Statistical multiplexing using SVC

In this paper, we present a new system for real-time statistical multiplexing of video streams in DVB-H broadcasting using the scalable video coding (SVC) extension of H.264/AVC. Compared to statistical multiplexing systems employing classical, non-scalable, video codecs, the proposed system does not require computationally expensive re-encoding or transcoding to adapt the bitrate of each video stream at play-out time. Additionally, a new joint rate control algorithm is proposed to dynamically distribute the channel bandwidth among the different video streams. Experimental results show that the proposed multiplexer results in a better global rate distortion performance and in lower quality differences between the different channels.