Tag: Mark Donnigan

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Will Virtual Reality Determine the Future of Streaming?

Posted on by Dror Gill

As video services take a more aggressive approach to virtual reality (VR), the question of how to scale and deliver this bandwidth intensive content must be addressed to bring it to a mainstream audience.

While we’ve been talking about VR for a long time you can say that it was reinvigorated when Oculus grabbed the attention of Facebook who injected 2 billion in investment based on Mark Zuckerberg’s vision that VR is a future technology that people will actively embrace. Industry forecasters tend to agree, suggesting VR will be front and center in the digital economy within the next decade. According to research by Canalys, vendors will ship 6.3 million VR headsets globally in 2016 and CCS Insights suggest that as many as 96 million headsets will get snapped up by consumers by 2020.

One of VR’s key advantages is the fact that you have the freedom to look anywhere in 360 degrees using a fully panoramic video in a highly intimate setting. Panoramic video files and resolution dimensions are large, often 4K (4096 pixels wide, 2048 pixels tall, depending on the standard) or bigger.

While VR is considered to be the next big revolution in the consumption of media content, we also see it popping up in professional fields such as education, health, law enforcement, defense telecom and media. It can provide a far more immersive live experience than TV, by adding presence, the feeling that “you are really there.”

Development of VR projects have already started to take off and high-quality VR devices are surprisingly affordable. Earlier this summer, Google announced that 360-degree live streaming support was coming to YouTube.

Of course, all these new angles and sharpness of imagery creates new and challenging sets of engineering hurdles which we’ll discuss below.

Resolution and, Quality?

Frame rate, resolution, and bandwidth are affected by the sheer volume of pixels that VR transmits. Developers and distributors of VR content will need to maximize frame rates and resolution throughout the entire workflow. They must keep up with the wide range of viewers’ devices as sporting events in particular, demand precise detail and high frame rates, such as what we see with instant replay, slow motion, and 360-degree cameras.

In a recent Vicon industry survey, 28 percent of respondents stated that high-quality content was important to ensuring a good VR experience. Let’s think about simple file size comparisons – we already know that ultra HD file sizes take up considerably more storage space than SD and the greater the file size, the greater a chance it will impede the delivery. VR file sizes are no small potatoes.  When you’re talking about VR video you’re talking about four to six times the foundational resolution that you are transmitting. And, if you thought that Ultra HD was cumbersome, think about how you’re going to deal with resolutions beyond 4K for an immersive VR HD experience.

In order to catch up with the file sizes we need to continue to develop video codecs that can quickly interpret the frame-by-frame data. HEVC is a great starting point but frankly given hardware device limitations many content distributors are forced to continue using H.264 codecs. For this reason we must harness advanced tools in image processing and compression. An example of one approach would be content adaptive perceptual optimization.

I want my VR now! Reaching End Users

Because video content comes in a variety of file formats including combinations of stereoscopic 3D, 360 degree panoramas and spherical views – they all come with obvious challenges such as added strain on processors, memory, and network bandwidth. Modern codecs today use a variety of algorithms to quickly and efficiently detect these similarities, but they are usually tailored to 2D content. However, a content delivery mechanism must be able to send this to every user and should be smart to optimize the processing and transmitting of video.

Minimizing latency, how long can you roll the boulder up the hill?

We’ve seen significant improvements in the graphic processing capabilities of desktops and laptops. However, to take advantage of the immersive environment that VR offers, it’s important that high-end graphics are delivered to the viewer as quickly and smoothly as possible. The VR hardware also needs to display large images properly and with the highest fidelity and lowest latency. There really is very limited room for things like color correction or for adjusting panning from different directions for instance. If you have to stitch or rework artifacts, you will likely lose ground. You need to be smart about it. Typical decoders for tablets or smart TVs are more likely to cause latency and they only support lower framerates. This means how you build the infrastructure will be the key to offering image quality and life-like resolution that consumers expect to see.

Bandwidth, where art thou?

According to Netflix, for an Ultra HD streaming experience, your Internet connection must have a speed of 25 Mbps or higher. However, according to Akamai, the average Internet speed in the US is only approximately 11 Mbps. Effectively, this prohibits live streaming on any typical mobile VR device which to achieve the quality and resolution needed may need 25 Mbps minimum.

Most certainly the improvements in graphic processing and hardware will continue to drive forward the realism of the immersive VR content, as the ability to render an image quickly becomes easier and cheaper. Just recently, Netflix jumped on the bandwagon and became the first of many streaming media apps to launch on Oculus’ virtual reality app store. As soon as all the VR display devices are able to integrate with these higher resolution screens, we will see another step change in the quality and realism of virtual environments. But will the available bandwidth be sufficient, is a very real question. 

To understand the applications for VR, you really have to see it to believe it

A heart-warming campaign from Expedia recently offered children at a research hospital in Memphis Tennessee the opportunity to be taken on a journey of their dreams through immersive, real-time virtual travel – all without getting on a plane:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=179&v=2wQQh5tbSPw

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society also launched a VR campaign that inventively used the tech to give two people with MS the opportunity to experience their lifelong passions. These are the type of immersive experiences we hope will unlock a better future for mankind. We applaud the massive projects and time spent on developing meaningful VR content and programming such as this.

Frost & Sullivan estimates that $1.5 billion is the forecasted revenue from Pay TV operators delivering VR content by 2020. The adoption of VR in my estimation is only limited by the quality of the user experience, as consumer expectation will no doubt be high.

For VR to really take off, the industry needs to address some of these challenges making VR more accessible and most importantly with unique and meaningful content. But it’s hard to talk about VR without experiencing it. I suggest you try it – you will like it.

