elemental.qxp
11/3/13
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Keith Wymbs, vice president of marketing at Elemental Technologies, discusses advanced video solutions for multiscreen content.
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ith multiscreen services now reaching an estimated 66% of pay-TV subscribers in Western Europe and 90% in North America, it’s clear that the opportunity and value in extending premium content and services to as many screens as possible is broadly recognised. Multiscreen viewing of live and on-demand content also presents challenges in the form of more complex video processing requirements, the need to process massive amounts of video, and the need to support an expanding number of file formats.
builds on Elemental’s cutting-edge use of graphics processing units (GPUs) to optimise video streaming over IP networks. “Traditional video processing capabilities are now being deployed in cloud architectures, giving operators the flexibility to reallocate resources as new applications come online,” said Rosen. “The Elemental software platform, coupled with next generation processors, provides a unique bridge to media deployment architectures of the future.” Elemental now supports next-generation GPU and CPU architectures with its award-
a dual power supply, in a desktop form factor and with a quieter chassis. Additional options include ASI input, Pro-MPEG support, and cloudbased video processing.
Comcast Uses NextGeneration
The Key to Multiscreen Success: High-Quality Video – Everywhere
Pay-TV operators are aggressively investing in infrastructure that can scale from today’s multiscreen applications to meet coming requirements including IP over cable, live multiscreen streaming of full channel line-ups, and increases in the size of VOD catalogues, according to Sam Rosen, practice director at ABI Research. Any technology platform in the video delivery workflow has to be flexible enough to evolve continually with the market and ready to provide a high-quality viewing experience across a range of target devices. winning software-based video processing solutions with the launc h of NVIDIA® Tesla® GPU accelerator and Intel Sandy Bridge-based versions of its two flagship video processing platforms. The performance gains with the new processors also enable customers to cut their rack space in half. By using Nvidia Tesla GPUs, Elemental is harnessing the most powerful programmable architecture on the market today, and offering customers unmatched video quality with products that continue to set the standard for large-scale video processing. “Elemental pioneered the use of GPUs for high-quality video transcoding, and they continue to innovate by developing new platforms that fully harness the massively parallel processing power of Tesla accelerators,” said Greg Estes, general manager of Media and Entertainment at NVIDIA. “The increased density and throughput available with these new Elemental products will continue to set the standard for enterprise video processing in the industry.” Along with powerful processor upgrades across its product line, Elemental has new form factors available from SuperMicro, Dell, and HP that offer more flexible workflow choices. Customers can opt for systems with
Elemental Platform for VOD
Several dozen customers have moved to nextgeneration Elemental platforms, including Comcast, the largest cable operator and the largest home internet service provider in the United States. Comcast, which has used Elemental products to help deliver Xfinity video for nearly two years, has put these systems through their paces at its Dry Creek facility in Colorado, one of its national distribution points for VOD, the majority of which is still being delivered in the MPEG-2 format. Dave Higgins, vice president video quality and reliability for Comcast recently told U.Sbased CED Magazine that the company has been receiving higher-quality mezzanine files from programmers which are then processed using Elemental Server for multiscreen delivery. As a result, Comcast has been seeing improvements in both bandwidth efficiency and video quality. “You usually get one or the other,” Higgins said. “In this case we’re getting both, and that’s what’s so exciting for us. The migration path Elemental offers has allowed us to significantly increase our video transport quality and efficiency as the market demand for multiscreen video continues to grow.”
Next-Generation Architecture for Video Processing
Pay-TV operators, content owners, and broadcasters are seeking to expand platforms for next-generation multiscreen video workflows that can support requirements such as ultrahigh definition resolutions, HEVC/H.265 and MPEG-DASH. In direct response to these needs, Elemental Technologies, the leading supplier of video solutions for multiscreen content delivery, recently announced next-generation architecture for video processing. Doubling the performance of its Elemental Live and Elemental Server products, the new platform
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