Brightcove accelerates encoding for live, on-demand video
Brightcove, a global provider of cloud content services, announced major new product offerings that accelerate and streamline the encoding workflow for on-demand and live video content. Zencoder Instant Play (TM) is a new capability that enables on-demand video playback to start just seconds after the file upload process begins, accelerating the video publishing process. Zencoder Live Cloud Transcoding provides an alternative to costly on-location live encoding hardware and dedicated uplink bandwidth.
“Video professionals have been conditioned to accept transcoding delays for on-demand content publishing and costly on-premise infrastructure investments for high quality live streaming,” said Jon Dahl, vice president of encoding services at Brightcove. “We are shattering the status quo with these new capabilities by using the cloud to nearly eliminate the transcoding-to-playback delay and make it possible to cost-effectively deliver high quality multi-screen live streaming.”
Instant Play applies live streaming methodology to file-based transcoding and takes advantage of parallel processing in the cloud to enable playback of media within seconds of commencing transcoding. With Instant Play, files are transcoded while the file is being uploaded, and most importantly, content is streamed for playback before the entire file is transcoded. Publishers of breaking news content, sports highlights, political commentary, and other types of time-sensitive content can capitalize on breaking stories and capture viewer interest. And, with a cloud-based solution, organizations can achieve instant scale and operational efficiencies previously beyond their reach with existing hardware and software encoding solutions.
The Live Cloud Transcoding service alleviates the complexity and cost associated with encoding and streaming live events to multiple screens. Currently, streaming live events to multiple devices necessitates costly hardware or software encoders and significant operational expertise. The complexity and number of encoders needed are multiplied when adaptive bitrate technologies, such as HLS, are used to provide the best user experience. Moreover, when publishing multiple encoded streams, as with adaptive bitrate streams, uplink bandwidth becomes a bottleneck, driving up the cost of on-location Internet connectivity.
With Live Cloud Transcoding, content providers encode a single live stream from an event and publish the stream to the Zencoder cloud transcoding service, where the stream is transcoded and packaged for adaptive bitrate HLS and/or multiple RTMP streams. This results in reduced operational complexity, eliminated bandwidth bottlenecks, and provides viewers with a high quality user experience on their device of choice.
Video encoding is an essential element in many online video content delivery strategies and is key to enabling customers to reach audiences on any device or platform with a high quality viewing experience. With the continued growth in consumption of video and the expanding number of devices on which video can be consumed, encoding has become even more critical to video publishers. In fact, according to Frost & Sullivan, the market for video transcoding will grow to $630 million by 2017, up from $264 million in fiscal year 2012.
Availability and Pricing
Instant Play is now available in public beta, enabling anyone with a Zencoder account to take advantage of this new approach to content publishing. Content providers can sign up for a free Zencoder account at http://zencoder.com/pricing/.
Live Cloud Transcoding is also available in limited beta. Content providers interested in gaining early access to this technology may apply to the limited beta program at http://www.zencoder.com/livebe
Following the limited beta, Instant Play and Live Cloud Transcoding will be available as standalone API services at the Zencoder website at http://zencoder.com. Brightcove also currently plans to offer Instant Play and Live Cloud Transcoding integration for the Brightcove Video Cloud online video platform.