one of our enclosed lab rooms — which, granted, is a long time for a single event — and the unit locked up on us. After we let it cool down for a half hour, we restarted and everything worked fine again.