VIDEO COMPRESSION FOR MULTICAST ENVIRONMENTS USING SPATIAL SCALABILITY AND SIMULCAST CODING

An optimal system for determining whether simulcast coding (400) or spatial scalability coding (100) should be used to encode video for clients with a specific communication link. Operating points (A′, B′, C′) for both simulcast coding and spatial scalability are also determined. Adaptive switching (3130, 3140) is provided, with the operating points and decision boundaries being used to guide the switching to optimize the quality of the higher-resolution data based on a bit allocation to the associated lower-resolution data. A system for determining the point (A′, C′) of equal quality in both layers of simulcast and spatial scalability coding is also provided. The proportion of bits allocated to the base layer to achieve equal quality is essentially independent of the total bit rate for both simulcast and spatial scalability.