Video Breakthroughs

The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and the Video Services Forum (VSF) on Dec. 10 announced the latest two standards in a series that creates a standardized framework for the transport of video-over-Internet-Protocol (IP) networks. 

The documents, including the latest additions known officially as SMPTE ST 2022-5:2012 “Forward Error Correction for High Bit Rate Media Transport Over IP Networks” and SMPTE ST 2022-6:2012 “Transport of High Bit Rate Media Signals over IP Networks (HBRMT),” are now available via the SMPTE digital library.

SMPTE ST 2022-5:2012 defines a methodology that can be used to provide forward error correction for the recovery from network transmission errors. SMPTE ST 2022-6:2012 defines a uniform data mapping format that supports a wide variety of HD-SDI and 3G-SDI video signal formats.

When it comes to video, more data translates to better quality. However, the large size of a typical video file in today's HD world also translates into transcode and transfer bottlenecks for broadcasters and production houses. It often becomes a trade-off between preserving quality and resolution versus limiting file sizes or bit rates to meet workflow deadlines.

For example, a master file for just one and a half hours of 1080p video could be as large as 540GB. This large file would require many hours to transcode into various formats for editing, broadcasting and archiving purposes. And at 540GB, this digital file would take longer to transfer from one facility to another over the Internet than it would take to ship a physical hard drive across the country overnight. With every project, the workflow comes to a halt as the team waits for files to be transcoded into different formats and then transferred between systems.

Brevity, a start-up based in New York City with offices in Los Angeles and Vancouver, WA, is taking a new approach to video transport and transcoding that streamlines the workflow and eliminates the bottlenecks, yet preserves or even improves on quality by avoiding cumulative loss in production and distribution workflows. The Brevity system relies on a combination of licensed software per location and Brevity or third-party certified hardware that has the necessary teraflops of graphical processing power.

The service relies on unique algorithms that model and compress information, breaking down a video file into a much smaller “blueprint,” or set of instructions, for rebuilding the file into any format. This computationally intensive GPU-based approach is integrated into Brevity's enterprise video management tool, V3, which provides automated workflows with simultaneous transcode and transfer over a network.

Brevity announced at the NAB convention today V3, a technology that delivers simultaneous transcoding and accelerated transport of high-resolution video as an integrated process on any network.

V3 delivers its transport capabilities 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. The technology moves securely encrypted files over Internet, fiber, or data satellite up to 30 times 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 camera formats, and others. Brevity says that V3 has been tested successfully on uncompressed, high bit rate video, 2k and 4k DPX files, as well as on compressed HD and SD files.