Server
Standard IT Workstation or Server
HP, Supermicro and Fujitsu workstations have been certified. (Please check with us for model numbers and other brands)
HPZ220 workstation has been certified for GPU assisted H.264 based capture (Intel QuickSync)
HPZ420, Z620, Z820, Supermicro workstations are certified
RAM
2-4-8 GB RAM
CPU
Dual Xeon E56XX, E-5 2XXX or I7 CPU (with or without Intel QuickSync)
One or two CPU, depending on the number of concurrent channels/encoders.
On a single i7 (later generation) CPU, it is possible to capture 6 channels of SD MPEG2, or 2 channels of HD MPEG2.
On a dual Xeon workstation, up to 4 channels of HD MPEG2 capture is available. Up to 2 channels of SD H.264 is available, without GPU acceleration. Full HD H.264 capture is not available without GPU acceleration.
With GPU acceleration, up to 6 channels of 1080i HD H.264, or 8 channels of SD H.264 capture are available.
DISK
Video disk should be a physically separate disk than the system disk. More separate video disks will have better I/O performance. For multiple channels of high bitrate HD capture, SAS/SSD drives or a RAID set of enterprise SATA/nSAS drives must be used. Alternatively, each channel can be captured to a different physical drive.
VGA
On board VGA cannot be used except for Intel HD3000 and HD4000 graphics, which together with suitable CPU, can provide hardware accelerated encoding.
GPU
For H.264 based compressions only, Metus Ingest also supports Intel QuickSync and Nvidia CUDA GPU acceleration.
Intel QuickSync 
QuickSync is a GPU based acceleration engine from Intel that is available on some i7, i5, Xeon E3 CPUs and motherboards. It is an on board technology, that works with Intel HD3000 and HD4000 graphics. It cannot be added by add-on VGA cards. Both the motherboard and the CPU must support QuickSync, for it to be available. QuickSync is not available on dual CPU platforms.
On an Intel QuickSync enabled system, Metus Ingest can use the GPU, instead of the CPU, for H.264 compression. Vast improvements in performance can be achieved with this method.
Nvidia CUDA 
CUDA is a GPU based acceleration engine from NVIDIA available on VGA cards equipped with NVIDIA chips. There are different series of CUDA processors with differing computing power, from low cost to high end. The real time H.264 encoding performance depends on which GPU is used and how powerful it is. It has been possible to encode up to 6x1080i HD streams in real time. Please contact us for recommendation of Nvidia VGA boards.
NOTE If both QuickSync and CUDA are supported on the workstation, they can be used in combination with each other. Some profiles can be QuickSync while others can be CUDA accelerated.
Notes
1- Please make sure that the capture cards you use for Ingest has driver for the OS you choose.
2- Please make sure the Server or workstation has suitable slot(s) for capture boards.
3- Please make sure the Server or Workstation PC case is suitable for your capture boards.
