As video encoding moves to software operating on virtualized architectures across varying computing infrastructures, the complexities of evaluating a video encoder have never been greater. Attendees hear from service providers, encoding solution vendors, and the creator of the industry’s best-known quality measures, all discussing how video encoding engineers can ensure a successful evaluation, from video quality assessment to performance, content selection, and operational considerations.

Many content distributors and aggregators still use H.264 as their primary, if not exclusive, codec, but the bandwidth savings promised by newer, more powerful codecs are alluring. Those considering a switch must evaluate at least three options: HEVC, VP9, and AV1, which is being released in early 2018. In this session, codec specialist Jan Ozer evaluates the quality of these codecs and compares them to H.264. Learn how much bandwidth you can save with each, and how the newer codecs compare from quality and implementation perspectives.

4K has gotten most of the headlines, but there are other ways to improve the quality of your streaming video that have even more visual impact. This talk explores video colorimetry, ranging from video quality concepts to the latest trends in the industry: High Dynamic Range (HDR), Wide Color Gamut (WCG), and next-generation devices. Vimeo’s experience is used as a practical implementation example and showcases how new compression technologies are deployed for the benefit of creators and their audiences.

Companies are starting to feel pain and a sense of urgency as size of media content, number of devices consuming the content, and the need for rich metadata grow. They need centralized media workflow automation that can handle all processing, for all content, in all their clouds. During this session we review some rock-solid strategies for enhancing media asset management, from production to playback, in an efficient and automated fashion. Increase your library ingest throughput while decreasing the need for more hands on deck.

Live streaming should provide not just the same quality of experience as TV broadcasts, but even higher quality, with lower latency, and enable new live video use cases not possible with broadcast TV. Also critical is support of the myriad connected devices consumers use to view that content. In this session, learn about the pros and cons of various technologies on both the contribution and delivery side of lowlatency streaming, including small chunk size HLS/DASH, WebRTC, WebSockets, QUIC, SRT, and CMAF.

NASA explains the steps it took to launch NASA TV UHD, North America’s first consumer satellite UHD channel, soon to be available for streaming on internet browsers and OTT devices. Get a close-up look at the end-to-end UHD video delivery system for OTT and the implementation process for showcasing the breathtaking beauty of UHD. The session also provides an overview of the challenges encountered with streaming 2160p60 resolution video, lessons learned about the UHD environment, and future technology innovations on the horizon for UHD, including HDR support.

The Interoperable Master Format (IMF) holds the promise of drastically reducing the number of different versions of a file that a video publisher needs to deliver to viewers. So what is it, and what can it do? One answer lies in Interoperable Master Packages, which use IMF for interchange, complex versioning, and mezzanine workflows. In this presentation, a digital processing firm identifies gaps in current workflows and proposes ways to close them to move toward an IMF pipeline that supports seamless creation-to-distribution workflows.

Given the now-certain “end of life” date for Flash, you need to be ready for a Flash-less world. For those who deliver live video within a web browser, HTML5 has had plenty of time to play catch up and surpass Flash capabilities—or has it? In this session, learn which transport technologies from HTTP, WebRTC, RTSP, and even RTMP work best; when to use them; and where to put your development dollars for maximum return.

Per-title encoding techniques customize the encoding ladder to match the encoding complexity of the source, saving bandwidth on easy-tocompress videos and ensuring the quality of more complex footage. Codec specialist Jan Ozer compares the efficiency, implementation issues, and costs of multiple commercially available and open-source alternatives, like Capella Systems Cambria Encoder, compression optimization from multiple vendors, and the alternatives available using FFmpeg. Learn what per-title encoding is, how the various options work, and which is the best option for you.

With the release of AV1 and support for HEVC in HLS, new dynamics are unfolding in the video codec world. VP9 is still gaining popularity among content providers, especially for web browsers and Android devices. This panel discusses the status of video codecs today, the benefits and drawbacks of each, and how these things will change in the future. It also discusses whether the industry is getting into yet another codec war, meaning that content providers will have to support multiple video codecs in parallel to reach all devices.