Extron has announced the introduction of the SME 211, a high performance H.264 streaming media encoder for distributing audio and video signals over IP networks.

The SME 211 features Extron high performance scaling and flexible signal processing and accepts an HDMI signal with embedded audio and an analogue audio signal. It also supports unicast and multicast streaming protocols, including RTMP for streaming directly to major Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) or social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube.

“In response to requests from customers, we’ve continued to expand our line of H.264 streaming products with the addition of the SME 211, a user-friendly streaming media encoder supporting live streams to social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook Live,” says Extron vice president of sales and marketing Casey Hall.

The SME 211 has built-in audio mixing and DSP features that enable enhanced audio processing without requiring external and DSP equipment. It can stream at two different resolutions and bit rates concurrently to support up to six simultaneous streams with push and pull encoding. The dual encode functionality supports streaming at high resolution to an SMD-series decoder in an overflow room while concurrently streaming at a lower resolution for remote viewing applications.

Ideal for applications that require multiple simultaneous, independent streams, the SME 211 allows for individual control of streaming protocol, bit rate and stream resolutions. It supports a range of streaming transport protocols and session management methods that provide flexibility to stream from the SME 211 to a variety of devices in different system configurations and network conditions..

“Its rich feature set and high-quality video encoding ensure reliable live streaming with superior image quality to any destination,” says Casey.