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The TV of Tomorrow Needs Standards Today: Why the streaming video industry must work together to solve video delivery quality issues

Posted on by Dror Gill

Nearly 50 percent of Americans have an entertainment subscription service like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Hulu, accessed via a connected television or devices like Amazon Fire TV, Roku, or Apple TV, according to recent research from Nielsen. Furthermore, a quarter of those in the coveted 18-to-34 demographic have either cut their cable or satellite services or never signed up for a pay-TV package, according to ComScore.

It’s Not Just Millennials Cutting the Cord – Content Providers Are Too

For decades cable and satellite services provided the exclusive gateway to mass audiences for premium and niche content channels.  Today, with the ease and availability to go consumer-direct via the Internet and over-the-top streaming (OTT), new networks are joining video platforms and licensing content to transactional, and subscription video-on-demand services, at an unprecedented rate.  The future of streamed TV whenever and wherever the viewer desires, is becoming a reality.  Or is already the reality for an ever-growing percentage of US households.

Yet to reach the consumer where they are means today’s content publisher must support a wide array of devices and players to enable video viewing ‘anytime and anywhere’ across computers, televisions, and mobile devices.  But device capabilities can vary significantly, and any modification means the content publisher must build different applications to support each device, and to ensure the best possible user experience.

Solving these issues will require collaboration among many players, who each have a vested interest in building the digital (streaming) OTT industry, in a quest to meet and exceed the “broadcast quality” standard that viewers have come to expect.

As streaming or OTT moves from a novelty to dominate distribution method, viewers are demanding better quality.  Leading streaming experience measurement company, Conviva, consistently reports in their user experience consumer survey results, that re-buffering events and video quality are the most cited frustrations for consumers watching online video.  With the adoption of new technologies such as 4K, virtual reality and OTT delivery of broadcast events, the demands on bandwidth will notably increase. Which explains why M-GO, a leading video on demand premium movie service partnered with Samsung and recently acquired by Fandango, reported that when they reduced bitrates using perceptual content adaptive technology, they experienced improvements in their streaming user experience and consumer satisfaction.

The key role that video quality plays in impacting user engagement and UX – and consequently service provider revenues, has incited recent efforts to improve video quality. This includes progress on adaptive bitrate selection, better transport-layer algorithms, and CDN optimization. Think about it – a single IP video packet contains approximately 1,400 bytes of information, and each IP packet contains multiple MPEG encapsulated video packets. The loss of even one IP packet can lead to video impairments lasting a half second or more.

The Need for Standardization Before Reaching the End User

While efforts are valuable and demonstrate potential improvements, one of the key missing pieces is an understanding of the structure that handcuffs video quality. That starts at the client-side before reaching the client. Standardization of online video quality, particularly the quality of experience (QoE), is more important than ever. But traditional methods of measuring quality do not translate well to OTT video.

Pay TV operators such as cable companies, have a specific advantage when it comes to the quality they can deliver, and that is, they control every aspect of the delivery process including the network and playback device, known as the STB or set-top-box. In contrast, the OTT delivery structure is fragmented, dangling by multiple vendors – from delivery, storage, transcoding – all who are responsible for parts of the overall system. Viewers care little about the complex network or routes involved to get their content to a device.  They simply expect the same high-quality viewer experience that they are accustomed to with traditional pay TV or broadcast systems.

This fragmentation, coupled with numerous formats that must be supported across devices, the need for standardization and the related challenges are apparent. While we rely on monitoring and analysis, there is enough variation in the measurement methodologies and definitions across the industry to impede our ability to not only maintain – but improve video quality. More than one video engineer would likely admit privately, that they spend their day just making sure the video is working, and only after this task is accomplished, do they consider what can be done to improve the quality of the video that they are delivering.

Strides are being made to develop and evangelize best practices for high-quality delivery of video over the Internet, thanks in part to the Streaming Video Alliance (SVA). The recommendations, requirements, and guidelines being assembled by the SVA are helping to define new industry architectures and contribute to building best practices across the streaming video ecosystem to accelerate adoption worldwide.

Standards Pave the Way for Valuable Metrics

Without agreed-upon industry standards for both quality of service (QoS) and quality of experience (QoE), there can be no objective benchmark or performance measurement in the video delivery ecosystem.

The SVA’s guidelines define a common language that describes the effectiveness of network delivery and outlines key network delivery metrics: ideal video startup time, acceptable re-buffering ratio, average video encoding bitrates, and video start failure metrics.

The alliance’s main focus is on the bits you’ll never see – like optimization and delivery techniques.  As a technology enabler that addresses these bits, improving all the above, we are excited to join with content providers, CDNs and service providers to tackle the most pressing issues of streaming video delivery.

Content Is Going Everywhere

To feed the beast, the industry must band together to provide constant easy access to high-quality video content.  The name of the game is getting content to your consumer with the best quality and highest user experience possible, and the only way to do that is to increase file efficiency by optimizing file sizes and conserving bandwidth, to cut through the Internet clutter.

Today, consumers have widespread access to streaming video services with content choices coming online in ever greater quantities and at vastly improved quality. What is critically lacking is a broad-spectrum understanding of the nature of video quality problems as they occur.  Also, the cost of bandwidth in the age of data caps continues to be an open question. To help navigate through the clutter and help answer critical questions, visit our resource center for useful information.

 

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Applications for On-the-Fly Modification of Encoder Parameters

Posted on by Dror Gill

As video encoding workflows modernize to include content adaptive techniques, the ability to change encoder parameters “on-the-fly” will be required. With the ability to change encoder resolution, bitrate, and other key elements of the encoding profile, video distributors can achieve a significant advantage by creating recipes appropriate to each piece of content.

