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How To Cut Cloud Gaming Bitrates In Half So That Twice As Many Users Can Play

Posted on November 19, 2019by Dror Gill

TL;DR: Beamr CABR operating with the Intel Media SDK hardware encoder powered by Intel GPUs is the perfect video encoding engine for cloud gaming services like Google Stadia. The Intel GPU hardware encoder reaches real-time performance with a power envelope that is 90% less than a CPU based software solution. When combined with Beamr CABR (Content-Adaptive Bitrate) technology, the required bandwidth for cloud gaming is reduced by as much as 49% while delivering higher quality 65% of the time. Using the Intel hardware encoder combined with Beamr CABR enables players to enjoy a gaming experience that is competitive to a console and able to be streamed by cloud gaming platforms. Get more information about how CABR works.

The era of cloud gaming.

With the launch of Google Stadia, we have entered a new era in the games industry called cloud gaming. Just as streaming video services opened media and entertainment content to a broader audience by freeing it from the fixed frameworks of terrestrial (over-the-air), cable, and satellite distribution, so to will cloud gaming open gameplay to a larger audience. Besides extending gameplay to virtually anywhere the user has a network-connected device, the ability for a player to access an extensive library of games without needing to use a specific piece of hardware will push 25.9 million players to cloud gaming platforms by 2023, according to the media research group Kagan.

In addition to opening up gameplay to an “anywhere/anytime” experience. A major user experience benefit of cloud gaming is that players will not necessarily need to purchase a game, but in many cases will be free to access a vast library of their choosing instantaneously. Cloud gaming services promise the quality of a console or PC experience, but without the need to own expensive hardware and the configuration and software installation work that comes with that.

The one constraint that could cause cloud gaming to never catch up with the console experience.

With the wholesale transition of video entertainment content from traditional broadcast and physical media to streaming distribution, it is not hard to project the same pattern will occur for games. Except now, unlike the early days of video streaming where a 3Mbps home Internet connection was “high speed,” and the number of devices able to decode and reliably play back H.264 video was limited, even the lowest cost smartphone can stream video with acceptable quality.

Yet, there is a fundamental constraint that must be overcome for cloud gaming to reach its full market potential, and that is the bandwidth required to deliver a competitive video experience at 1080p60 or 4kp60 resolution. To better understand the bandwidth squeeze that is unique to cloud gaming, let’s examine the data and signal flow.

In FIGURE 1 we see the cloud gaming architecture moves compute-intensive operations, like the graphics rendering engine, to the cloud.

Shifting the compute-intensive function to the cloud eliminates device technical capability from being a bottleneck. However, as a result of the video rendering and encoding function not being local to the user, it means the video stream needs to be delivered over the network, with latency in the tens of milliseconds. And, at a framerate that is double the entertainment video frame rate of 24, 25, or 30 frames per second. Additionally, video game resolutions need to be HD with 4K preferable. Also, HDR is an increasingly important capability for many AAA game titles.

None of these requirements are impossible to meet, except as a result of needing fast encoding speed, the encoder must be operated in a mode that makes it difficult to produce high-quality and with small stream size. Because of the added time needed for the encoder to create B frames, and without the benefit of a look-ahead buffer, producing high quality with low bitrate is not possible. Hence why cloud gaming services require a significantly higher bitrate than what is possible with traditional video on demand streaming video services.

Beamr has been innovating in the area of performance, allowing us to encode H.264 and HEVC in software with breathtaking speed, even when running our most advanced Content-Adaptive Bitrate (CABR) rate-control. For video applications where a single encoder can serve hundreds of thousands or even millions of users, the compute requirement to do this in software, given the tremendous benefits of lower bitrate and higher quality, makes it easy to justify. But, in an application like cloud gaming, where the video encoder is matched 1:1 to every user, the computing cost to do this in software makes it uneconomical. The answer is to use a hardware encoder controlled by software, and running a content-adaptive optimization process which can deliver the additional bitrate savings needed.

FIGURE 2 illustrates the required Google Stadia bitrates.

The answer is to leverage hardware and software.

The Intel Media SDK and GPU engines occupy a well-established position in the market, with many video services relying on its included HEVC hardware encoder for real-time encoding. However, using the VBR rate-control only, there is a limit to the quality available when bitrate efficiency is essential. The advantage of Beamr’s next-generation rate-control technology, CABR (Content-Adaptive Bitrate), combined with Intel GPUs, is the secret to delivering bitrate efficiency and quality, in real-time, with 90% less power than software alone.

