Snell outlines new On Demand platform

Snell On Demand is a new media processing framework designed to provide on-demand access to Snell’s image-processing algorithms in file, virtualised broadcast and digital media environments.

By taking advantage of advances in cloud computing and virtual machine technologies, the Snell On Demand framework enables highly scalable solutions, from a single computing instance to a cloud-computing environment delivering a service over a network. Snell On Demand allows users to deploy processing solutions on reliable, cost-effective commodity IT infrastructure rather than employ dedicated hardware for discrete processing operations.

“Snell On Demand offers the broadcast and media industry the opportunity to take a major step forward in service innovation and workflow efficiency,” says Simon Derry, CEO at Snell. “With Snell On Demand, Snell is putting the cost/benefit equation fairly and squarely into the hands of the customer. It’s very simple — customers can choose to buy as much or as little processing resource as fits their business model secure in the knowledge that Snell products derived from the Snell On Demand framework will give them the best possible quality results from world-leading media processing tools.”

The first Snell On Demand product, which was demonstrated at the 2013 NAB Show, is Alchemist OD, a software-based frame-rate converter that offers rapid conversion of media files. The initial product implementation will support broadcast standards from SD to 3G 1080p, with frame-rate and format conversion between common broadcast file formats.

Snell On Demand standards conversion software can be deployed on a single server node, with optional GPUs. To further improve efficiency, the user may run parallel conversion jobs on a server farm. Because Snell offers OpenStack compatibility, the software may be implemented in either a public or private cloud.