For VOD or file-based encoding workflows, the advantages of on-the-fly reconfigurability are to enable content specific encoding recipes without resetting the encoder and disrupting the workflow. At the same time, on-the-fly functionality is a necessary feature for supporting real-time encoding on a network with variable capacity.  This way the application can take appropriate steps to react to changing bandwidth, network congestion or other operational requirements.

Vanguard by Beamr V.264 AVC Encoder SDK and V.265 HEVC Encoder SDK have supported on-the-fly modification of the encoder settings for several years. Let’s take a look at a few of the more common applications where having the feature can be helpful.

On-the-fly control of Bitrate

Adjusting bitrate while the encoder is in operation is an obvious application. All Vanguard by Beamr codec SDKs allow for the maximum bitrate to be changed via a simple “C-style” API.  This will enable bitrate adjustments to be made based on the available bandwidth, dynamic channel lineups, or other network conditions.

On-the-fly control of Encoder Speed

Encoder speed control is an especially useful parameter which directly translates into video encoding quality and encoding processing time. Calling this function triggers a different set of encoding algorithms, and internal codec presets. This scenario applies with unicast transmissions where a service may need to adjust the encoder speed for ever-changing network conditions and client device capabilities.

On-the-fly control of Video Resolution

A useful parameter to access on the fly is video resolution. One use case is in telecommunications where the end user may shift his viewing point from a mobile device operating on a slow and congested cellular network, to a broadband WiFi network, or hard wired desktop computer. With control of video resolution, the encoder output can be changed during its operation to accommodate the network speed or to match the display resolution, all without interrupting the video program stream.

On-the-fly control of HEVC SAO and De-blocking Filter

HEVC presents additional opportunities to enhance “on the fly” control of the encoder and the Vanguard by Beamr V.265 encoder leads the market with the capability to turn on or off SAO and De-blocking filters to adjust quality and performance in real-time.

On-the-fly control of HEVC multithreading

V.265 is recognized for having superior multithreading capability.  The V.265 codec SDK provides access to add or remove encoding execution threads dynamically. This is an important feature for environments with a variable number of tasks running concurrently such as encoding functionality that is operating alongside a content adaptive optimization process, or the ABR packaging step.

Beamr’s implementation of on-the-fly controls in our V.264 Codec SDK and V.265 Codec SDK demonstrate the robust design and scalable performance of the Vanguard by Beamr encoder software.

For more information on Vanguard by Beamr Codec SDK’s, please visit the V.264 and V.265 pages.  Or visit http://beamr.com for more on the company and our technology.

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Net Neutrality Means Bye Bye HOV Lanes

Posted on by Dror Gill

What started as a rant from comedian John Oliver calling for support of an open internet, has now developed into a monumental philosophical debate riddled with controversy that is centered upon the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) attempt to reclassify broadband based on its role in modern day life. For the past two decades, the Internet has been unregulated and free, but that’s about to change and with this change, a light is shined on the importance of optimization solutions for bandwidth savings.

What is net neutrality?

In broad terms, net neutrality is the idea or principle of having the Internet equally accessible for all. Advocates proclaim it’s meant to stop internet service providers including mobile wireless services from discriminating against any application or content that is shared over their networks. It is the idea of keeping the internet free of “fast lanes” that give preferential treatment to companies and websites willing to pay more to deliver their content faster. It, therefore, prohibits internet service providers from putting everyone else in “slow lanes” that are said to discriminate against the “smaller” companies that cannot afford to pay a premium.

Broadband is now considered a utility

The decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit maintained the FCC’s view that broadband Internet should be reclassified as a utility, telecommunications service as opposed to information services, giving them more power to enforce stricter rules and regulations in a once free market.  Essentially, this ruling solidifies that the internet has become as important to the American way of life as the telephone and forces providers to adhere to some of the same regulations faced by phone companies.

But what’s the point? In theory, the reclassification will increase competition among service providers, which as we learned in economics class, should cut costs to consumers, and raise the quality of service as well as drive innovation. But opposing forces claim this new open policy will hurt the consumer as prices increase due to lack of incentive for companies to build out and update their networks as needed to meet consumer demand, which is growing exponentially due to video. In fact, Cisco reported that by 2019, video will represent 80% of all global consumer Internet traffic. 

Whatever side you fight for, in the end, what net neutrality comes down to is the commoditization of the internet… bits.  

Bandwidth savings is now a necessity making optimization a requirement

As a service provider, now that you can no longer pay to get your bits (content) delivered faster or more efficiently, this means everyone is on the same playing field.  We are all stuck in the same traffic jam.  Couple this fact with the increasing consumer demands for a reliable and stable experience and in one of the most infamous phrases ever uttered, “Houston we have a problem.”  But the good news is that companies have developed solutions to improve encoding efficiency which can lead to additional bitrate reductions of 20-40% without a perceptible change in viewing quality.

Optimization solutions, like Beamr’s JPEGmini and Beamr Video, have already become well entrenched in the fabric of media workflows, especially video, and are likely to grow even more in their importance over the years to come. Why? Because the name of the game is getting content to your consumer with the best quality and highest user experience possible, and now the only way to do that is to increase file efficiency by optimizing your file sizes to conserve bandwidth so you can cut through the clutter.

For example, with an image intensive website, JPEGmini can cut the file size of your photos by up to 80% without compromising quality, whereby giving your user faster page load times.  Which by the way, Google recently made a change in their ranking algorithms to weight website searches based on page load time and mobile performance.  In short, if your site is slow, you are going to see other sites rank more highly on Google search engine results pages.  For video, Beamr Video is able to reduce H.264 and HEVC bitrates by 20-40% without any compromise in quality, whereby enabling a smoother streaming experience. With the ruling as it stands, only companies that can lower file size and save bandwidth will break through congested networks to deliver content that meets consumer expectations for entertainment anytime, anywhere and on any device.