In verified testing, Beamr has shown that the Intel Media SDK hardware encoder controlled by CABR will produce the same perceptual quality as VBR encodes, with a confidence level greater than 95%. Using CABR gives a meaningful impact on user experience. 65% of the time, the player will perceive better quality at the same bandwidth, even while the gaming platform experiences up to a 49% reduction in the bandwidth required to provide the same quality level.

Watch Beamr Founder Sharon Carmel present Beamr CABR integrated with Intel Gen 11 hardware encoder at Intel Experience Day October 29, 2019 in Moscow.

Proof of performance.

As an image science company, Beamr is committed to proof of performance with all claims. For this reason, the industry recognizes that all technology, products, and solutions which carry the Beamr name, represent the pinnacle of quality. For this reason, it was insufficient to integrate CABR with the Intel Media SDK without being able to prove that the original quality of the stream is always preserved and that the user experience is improved. Testing comprised corresponding 10-second segments extracted from clips created with the Intel hardware encoder using VBR, and clips encoded using the Intel hardware encoder but with the integrated Beamr CABR rate-control.

The only way to test perceptual quality is with subjective techniques. We used a process similar to forced-choice double stimulus (FCDS), and closely approximating the ITU BT.500 method. Using the Beamr Auto-VISTA framework, we recruited anonymous viewers from Amazon Mechanical Turk where each viewer was shown corresponding segment pairs and asked to select which video had lower quality. The VBR and CABR encoded files were placed at random on the left and right sides. Validation pairs were used to verify the user’s capabilities with visible artifacts inserted, and only test results for users who correctly answered all four validation pairs were incorporated into the analysis. The viewers had up to five attempts to view the pairs before making a decision. Each viewer watched 20 segment pairs consisting of sixteen actual CABR, and VBR encodes, and four validation pairs.

Games used for testing were: CSGO, Fallout, and GTA5. To reflect realistic bitrates, we only tested the middle four bitrates out of the six bitrates provided. This was because the bitrate for the top layer was very high, and the bottom layer quality was very low. The four bitrates tested were spaced one JND (just noticeable difference) apart. Each target test pair was viewed 13 to 21 times by valid users, with a total of 800 target pair viewings, or about 17 viewings per pair on average. The total number of valid test sessions were 50, completed by more than 40 unique viewers.

Peeling back the data, you will notice that the per-pair statistical distribution is quite symmetrical above and below 50%. With the sampling base, this phenomenon is no surprise; human perception varies. The overall results had 800 views of 48 pairs, which make the statistical certainty higher, indicating that CABR is not compromising perceptual quality.

FIGURE 4 shows CABR encodes had the same perceptual quality as VBR and with a confidence level of more than 95%.

Better quality, lower bitrate.

Beamr CABR encoded streams offer higher quality when compared subjectively to a VBR equivalent encode, while offering a bitrate savings of up to 49%. Benefits of CABR for cloud gaming or any live streaming service, are quantified by better quality, greater bandwidth savings, and a reduction in storage cost. For the files that we tested, the aggregated metrics were as follows:

65% of the time, users will experience better quality for a given bandwidth.
40% bandwidth savings on average across all three titles (GTA5 had a savings of 49%).
30% overall storage savings.

FIGURE 5, 6, and 7 illustrate for the three video samples used that for a given User Bandwidth, CABR provides higher quality. You will interpret the chart by observing that where VBR is blue, CABR is BLACK (higher quality), and where VBR is turquoise, CABR is BLUE.

Conclusion.

Beamr CABR controlling the Intel Media SDK hardware encoder is the perfect video encoding engine for cloud gaming services like Google Stadia. The Beamr CABR rate-control and optimization process works with all Intel codecs, including AVC, HEVC, VP9, and AV1. All bitstreams produced by the Intel + Beamr CABR solution are fully standard-compliant and work with every player in the field today. Beamr CABR is proven and protected by 46 International patents, meaning there is no other solution that can reduce bitrate by as much as 49% while working in real-time using a closed-loop perceptually aligned quality measure to guarantee the original quality.

