Elemental looks to solve next-generation TV delivery challenges

Elemental Technologies plans to showcase video processing and delivery at IBC 2015 that enables pay TV providers, content programmers, broadcasters and enterprise customers to address next-generation video complexity while producing vibrant and immersive viewing experiences for consumers.

Elemental will feature its flexible and scalable video solutions in turnkey, virtualised and cloud-based deployments at the RAI in Amsterdam September 11 – 15. The company will also demonstrate integration with numerous industry partners on the show floor, including Akamai, Amazon Web Services, Google Widevine, GPAC, Intel, IRT, Nokia, Ooyala, Philips, Red Bull Media House, Samsung, Sony, Spideo, Technicolor and VideoStitch.

Demonstration highlights include technologies essential for next-generation television experiences and unified video infrastructure to support traditional broadcast and multiscreen content delivery in a common architecture.

Next-Generation Content Delivery to Improve Video Experiences:

• High Dynamic Range– HDR content processing offers improved color space, deeper luminance and increased bit depth for enhanced picture quality. Side-by-side HDR and SDR, along with HDR10 and backwards compatible HDR implementations, will be featured.
• High Frame Rate Encoding– Real-time 120 fps HEVC encoding provides a superior viewing experience with reduced blur for high motion video such as sports content.
• Real-time and Virtual 4K– Powerful encoding allows for simultaneous creation of 4K broadcast and multiscreen outputs, delivery of full frame rate Ultra HD HEVC in real-time, and 4K virtual reality. Elemental parallel processing is ideally suited to the computationally intense requirements of real-time 4K delivery and immersive VR environments.
• HEVC and MPEG-DASH – HEVC and MPEG-DASH enabled workflows will be shown, including DASH common encryption (CENC) to support various digital rights management (DRM) systems, HbbTV and end-to-end HEVC contribution into the cloud.
• Multiscreen Monetization– Server-side ad replacement, removal or insertion, just-in-time packaging, just-in-time DRM, live-to-VOD and other time-shifted TV services allow video distributors to circumvent ad blocking and realize new revenue opportunities.
• Reduced Footprint– Elemental and Intel combine software-defined video processing with next-generation processors to deliver unprecedented density, performance and power efficiency in a small form factor.

Unified Video Infrastructure to Maximize Return on Investment:

• Linear Video Delivery– Integrated video encoding, multi-codec, multi-resolution statistical multiplexing (including 4K and interlaced HEVC) with advanced system management capabilities allow operators to extract maximum bandwidth from their networks, ensure end-to-end redundancy and reduce total cost of ownership for linear video workflows.
• High Availability– Redundancy for individual encoding, statmux, origin and management nodes, as well as redundancy for content inputs and outputs, will be shown in appliance, virtualized and cloud-based scenarios with seamless failover across all functions.
• Cloud-based Services– Automatic provisioning in the cloud helps operators rapidly deploy new video services with infrastructure that dynamically scales up with demand.
• Dynamic Content Control– Real-time source switching between live SDI or IP encoder inputs to filed-based inputs, regardless of resolution or frame rate, eases the path to linear 24/7 UHD channel creation.

“Software-defined video is the disruptive technology moving media delivery to future-facing applications that leverage HEVC, 4K and cloud-based architectures,” says Keith Wymbs, CMO at Elemental. “At the same time, our flexible software solutions are rapidly enabling added value and enriched experiences with high frame rate, high dynamic range and virtual reality video.”