BONUS: Four secrets to keep in mind when selecting a video bitrate reduction solution

  1. Automation is your friend.  Though an encoder in the hands of a well-trained expert can yield amazingly small files with good quality, for nearly all streaming service providers, automation will be required to deploy a bitrate reduction solution at scale.  And anything less than scale will not have a meaningful impact. For this reason, you should select a product that can give you the ability to automate the analysis and workflow implementation.  
  2. Solutions that work at the frame level will give you the best overall video quality.  Products that analyze video to determine an optimum fixed bitrate cannot provide the level of granularity that you will want to have as methods that perform this analysis at the frame or scene level.  Beamr Video operates the analysis and compression parameter settings on a frame basis and in a closed loop, to ensure that the optimal allocation of bits per frame is achieved.  No other method of optimization can achieve the same level of quality across a disparate video library as Beamr Video.
  3. Leave neural networks to Google, you want a solution that uses a perceptual quality metric to validate video quality.  A sophisticated quality measure that is closely aligned to human vision will deliver a more accurate result across an entire library of content.  Quality measures such as PSNR and SSIM provide inconsistent results and cannot be used with a high degree of accuracy.  These quality measures have some application for classifying content, but they are less useful as a mechanism to drive an encoder to achieve the best quality possible.
  4. Guaranteed quality, is there any other choice?  Sophisticated encoder configurations that use CRF (Constant Rate Factor)  on first look can appear to be viable, however, without a quality verification step that is post-encode the final result will likely contain degradation or other transient quality issues.  If the product or technique that you have selected does not operate in a closed loop or contain some method for verifying quality, the potential to introduce artifacts will be unacceptably high.  

 

For more information or to receive a free trial of Beamr Video, please visit http://beamr.com/product  

 

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Dolby Vision and HEVC, an Introduction

Posted on by Dror Gill

Notice that some material from this post appeared originally in the article, “Integrating HEVC Video Compression with a High Dynamic Range Video Pipeline,” by Raul Diaz, Sam Blinstein, and Sheng Qu, SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal, 125 (1): 14-21, January/February 2016.

You can download the original paper here.

Advances in video capture and display are moving the state of the art beyond higher resolution to include high dynamic range or HDR.  Improvements in video resolution are now informed by advances in the area of color gamut and dynamic range.  New displays shipping today are capable of reproducing a much wider range of colors and brightness levels than can be represented by the video content being produced for streaming, download, digital broadcast, and even Blu-ray.  

By combining technical advances such as higher spatial resolution, larger temporal resolution, and higher dynamic range, distributors looking for differentiated offerings will be able to provide an improved video experience with the existing workflow and technology that is available today.  Content providers are taking notice of technology advances to deliver high-resolution content to viewers, and the newest video compression standard HEVC enables them to compress high-resolution digital video more efficiently for broadcast, mobile and Internet delivery enable exciting experiences such as HDR.

Higher frame rates are now widely supported in modern video compression and delivery standards, yet content producers and distributors largely use workflows and grading protocols that target the dynamic range standards set by technology from the early and mid 20th century. With modern cinema distribution moving to digital, and given the wholesale replacement of cathode ray tube displays by flat panels, the technology is now available to display and deliver a much wider dynamic and color range viewing experience. As a result, an opportunity exists to demonstrate high resolution, high frame rate, and high dynamic range in a single viewing environment.

Is your codec HDR ready?

The question then, is will the codec you are using be able to support HDR?  Native HDR support can be found in HEVC where extensions and new features were added to the standard in July 2014, many of which specifically address high dynamic range. Color profiles previously limited to sample sizes of 8 and 10 bits (named Main and Main10) were expanded. And because chroma subsampling was limited to 4:2:0 this created a significant restriction of chroma relative to luminance by a factor of 4 to 1, but the new HEVC range extensions can now support bit depths of 12, 14, and even 16 bits, along with lower subsampling of chroma to 2:1 (4:2:2) and 1:1 (4:4:4).

SEI messages have also been added to accommodate signal conversions from one color space to another and to facilitate conversions across varying dynamic ranges. With these tools, an end-to-end system for any arbitrary dynamic range and color gamut can be built, and transformations between disparate dynamic range systems implemented.

However, a challenging element is the need to address the widely varying dynamic range of display devices, including legacy systems. Efforts have been underway to develop a solution that can support the future while providing playback compatibility with legacy devices from various organizations and companies, one of which is Dolby Laboratories, who has developed a backwards compatible approach for HDR.

Dolby Vision

One example of this framework is Dolby Vision, the result of nearly a decade of research and development in dynamic range and color gamut scalability. Dolby Vision HDR exists in two flavors: dual layer and single layer.

The original architecture was a dual layer HDR schema, designed as a combination of a base layer containing video data constrained to current specifications, with an optional enhancement layer carrying a supplementary signal along with the Dolby Vision metadata.  This architecture implements a dual layer HDR workflow where the secondary data is an extension of a traditional signal format that provides backwards compatibility with legacy SDR devices (TVs, Set-top-boxes).  But it has a disadvantage of requiring two decoders for the client device to render video.

Single Layer Dolby Vision HDR was introduced later as an alternative to the original approach and to address competitive single layer technologies. It uses the similar metadata as a single layer, but has only one HDR video stream multiplexed with metadata. With this approach, Dolby loses compatibility with legacy devices, but the upside is that it is highly cost-effective for new deployments and operators as some consumer playback devices and TV’s can be upgraded to support single layer Dolby Vision HDR after they were originally sold.