The single most important technical hurdle for anyone building or operating a cloud gaming service or platform is the bandwidth consumption required to deliver a player experience on par with the console. Now, with Intel + Beamr CABR, the ideal solution is here; one that can reach the performance and density needed for cloud gaming at scale, so that more players can enjoy a premium gaming experience. Streaming video upended the media and entertainment business, with the rise of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV Plus, and dozens of other tier-one streaming services. In the same way, cloud gaming will create new service platforms, gaming experiences, and business models.

To experience the power of Beamr CABR controlling the Intel hardware encoder, send an email to info@beamr.com.

Beamr 5 H.265 HDR Intel Scalable Platinum Processor Live

Beamr Live HEVC Encoding Speed Test on the Intel® Xeon® Scalable Platinum Processor

Posted on November 15, 2017by Dror Gill

It’s no secret that Intel-based hardware is ubiquitous in many video encoding data centers, which explains the high level of interest in the new Intel® Xeon® Scalable Platinum processor family. This article examines the live HEVC 4Kp60 10-bit encoding performance from the perspective of speed with Beamr 5 running on the scalable Platinum 8180 where the results are nothing short of amazing.

Intel is known for pushing the state of art with ever faster and more capable processors, which enable software encoding vendors like Beamr to achieve performance benchmarks some thought impossible. Since Intel’s announcement of their new processor series, Beamr has been excited to see what is possible with the version 5 Xeon® processor.

The result?

Mind-blowing.

Video services needing to encode live 4Kp60 10-bit HDR video can achieve 6 simultaneous streams on a dual-socket Intel® Xeon® Scalable Platinum 8180 processor using Beamr 5 v4.1. This performance represents a 6x speed advantage over x265 and establishes an entirely new benchmark for HEVC software encoders.

CLICK HERE for a speed comparison of the Beamr 5 HEVC software encoder and x265 running on Amazon EC2.

Executive Introduction

As over-the-top (OTT) and IP overtake traditional linear delivery systems, the ability to encode video on software, in real time, is now a requirement.

According to Cisco, consumer Video-on-Demand (VoD) traffic will almost double by 2021. This trend is driven largely by new video services and entertainment formats such as Cloud DVR, UHD (4K), High Dynamic Range (HDR) and 360 degree AR/VR immersive video. These advanced video formats carry with them much greater encoding complexity which places high operational demands on the computing environment. This means more efficient software requires less server time which translates to fewer machines and lower capex and opex.

With content and operational costs rising, and end user pricing under pressure, it is essential for operators to invest in video encoding technology that can provide advanced services in the most efficient way possible. As NFV and virtualized container based architectures advance in the data center, encoding density and speed is becoming a critical vector within the encoder selection process. Also, the ability to operate across a wide range of general purpose platforms is essential. Many GPU bound solutions are inextricably linked to a single processor or limited series. Beamr’s HEVC encoder scales across the entire Intel® Xeon® family.

Apple is playing a pivotal role in enabling the HEVC ecosystem starting with iOS 11 and High Sierra. It is estimated that up to 1 billion devices in the Apple ecosystem can now play HEVC without any special update or third-party apps needed. With HEVC files now supported from big screens to mobile devices, video services can transition their entire library with all resolutions to HEVC, and benefit from the reduced bitrate and improved quality that HEVC is able to deliver. This represents hundreds of thousands if not millions of hours of content needing to be encoded by each video distributor.

With Beamr 5 running on an Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor, video encoding engineers can perform up to 6 times more live video encoding, which leads to a reduction in:

Power
Rackspace
Capital investment

For more background, read Intel’s Solution Brief’s on the Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor family and the Beamr 5 HEVC video encoder.

6 simultaneous live hevc channels with beamr 5 & intel purley

The new Beamr 5 HEVC software encoder exploits multiple features of the Intel® Xeon® Scalable platform, making it possible to deliver the performance of hardware with the scale and flexibility that only software allows. Beamr 5 is able to utilize the entire range of Intel® Xeon® processors from the entry-level Intel® Xeon® Processor E3 v5 family to the best in class Intel® Xeon® Platinum Scalable 8180 processor. For real-time live video encoding operations that require resolutions up to 4K and frame rates as high as 60 FPS, higher performance means less computing resources required.

Solutions like Beamr 5 running on Intel® Xeon® Scalable Platinum processors contribute to decidedly lower operational and capital investment costs.

