NAB 2012: Brevity disengages stealth mode

Brevity, a venture-backed NYC start-up that seems to have been making some big waves in the run up to NAB, has announced V3, its breakthrough technology that for the first time delivers simultaneous transcoding and highly accelerated transport of high-resolution video as an integrated process on any network.

V3 delivers this capability through a Web-based enterprise video management solution that utilizes automated project-driven workflows, advanced algorithms, virtual storage, Web-based interfaces, and teraflops of computing power.

Tested in stealth mode by what’s been billed as ‘a veritable who’s who of North American broadcasters’, Brevity V3 moves securely encrypted files over Internet, fiber, or data satellite up to 30X faster than otherwise possible while maintaining high quality resolution and support for leading industry codecs and formats such as Avid DNxHD, EVS MXF, Final Cut Pro, Sony Cameras and others. Brevity has been tested successfully on uncompressed, high bit rate video, 2k and 4k DPX files, as well as compressed HD and SD files.

“Our goal has been to enable anyone who works with large volumes of media to work smarter, faster and more intuitively than ever before,” said Jake Bronstein, Co-Founder and CEO, Brevity. “Our clients have achieved massive acceleration in transfer speeds with no compromise to image quality and they’ve also eliminated hours of additional time that would’ve been spent transcoding files. We are transforming file-based workflows and opening up new opportunities for the entire industry.”

“Before Brevity, the tasks of transcoding, frame rate conversion, standards conversion, and transport required a range of separate tools and point solutions- each demanding manual operation, automated management or a combination of both to serve the linear workflow,” said Tim O’Brien, COO, Brevity. “As a result, the M&E industry has endured with hardened workarounds that have been budgeted as a cost of doing business. Even with digital tools there are analog workflows, and overnight delivery of hard drives has become the unfortunate industry norm – Brevity is positively disrupting all of this.”

The Brevity Solution is currently deployed in production or testing at three post-production facilities, one major sports team, two studios and six major networks. The new release, V3, is based on over six months of testing with leading M&E customers.

Within V3 there are two core algorithms, Data Warp, which is bit for bit lossless, and Image Warp, a customized algorithm for video that is visually lossless. Image Warp has been tested successfully against ProRes 4444 and Avid DNxHD 220 in a recent Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) test, scoring at over 60 decibels, which is an objective industry measure of quality. Both Data Warp and Image Warp create “transport” mezzanine files that reduce storage requirements while supporting industry standard camera or editing formats at ingest and at output- a range of standard play out and proxy formats. The Brevity solution also includes Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) based video routers to provide teraflops of computing power to handle the compute intensive algorithms.

V3 is based on a powerful project paradigm that allows for approved users from one or more organizations to access project files virtualized across storage arrays, private clouds, or public clouds like Amazon. If a file is ingested, there can be a set of rules associated with the video that sends it to users automatically via accelerated transport and simultaneous transcode. The video moves with speed to all locations, arriving at the destination already in one or more requested formats based on pre-set profiles. V3 also has open web-services interfaces that enable integration and connections with a wide range of existing applications and tools.

Brevity’s main security measures consist of live handshaking shared key credentials and 4096-bit encryption during transit and storage. Brevity sends a transport file, not a playable video, over the network and each file requires the Brevity algorithm and data format to open properly. If intercepted, the file would be unusable without the specific source code.

 

Brevity’s industry partners include Avid, with support for all Avid DNxHD formats and EVS, with support for the proprietary legacy EVS MXF format as well as the EVS OpenCube suite that wraps files in OP1a or QuickTime formats. Brevity also offers complete support for ProRes including the much in demand ProRes-DNxHD conversions.

Brevity is also announcing a strategic partnership with TRANZXL, a bi-coastal company that is launching the first Brevity-based service bureaus and on-location rentals to accommodate the growing need for time and cost savings associated with HD media for the TV, film and commercial production industries. A Brevity demo will be available at the TRANZXL booth located in the Lower South Hall, SL12807. The Brevity solution is also being demonstrated at the NEP production truck, located in the outdoor/mobile media area between the North and South Hall, booth OE2319.

 

Brevity V3 is available in Q2 2012. Pricing is based on a SaaS enhanced model that includes a web based enterprise software platform and GPU-based video routers. Brevity is based in New York City and has a sales office in Los Angeles and a development office in the Portland, Oregon area.

 

 

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