When HDR and wide color gamut is supported on a given device, the two layers are simultaneously decoded and combined using metadata coefficients to present a highly engaging and compelling HDR viewing experience. On legacy equipment, the enhancement layer and metadata are ignored (or not transmitted) and the traditional viewing experience is unaffected. In this way, the dual layer HDR system offers multiple touch-points in the video pipeline to transition without the need for strict synchronization across multiple technologies. In contrast, single Layer HDR requires a hardware and software upgrade to the display device which is not always possible or easily achieved.

As HDR capable reference monitors become more cost effective and available, creative directors will be in a better position to review and master content in the higher range that the video was captured. Such a shift will preserve a much wider range of luminance and color, and invert the mastering stage bottleneck of grading to the lowest common denominator.

Naturally, a dual layer HDR architecture adds a certain complexity to the distribution of video content where both the encoding and decoding stages must handle the secondary layer Dolby requires for HDR. Also, color volume considerations of traditional SDR signals in the new HDR framework requires more than the traditional 8-bit signal.

By using a modular workflow in which augmented encoding and decoding systems can be integrated separately, introducing auxiliary metadata paths to support higher bit-depth requirements of a dual layer HDR system can leverage new video compression standards while simultaneously offering backwards compatibility with legacy equipment and signals.

From experience in production environments, offline encoded 4K HEVC content requires a bitrate between 10 and 15 Mbps to generate quality that is in line with viewer expectations. AVC has multiple inherent limitations relative to HEVC. These limitations make it particularly difficult for AVC to achieve acceptable quality levels at bitrates that can be streamed and delivered effectively to most viewers, particularly at 4K content bitrates.

Dolby Vision adds approximately 20% to 30% additional bitrate load for the higher dynamic range data, making the challenges even more severe for AVC. For 4K content combined with high dynamic range information, the HEVC video compression standard presents the optimum solution to generate acceptable video quality at the bitrates that are needed.

For traditional HD content, AVC video compression has been used successfully for many years for broadcast, the Internet, and mobile video delivery. By using HEVC video compression, this HD content can be compressed at least 30% more efficiently than with AVC video compression.  For high dynamic range HD content encoded with a dual layer HDR system, HEVC video compression can generate a bitrate that is equal to or less than the bitrate needed for a non-HDR HD bitstream encoded using AVC.

Consequently, any video delivery system that can deliver non-HDR HD content today with AVC can also distribute HDR HD content using HEVC video compression without altering the delivery infrastructure.

HEVC offers two primary advantages for HDR content delivery:

  1. An effective and viable method to deliver 4K content,
  2. Bandwidth compatibility with existing video delivery infrastructure to deliver HDR HD content.

If you have more questions about HEVC and encoding for next-generation high dynamic range solutions such as Dolby Vision, email info@beamr.com to learn how Beamr supports some of the largest streaming distributors in the world to deliver high-quality 4K UHD streams with Dolby Vision.

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Using Beamr’s V.265 HEVC Encoder to Generate MPEG-DASH Compliant Streams

Posted on by Dror Gill

Recent developments in video encoding and streaming technology have come together to supply two major tools to optimize the delivery of synchronized video streams across multiple devices.

The first development is the next generation video coding standard HEVC, which offers significant compression efficiency gains over AVC. And the second is MPEG-DASH, which gives key advantages over HLS, in managing adaptive bitrate streaming of synchronized resolutions and profiles across varying network bandwidths. The combination of HEVC and MPEG-DASH supports higher quality video delivery over limited bandwidth networks.

Apple’s HLS ABR standard is in broad use today, but MPEG-DASH is not that new having been standardized before HEVC, and being applied in the distribution of AVC (H.264) content. MPEG-DASH is codec and media format agnostic, and the magic of MPEG-DASH is that it splits content into a collection of file segments, each containing a short section of the content. The MPEG-DASH standard defines guidelines for implementing interoperable adaptive streaming services, and it describes specific media formats for use with the ISO Base Media File Format (e.g., MP4) or MPEG-2 Transport Stream containers, making the integration of HEVC into an MPEG-DASH workflow possible within existing standards.

MPEG-DASH targets OTT delivery and CDNs but is also finding a home in broadcast and MSO/MVPD environments as a replacement for MPEG-2 TS-based workflows. Through the exhaustive descriptions available in the MPD, MPEG-DASH clients can determine which media segments best fit their user’s preferences, device capability, and network conditions, guaranteeing a high-quality viewing experience and support for next-generation video services.

Early in the development of HEVC, Beamr realized the need for true adaptive bitrate (ABR) Multistreaming support in HEVC as a tool for content preparation for multistreaming services. In Version 3.0 of our HEVC encoder SDK, V.265, we introduced several API extensions supporting multistream encoding. This architecture allows for the encoding of a single master source video into multiple, GOP-aligned streams of various resolutions and bitrates with a single encoder instance. Moreover, newly exposed encoder input settings allow for the specification of individual settings and flags for each of the streams.

Supporting multiple streams of varying resolutions, bitrates, and settings from a single source in a single encoder instance, which guarantees GOP alignment and offers computational savings across shared processes, is critical for reliable ABR encoding/transcoding performance. Beamr’s V.265 encoding SDK offers service providers the opportunity to combine the advancements of HEVC coding with the versatility of MPEG-DASH.

This functionality offers two significant advantages for developing a multistreaming workflow. First, the architecture guarantees that the multiple streams generated by the encoder are 100% GOP-aligned, an essential requirement for any multistreaming workflow. Second, it simplifies the encoding process to a single input source and encoder instance, reducing command-and-control and resource management.