In addition to the live workflow benefits, offline VoD applications can also benefit from greater performance as the shorter turnaround time to complete VoD encodes and transcodes means the content will be available for distribution more quickly.

Beamr 5 opens up compelling options for MSOs, CDNs, and broadcasters to build video workflows that exceed their service expansion plans and technical goals while also enabling service operators to deploy media processing workflows across public clouds and on-premise data centers.

With Beamr 5 running on Intel® Xeon® processors, new video encoding workflows can be imagined as edge encoding services running Intel® Xeon® E3 processor-based points of presence (PoPs) for JIT transcoding are now possible. The high performance of Beamr 5 directly enables workflows to be split and re-deployed without a need to redesign workflows.

Beamr’s Next-Generation Video Encoding Technology on Intel

At the foundation of Beamr’s HEVC software encoder is technology that stems from more than a dozen years of codec development by our codec engineering team. Though we’ve developed our solution and technical advantages entirely in-house, working closely with Intel gives us a significant technical and business advantage.

Of the many points related to how we achieved our massive speed advantage, the two we will highlight are motion estimation advantage and micro-level parallelization.

Incoming frames are extensively analyzed by Beamr 5. It is this step which determines the complexity of the scene as rough motion vectors are calculated, and estimates for the bit demand of the encoded frame are made. These estimates guide the second stage of the encoder and allow those activities to focus on visually meaningful aspects of the frame. By partitioning the encoding process, unproductive calculations can be avoided, thus improving the speed of the encoder and the quality it produces.

Second, Beamr 5 features micro-level parallelization which is the result of the codec engineering team leveraging software engineering lessons learned from earlier generations of Beamr real-time software encoders. This experience led the team to design a micro-level parallelization approach that stages portions of the encoding tasks in a controlled manner, staggering their execution so each micro-task begins when the data is available (and still in the cache). This results in wasteful power and CPU cycles spent writing and fetching data being eliminated. Careful design of these micro-tasks assures that they are executed efficiently across the whole frame and in an even manner so that all cores are kept uniformly busy, and none are left waiting for their next task.

Uniquely, the Beamr encoder does not rely on the operating system to manage these critical execution threads but instead is under full control of the pooling and process allocation between the available cores and threads. Beamr’s advanced encoder controls the execution priority based on the availability of pipelined data.

Test Methodology

As in part 1 of our x265 vs. Beamr 5 performance test, we encourage you to experience our speed claims first hand. For qualified video distributors, services and platforms, we are happy to offer a FREE evaluation agreement. To take advantage of this, please contact sales@beamr.com.

The purpose of this test was to measure the speed of Beamr 5 for live encoding applications running on Intel® Xeon® Scalable Platinum processors. In our first comparison of codec performance based on CPU, we decided to run a few comparisons with x265. For this comparison, x265 was benchmarked in its fastest speed setting ‘ultrafast’ – while for Beamr 5 we operated the encoder at its highest speed setting “15” with the performance boost modifier ‘TURBO1’ which activated our latest algorithmic improvements that are available in version 4.1. (All files were 4Kp60.)

For this second test, we wanted to dig deeper using Beamr 5 version 4.1 running on the same 2S Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8180 processor-based machine that we tested with in September, to see what gains were possible. What we found was nothing short of stunning.

In Graphic 1, HTOP shows Beamr 5 loaded 108 threads (from 112 available) at an impressive 90% utilization rate. This demonstrates the high degree of effectiveness with our Intel specific optimization.

Graphic 1: HTOP Intel 8180 dual socket 108 thread utilization at 90% across each thread.

More speed and performance benchmarks from Intel: CLICK HERE.

Conclusion

The drive to increase density with software-based video encoding and transcoding infrastructure is key to securing a competitive advantage for multi-service operators, OTT video distributors, and content distribution networks. At the same time, video architects must enable encoding and delivery of advanced entertainment content, by embracing new technologies, capabilities, and codecs such as HEVC, HDR, and 4K.

With a Beamr + Intel® Xeon® optimized video encoding solution, density – efficiency – quality – and flexibility of video encoding operations for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid data centers can be realized. Beamr 5 running on Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors offers TCO benefits and provides a meaningful improvement to the video processing capabilities of any video distribution solution.

If you missed part 1 of this post, be sure to check it out since additional technical details about Beamr 5 and its operational and performance advantages against x265 were specifically discussed. Find the x265 vs. Beamr 5 Speed Test here.