TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - April 18, 2016) -  ViXS Systems Inc. (TSX: VXS), a pioneer and leader in media processing solutions, today announced the availability of the industry's next generation Ultra High Definition (UHD) 4K HEVC Golden Reference Decoder (GRD3) a widely used tool for testing, validating, debugging and deploying UHD 4K. With increasing complexities, new technologies, and growth of UHD, the GRD family of standardized reference tools has proven highly valuable to companies deploying any type of rich video streaming, broadcast, or UHD 4K services.

This latest UHD 4K GRD3 toolkit comes in a new 5"x 5" form factor, offering enhancements to previous features and enabling: content creators; service operator technologists; encoder manufacturers; TV manufacturers; HEVC promoters; and consumer electronics companies, to easily decode and display High Dynamic Range (HDR) content up to UHD 4Kp60 HEVC 12-bit with full support for HDMI 2.0b. The Golden Reference Decoder tool provides a robust solution users can rely on to verify stream compliance, encoder quality parameters, transport multiplexing parameters, video output quality in 8-bit, 10-bit and 12-bit, and HDR signaling compliance. Verifying these key metrics is a requirement to upgrade systems to support HEVC, UHD 4Kp60, and/or HDR video across all types of networks, storage media and distribution ecosystems. 

Over the past two years, more than sixty leading encoder/transcoder manufacturers, studios, content creators and service operators have taken advantage of ViXS UHD 4K GRD products to verify their broadcast content. Additionally, many of these companies have seen value in using the GRD tool for their own demonstrations at events and as a sales tool to promote UHD 4K technologies and performance, underlining the value of ViXS' continued leadership in UHD 4K technology worldwide.

During the UHD Forum Plugfest held over two days (29th-30th March, 2016) in Washington, D.C., live HDR content was created, and ViXS GRDs were used as a valuable tool to successfully show this content on the participating brands of displays.

"Having been introduced to this tool last year, my colleagues and I have found it a key resource in allowing us to showcase Ultra High Definition content at our PBS Technology Conference events, and to all of our partners and PBS member stations," said Renard Jenkins, Senior Director of Operations at Public Broadcasting Service. "ViXS is allowing our industry as a whole to actually see the future."

"The GRD platform has been a tremendously successful way for ViXS to showcase our leadership in video processing," said John Pomeroy, VP Marketing & Business Development, VIXS Systems Inc. " We are delighted with the success of our GRDs at the recent UHD Forum Plugfest, and we are excited about the high level of anticipation expressed for our newest ViXS UHD Golden Reference Decoder (GRD3) which is available for order now"

New Feature Highlights of the GRD3 design:

• UHD 4Kp60 12-bit HEVC decode and display
• HDMI 2.0b and HDCP 2.2 support
• High Dynamic Range support
• Additional streaming modes and expanded file handling
• Continued support for legacy codecs (including AVC up to 4K)
• Simplified operation
• Smaller form factor
• Low Powered -- Including a NEW battery powered option

The VIXS UHD 4K Golden Reference Decoder 3 tool will be demonstrated at NAB 2016 from April 18^th to 21^st, 2016 in the ViXS Suite at the Renaissance Las Vegas Hotel and is available for order immediately.

About the Ultra HD Forum

Formed in 2015, the Ultra HD Forum is the global organization responsible for promoting market adoption of Ultra HD by defining industry best practices for the phased introduction of the wide set of technologies that will facilitate the next generation viewing experience. The organization facilitates interoperability testing and collaborates with industry standards bodies to align standard development activities. A list of participating member companies is available at http://ultrahdforum.org/members/.

About PBS

PBS, with 350 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content. Each month, PBS reaches nearly 100 million people through television and nearly 33 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS' broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry's most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life. PBS' premier children's TV programming and its website, pbskids.org, are parents' and teachers' most trusted partners in inspiring and nurturing curiosity and love of learning in children. More information about PBS is available at www.pbs.org, one of the leading dot-org websites on the Internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile devices. Specific program information and updates for press are available at pbs.org/pressroom or by following PBS Pressroom on Twitter.

About ViXS Systems Inc.

ViXS is a pioneer and market leader in designing revolutionary media processing semiconductor solutions for video over IP streaming solutions, with over 510 patents issued and pending worldwide, numerous industry awards for innovation, and over 33 million media processor shipped to date. ViXS is driving the transition to Ultra HD 4K across the entire content value chain by providing professional and consumer grade chipsets that support the new High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard up to Main 12 Profile, reducing bandwidth consumption by 50% while providing the depth of color and image clarity needed to take advantage of higher-resolution content. ViXS' XCodePro 300 family is ideal for Ultra HD 4K infrastructure equipment, and the XCode 6000 family of system-on-chip (SoC) products achieve unprecedented levels of integration that enable manufacturers to create cost-effective consumer entertainment devices.

ViXS is headquartered in Toronto, Canada with offices in Europe, Asia and North America. VIXS^™, the ViXS^® logo, XCode^®, XCodePro™, XConnex™ and Xtensiv™ are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of ViXS. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information on ViXS, visit our website: www.vixs.com.