Despite the performance savings available from multistreaming as a result of the shared computing resources that can be leveraged, our implementation yields optimally synchronized streams that are nearly impossible to generate with separate encoders. Beamr’s Multistreaming capability positions V.265 as highly unique, a contributing factor to why V.265 is in use by leading OTT service providers who use our solution as the basis for encoding their 4k HDR and 1080p ABR profiles.

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How HDR, Network Function Virtualization, and IP Video are Shaping Cable

Posted on by Dror Gill

Beamr just returned from the Internet & Television Expo, or INTX, previously known as the Cable Show, where we identified three technology trends that are advancing rapidly and for some, are even here now. They are HDR, Network Function Virtualization, and IP Video.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) is probably the most exciting innovation in display technology in recent years.

There is a raging debate about resolution, “are more pixels really better?” But there is no debating the visual impact of HDR. Which is why it’s great to see TVs in the market that can display HDR reaching lower and lower price points, with better and better performance. However being able to display HDR is not enough. Without content there is no impact.

For this reason, Comcast EVP and CTO Tony Werner’s announcement at INTX that on July 4th, Comcast will be shipping their Xi5 STB to meet NBC Universal’s schedule of transmitting select Olympic events in HDR, is a huge deal. Though there will be limited broadcast content available in HDR, once Comcast has a sufficiently high number of HDR set top boxes in the field, and as consumers buy more HDR enabled TVs, the HDR bit will flip from zero to one and we’ll wonder how we ever watched TV without it.

Virtualization is coming and already here for some cable companies.

Though on the surface NFV (Network Function Virtualization) may be thought of as nothing more than the cable industry moving their data centers to the cloud, it’s actually much more than that. NFV offers an alternative to design, deploy and manage networking services by allowing network functions to run in software rather than traditional, “purpose-built” hardware appliances. In turn, this helps alleviate the limitations of designing networks using these “fixed” hardware appliances, giving network architects a lot more flexibility.

There are two places in the network where the efficiencies of virtualization can be leveraged, Access and Video. By digitizing access, the Virtual CCAP removes the physical CCAP and CMTS completely, allowing the control plane of the DOCSIS to be virtualized. Distributing PHY and the MAC is a critical step, but separating their functions is ground zero for virtualization.

Access virtualization is exciting, but what’s of great interest to those involved in video is virtualizing the video workflow from ingest to play out. This includes the encoding, transcoding, ad insertion, and packaging steps and is mainly tailored for IP video, though one cable operator took this approach to the legacy QAM delivery by leveraging converged services for IP and QAM. In doing this, the operator is able to simplify their video ingest workflow.

By utilizing a virtualized approach, operators are able to build more agile and flexible video workflows using “best of bread” components. Meaning they can hand pick the best transcoder, packager, etc. from separate vendors if needed. It also allows operators to select the best codec and video optimizer solutions, processes that are considered to be the most crucial parts of the video ingestion workflow, as the biggest IP (intellectual property) is within the video processing, not packaging, DRM etc. With content adaptive encoding and optimization solutions being introduced in the last few years, if an operator has a virtualized video workflow, they can be free to add innovations as they are introduced to the market. Gone are the days where service providers are forced to buy an entire solution from one vendor using proprietary customized hardware.

Having the IT industry (CPU, networking, storage) make tremendous progress in running video processing, packagers, streamer as software-only solutions on standard COTS hardware, this virtualization concept helps vendors focus on their core expertise, whether it is video processing, workflow, streamer, ad etc.

Virtualization can lower TCO, but it can also introduce operational and management challenges. Today service providers buy “N” transcoders, “N” streamers etc. to accommodate peak usage requirements. With virtualization the main advantage is to share hardware, so that overall less hardware is needed, which can lower TCO as file based transcoders could be run during off peak times (middle of the night) while more streamers are needed during peak times to accommodate a higher volume of unicast stream sessions (concurrency). This will require new methods of pay per usage, as well as sophisticated management and workflow solutions to initiate and kill instances when demand is high or when it drops.

For this reason we are seeing some vendors align with this strategy. Imagine Communications is entering the market with solutions for providing workflow management tools that are agnostic to the video processing blocks. Meanwhile, Cisco and Ericsson provide open workflows capable of interoperating with their transcoders, packagers, etc. while being open to third party integration. This opens the door for vendors like Beamr to provide video processing applications for encoding and perceptual quality optimization.

It is an IP Video world and that is a good thing.

Once the network is virtual, it flattens the distribution architecture so no longer does an operator need to maintain separate topologies for service delivery to the home, outside the home, fixed wire, wireless, etc. The old days of having RF, on net, and off net (OTT) systems, are quickly moving behind us.

IP video is the enabler that frees up new distribution and business models, but most importantly meets the expectation of end-users to access their content anywhere, on any device and at anytime. Of course there is that little thing called content licensing that can hold back the promise of anytime, anywhere, anyplace, especially for sports – but in time, as content owners adapt to the reality that by opening up availability they will spur not hamper consumption, it may not be long before the user is able to enjoy entertainment content on the terms they are willing to pay for.

Could we be entering the golden age of cable? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. One thing is certain. Vendors should ask themselves whether they are able to be the best in every critical path of the workflow. Because what is obvious, is that service providers will be deciding for them, as there is no solution from a single vendor that can be best of breed in todays modern network and video architectures. Vendors who adapt to changes in the market, due to virtualization, will be the leaders of the future.

At Beamr we have a 60 person engineering team focused solely on the video processing block of the virtualized network, specifically HEVC and H.264 encoding and content adaptive optimization solutions. Our team comes into the office every day with the single objective of pushing the boundary for delivering the highest quality video at the lowest bitrates possible. The innovations we are developing translate to improved customer experience and video quality whether that is 4k HDR with Dolby Vision, or reliable 1080p on a tablet.

