isovideo prepares to launch Viarte standards conversion/transcoding server
isovideo has announced the launch of its Viarte standards conversion/transcoding server for the film, TV broadcast, sports networks and online media production/distribution industries. Viarte was one of five winners of prestigious Game-Changer Awards by the IABM/NAB 2013, and was recognised as having the greatest potential to revolutionise the industry by a panel of impartial experts.
The Viarte server was used for footage conversion (59.94i to 23.976p) in two-time Academy-Award winning director Ron Howard’s Made in America, impressing the producers and editors. isovideo will be showcasing Viarte at the upcoming 2013 SMPTE Tech Conf & Expo, October 22-24, at Loews Hollywood Hotel, Hollywood, CA.
Viarte delivers several key breakthroughs in file-based standards conversion/transcoding technologies that offer significant advancements in video conversion quality, compression efficiency, and server architecture. These breakthrough technologies include the highest quality GPU accelerated, motion-compensated deinterlacing and framerate conversion, with accurate simulated motion blur; and a versatile server that supports highly efficient execution, extremely flexible configuration, easy integration, and efficient scalability.
Viarte’s deinterlacer passes through original fields unchanged, retaining 100% full vertical resolution, yet it produces imperceptibly low flicker. In addition, Viarte deinterlacing reduces H.264/HEVC compressed sizes by an average 17% vs compressed interlaced. Viarte automation and deinterlacing quality enables content owners to quickly and completely replace their interlaced archives with Viarte deinterlaced versions. They can then appreciate ongoing savings on LAN bandwidth and NAS servers. Furthermore, Viarte-generated progressive archives avoid the need for repeated archive deinterlacing, and are compression-friendly for streaming applications.
Viarte’s GPU accelerated MC framerate conversion offers smooth and clean video for any framerate. Its adjustable, accurately simulated motion-blur reduces playback motion-judder. This allows film photographers the freedom to capture at higher frame rates and/or with faster exposures, knowing they can be down-converted with highest quality to their target frame-rate(s), and motion-blurred to their taste. When converting to a lower frame rate, added motion blur has the further benefit of (5%-60%) savings in compressed bandwidth.
Viarte moves standards conversion/transcoding workflow advancements beyond its core deinterlacing and frame-rate conversion technology. Its server architecture offers highly automated, streamlined execution 24/7, from multi-file drag-and-drop inputs, via optimised pipeline processing, to various multi-files/destination delivery options, including fast FTP file push. Viarte processing supports concurrent up/down/cross conversions between interlaced or progressive video/film, with any combinations of frame-rates and resolutions (from QSIF to 8k). Multiple codecs and container types are supported.
isovideo claims that Viarte supports easy workflow integration via SMB or NFS mounts, as well as highly flexible conversion configuration to handle mixed cadences, erroneous metadata, and suitable third-party tools. Efficient scalability up to Class-C capacity supports automatic and redundant server discovery, and synchronous individual server maintenance shut-down.
Keith Slavin, CTO of isovideo, comments: “Viarte enables TV broadcasters, sports networks, film/OTT professionals, CDN operators, etc, to create the highest quality image transformations, to further automate and streamline workflows, and to immediately save on significant H264/HEVC compressed network bandwidths. Viarte’s architecture can readily support expansion to accommodate higher frame rates, 4k, and beyond.”