In Broadcast - October 2015 - 52

52

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 5 - Issue 10 | October 2015

InMedia

Encoding & Transcoding
Contributing Editor Jim Evans tracks
the latest developments in encoding and
transcoding...

A

s technology marches relentlessly
on - and consumers/viewers
become increasingly used to smoothrunning and immediate delivery, the
need for reliable, fast and efficient
video encoding and transcoding
processes becomes more apparent.
A wide range of hardware devices
and software packages are now
available to service this need, and
at this year's IBC in Amsterdam (and
earlier at NAB in Las Vegas), there
were some interesting developments
announced - all aimed at making the
broadcaster's job more efficient and
ultimately offering a seamless package
to the consumer.
Telestream showcased the latest
advances in its Vantage media
processing platform. This enterpriseclass transcoding and workflow
automation software allows content
owners, producers, and distributors to
quickly, easily and efficiently ingest,
edit, transform, package, monetise and
distribute their media. The Vantage
platform is based on a flexible serviceoriented architecture that is made up
of discrete services and connectors
that combine to create powerful
automated workflows - all under one
unified system control.
With more and more cameras,
the volume of footage created
during production has become
unmanageable.
Vantage
Camera
Ingest frees creative storytellers to
focus on editing, instead of worrying
about formats and manually finding,
importing and transcoding media
files. For Avid Interplay environments,
multi-resolution clips can be created
automatically in Interplay while
allowing frame-chase editing. Using
timecode metadata, Vantage can also

automatically stitch and time-align
shots, creating daily stringouts and
simplifying multi-camera shoots.
This new facility allows users to
create camera-specific hot folders,
which can watch either card readers
or folders on hard drives. These hot
folders understand complex camera
file formats, and allow users to
prescribe rules for shot detection,
stitching and ingest. Fully featured
software running on servers then
automates ingest, transcoding and
import of shots into the editing system.
"This powerful camera ingest
software automates and simplifies
camera ingest, transcoding and
importing of shots in an editing
system, freeing editors to focus
on editing, instead of manually
finding, importing and stitching
clips," explained Paul Turner, VP of
Enterprise Product Management at
Telestream.
The Utelisys transcoder family
"represents
the
state-of-theart for high-performance, video
applications," states the company.
"The perfect platform for broadcast,
mobile, cloud or OTT services, the
Next Gen Transcoder, can scale and
be configured to meet your specific
requirements. Configured with both
the latest high performance, Digital
Signal Processors (DSP) and General
Purpose Processors (GPP), the hybrid
architecture of the Utelisys platforms
offer the best of all worlds, and are
the optimal solution for the encoding,
transcoding and distribution of your
video streams."
Available in both 1U and 2U
configurations, that can support from
4 to 32 TI DSPs, the Utelisys Next
Gen Transcoder can handle up to

The Vantage platform is based on a flexible service-oriented architecture

The Transcoding Process

The Utelisys transcoder family "represents
the state-of-the-art for high-performance, video applications"

800 streams with latencies as low as
~100ms. For applications that require
greater capabilities with respect
to increased self-contained, media
storage subsystems, a 4U version
of the transcoder platform will be
available shortly.
All platforms support HDMI/SDI
and DVB inputs and have multiple
1Gbps and 10Gbps ethernet ports for
video and network I/O. Raw power
consumption and shelf/cabinet real
estate is a concern for all operators.
The flexible configurations and hybrid
architecture supported by the Utelisys
Next Gen Transcoder allows for the
smallest physical footprint and power
envelope, while offering unparalleled
performance and channel capacities.
The Utelisys video transcoding
engine supports multiple codecs,
including MPEG-2 , MPEG-4 and H.264/
AVC. With video being ~80% of all
Internet traffic, the Utelisys platforms
are ready for the future with the latest
H.265/HEVC capabilities that will halve
bit rates while maintaining the same
quality.
Assessing
and
comparing
transcoding performance is always
a challenge as capacities vary widely
depending on the inputs and outputs
choosen. Full HD (i.e. 1080p60)
represents the toughest scenario, and
the Utelisys 2U Transcoder TC232 will
support 32 such streams of full-HD
transcoding.
A key feature of the Utelisys
software is the ability to make realtime changes to the transcoding of a
live stream. Thus, an operator may
choose to up/down rate the quality
of a stream without affecting the
end viewer. Whether transcoding or
transrating, the Utelisys Next Gen
Transcoder can handle the conversion
of multiple HD and SD video streams

for a vast array of TVs, PCs, tablets and
mobile phones.
Metus Ingest is now integrated with
FileCatalyst "to transfer files fast!"
Metus has announced the integration
of its media workflow system with
FileCatalyst Direct, an accelerated file
transfer solution, created by Ottawa,
Canada based Unlimi-Tech Software
Inc., an Emmy Award winning pioneer
in managed file transfers. With the
integration of FileCatalyst, Metus
Ingest users can now transfer files at
the highest speed over local networks
and the Internet.
"With this integration, Metus
Ingest will provide the transfer
speed that today's workgroups need.
This accelerates project workflows
and makes life much easier for our
customers," said Mustafa Yilmaz,
Managing Director of Metus.
Norway-based Appear TV debuted
its High Video Quality Contributionto-Distribution-Format
Transcoder
Module earlier this year at NAB. This
new module bridges content delivery
throughout the broadcast chain.
The
Contribution-to-DistributionFormat Transcoder Module is in
keeping with the "any-input-to-anyoutput" tradition of Appear's range
of transcoder modules, while offering
the capability to decode and transcode
contribution feeds for redistribution.
It supports MP2/4 420/422 8/10-bit
contribution decoding that transcodes
for redistribution
MP2/4
SD/HD
420 8-bit format,
without
the
need to decode
the
primary
broadcast
to
baseband.
Metus Ingest will provide "the transfer
speed that today's workgroups need"
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://www.utelisys.com/transcoding/ http://www.telestream.net/vantage/overview.htm http://www.metus.com/metus-ingest/
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of In Broadcast - October 2015