IP Video is here, and in tandem with virtualized networks and the transition of video from QAM to the DOCSIS network, we are reaching a technology inflection point that is enabling better quality video than previous technological generations were able to deliver. We think it’s an exciting time to be in cable!

Uncategorized

Stop Paying Data Overages and Get Content on Your Terms

Posted on by Dror Gill

The digital landscape is changing as content everywhere becomes the new norm. One of the biggest factors driving this change is the explosion of mobile video consumption. With video no longer the domain of large-screen TVs, viewers today want to watch content anywhere, anytime and on every device. Computers, tablets, and smartphones are becoming the device of choice for an increasing number of viewer’s, after all, it’s pretty neat to watch your favorite movie, TV show, or sports team wherever you are, even if that’s outside your home. But consumers expecting to have this content everywhere are quickly seeing the side effects … in their wallets.

Data is expensive

According to a survey by Cowen & Co., nearly one in five cell phone customers reported paying overages during the past six months, and the cause is users streaming bandwidth intensive video and music. To put this into perspective, typically when watching movies or TV shows on Netflix the average session will consume about 1GB of data per hour for each stream of standard definition video, and up to 3GB per hour for each stream of HD video. Couple this with the typical mobile carrier overage fee of $10 to $15 per 1GB, and you can see why this is an ultra wet blanket for a growing number of users. It is also common for consumers to be on a shared planned, which as you can imagine, brings even more headaches. Personally, I can’t count the number of times I’ve gone over my data plan streaming Netflix, music and YouTube videos … until now.  

Netflix to the rescue

It seems the largest streaming service in the world (Netflix), always eager to please its users, is ready to help us out so they can consume more content without incurring the added cost.  Last week Netflix announced the introduction of new cellular data controls globally.

These settings were created to offer consumers a better way to control their data consumption and give them a new level of flexibility, while streaming over cellular networks. Using the default setting, consumers will be able to stream about 3 hours of TV shows and movies per 1GB, which is a significant upgrade to the 1GB per hour statistic mentioned above.

What about quality?

Netflix assures its subscribers that this default setting finds the optimal balance between good video quality and lower data usage, offering users who are concerned about bandwidth caps and overcharges peace of mind while streaming. Netflix also introduced other options for managing data consumption for those who are more concerned with quality and less with data consumption, catering to even those with unlimited data plans, or perhaps unlimited budgets. 

In the end, Netflix is responding to market requirements, shaped by the explosion of mobile video consumption. By creating data-saving controls to address the issue of bandwidth caps and data overages it reinforces the need by the industry to reduce bitrates across the board.  Yet how to do this without degrading the quality of video, is the question, and one we have discussed before and will cover in greater detail over the next few months.

Addressing this challenge was exactly the subject of a Streaming Media conference panel that Beamr’s Vice President of Marketing Mark Donnigan led on May 10, 2016. To provide the industry with a good perspective on how to move beyond fixed bitrates to content adaptive (aware) strategies, Mark spoke with Yahoo!, Brightcove, Verizon Digital Media Services and Jan Ozer. 

Watch the video with Mark Donnigan interviewing Yahoo!, Brightcove, VDMS and Jan Ozer.

If you like the content we are putting out, be sure to subscribe to our list so that you can be among the first to read our blog and get product updates and news.

HDRHEVCUncategorized

HDR adds ‘kapow’ to 4k

Posted on by Dror Gill

High Dynamic Range (HDR) improves video quality by going beyond more pixels to increase the amount of data delivered by each pixel. As a result, HDR video is capable of capturing a larger range of brightness and luminosity to produce an image closer to what can be seen in real life. Show anyone HDR content encoded in 4K resolution, and it’s no surprise that content providers and TV manufacturers are quickly jumping on board to deliver content with HDR. HDR definitely provides the “wow” factor that the market is looking for. But what’s even more promising is the industry’s overwhelmingly positive reaction to it.

Chicken and egg dilemma will be solved

TV giants Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, and LG have all launched HDR-capable 4K TVs  in the premium price range. However, Vizio get the credit for being the first to break through with low cost UHD HDR TV’s with their P-Series. Available now and starting at just $999, this removes the price objection for all but the most budget conscious consumers. Check out the price chart below referenced in a recent CNET article.

VIZIO P SERIES 2016 TVS

Model Size Price Dimming zones Refresh rate Panel type
P50-C1 50 inches $999 126 60Hz VA
P55-C1 55 inches $1,299 126 120Hz IPS
P65-C1 65 inches $1,999 128 120Hz VA
P75-C1 75 inches $3,799 128 120Hz VA

The availability of affordable TV’s is an extremely promising factor that is pushing the market to believe that HDR is here to stay. The fact that HDR sets are starting at such a low price this early in the market development of the technology is a good indicator that the category is going to grow quickly, allowing consumers to experience the enhancement of high dynamic range sooner than is normally possible when new advanced technologies are first introduced. In fact, some are predicting that these prices will fall to “as little as $600 to $700” for a 50-55inch UHD TV with HDR capability, which if true, brings HDR and UHD even closer to the price of current 1080p models.

Now all we need is content  

In January 2016, Netflix announced the availability of streaming of Marco Polo series in Dolby Vision and HDR10. At CES 2016, Netflix also showed clips from the Daredevil series in Dolby Vision. Far from being demos only, Daredevil season 2 was released on March 18th and Marco Polo season 2 will be released on July 1st.  Thus, it’s safe to say that Netflix sees HDR as “the next generation of TV”.

HDR standards are emerging

Publishing guidelines to ensure compatibility and consistent user experience across the device ecosystem for HDR content and displays, is the next natural and significant step to insure industry adoption of HDR, and on April 18th the UHD Forum announced the, UHD Forum Guidelines. The ITU-R Study Group 6 works on recommendations for HDR and the publication is expected in July 2016.

Surveying the current market, there are several HDR technologies that exist and cover the spectrum of both dual and single layer HDR, with the main ones being Dolby Vision dual and single layer, and a Technicolor-Philips single layer solution, known as HDR10.

What is the difference between dual and single layer HDR workflows? The dual layer approach provides backward compatibility with legacy SDR systems (set-top-boxes, TVs), but requires two decoders for endpoint devices. Single layer is not backwards compatible with SDR systems, but it makes TV sets and set-top-boxes more economical and less complex.

Since there are multiple standards, it presents certain challenges for an industry-wide rollout. Dolby Vision is getting a lot of attention due to its well-recognized name and the Vizio and LG endorsement. At the same time Ultra HD Premium (HDR10) is required by Blu-ray Disc Association. All these competing standards make choosing the appropriate one more challenging. But never fear, there is an encoder in the market today, which is capable of generating Dolby Vision single and dual layer streams, and HDR10 compatible streams or files.

Meet V.265 Beamr’s HDR-optimized encoder

Beamr has been working with Dolby to enable Dolby Vision HDR support for several years now, even jointly presenting a white paper at SMPTE. The V.265 codec is optimized for Dolby Vision and HDR10 and takes into account all requirements for both standards including full support for VUI signaling, SEI messaging, SMPTE ST 2084:2014 and ITU-R BT.2020.  

Pesky stuff the industry is addressing

There are many commonalities between HDR technologies, but there are common challenges too. For example SDR to HDR conversion, and conversion between HDR formats can happen in various parts of the distribution chain, causing headaches on the metadata management side. Additionally, peak brightness management across the production chain, and metadata propagation are known challenges too. Metadata propagation from content mastering to distribution is one more area that requires standardization. SMPTE will have a role in solving these and the new IMF format may be a good candidate. Beamr welcomes all these challenges and recognizes that HDR is here to stay. Our engineering teams are well equipped to address them.

If you crave a deeper understanding of HDR I encourage you to read our white paper titled, “An Introduction to High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Its Support within the H.265/HEVC Standard Extensions.” It not only gives a great introduction to HDR, but also explains how the set of extensions approved by MPEG and VCEG in July 2014 provides the tools to support HDR functionality within the HEVC standard.

Content-AdaptiveUncategorized

Content-Adaptive Optimization is Bringing Next Level Performance to OTT and Broadcast Encoding Workflows

Posted on by Dror Gill

As the digital landscape continues to grow, it’s no surprise that the demand for a high-quality and reliable streaming video experience on mobile devices is increasing. In fact, Cisco reported that by 2019, video will represent 80% of all global consumer Internet traffic. This means, once every second, nearly 1 million minutes of video content will cross the network. And more than 50% of this video traffic will traverse content delivery networks (CDNs).

Given these trends, it’s more important than ever for video content distributors to pursue more efficient methods of encoding their video so they can adapt to the rapidly changing market, and this is where content-adaptive optimization can provide a huge benefit.

Recently popularized by Netflix and Google, content-adaptive encoding is the idea that not all videos are created equal in terms of their encoding requirements. I recently wrote a blog post on the subject, you can read it here:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/its-time-move-beyond-apple-tn2224-mark-donnigan

The concept is easy to explain but difficult to execute.   

Not every scene is created equal

Content-adaptive media optimization complements the encoding process by driving the encoder to the lowest bitrate possible based on the needs of the content, and not a fixed, target bitrate (as seen in a traditional encoding process).

This means that a content-adaptive solution is able to optimize more efficiently by analyzing already-encoded video on a frame-by-frame and scene-by-scene level, detecting areas of the video that can be further compressed without losing perceptual quality (i.e. slow motion scenes, smooth surfaces).

Provided these calculations are performed at the frame level with an optimizer that contains a closed loop perceptual quality measure, the output can be guaranteed to be the highest quality at the lowest bitrate possible.  

Content-adaptive secret sauce

Reducing bitrate while maintaining perceptual quality may sound simple. Truth is, it takes years of intensive research that extends from the innermost workings of encoding science all the way to the study of block based encoding artifacts. This is work that Beamr has undertook since 2009 and it is the reason why our method of reducing bitrate has been recognized by the industry as the highest quality and safest. The Beamr perceptual quality measure is so highly correlated to human vision that viewers cannot tell the difference between a source video file and an optimized one, provided Beamr Video was used in the process. Video samples can be seen on our homepage.

The magic of Beamr Video is that we apply the optimization process in a closed loop, making it possible to determine the subjective quality level of both input and output video streams. And as a result the video encoding process is controlled by setting the compression parameters per video frame. This method guarantees the optimal bitrate for any type of content. For example, high motion content and highly detailed textures will receive more bits, whereas low motion content with smoother textures receive less bits.

Flexibility is key to the content-adaptive media optimization technology, and this is what enables finding the best bitrate-quality balance. From a business perspective, the result is smaller files with the same (or better) quality, requiring less storage and enhancing delivery of high quality video over congested networks.

How encoding and optimization work together

Since the content-adaptive optimization process is applied to files that have already been encoded, by combining the industry leading H.264 and HEVC encoder with the best optimization solution (Beamr Video), the market will benefit by receiving the highest quality video at the lowest possible bitrate. Which as a result, will allow content providers to improve the end-user experience with high quality video, while meeting the growing network constraints due to increased mobile consumption and general Internet congestion.

To dive deeper into the subject, we invite you to download The Case for Content-Adaptive Optimization whitepaper.