Ericsson claims it now has the most complete media processing solution in the industry, having combined its long-established expertise in hardware-based compression with the software-based encoding and transcoding of Envivio, which the company acquired last autumn. These capabilities have been combined within Ericsson MediaFirst Video Processing, which was announced at NAB.
According to Elisabetta Romano, Vice President and Head of TV and Media at Ericsson, “This solution makes the transition to the cloud a secure reality while ensuring that when ultimate performance is needed, our investment in bespoke hardware remains an option for our customers.â€
Ericsson MediaFirst Video Processing comprises three key elements:
Software-defined management and workflow to orchestrate and manage any video processing configurations and architectures that span multiple compute platforms
An advanced suite of video coding algorithms and processing functions to build any business use-case for headend functions that deliver video with high quality and efficiency
Support for any compute environment, giving complete flexibility to deploy Ericsson MediaFirst Video Processing across private clouds, public clouds and on Ericsson custom platforms, enabling accelerated processing with Ericsson’s video chip.
Ericsson says the new solution will extend network reach for video services, expand service capabilities and reduce operational complexity. It will also lead to lower cost per service and reduced time-to-market.
Romano adds: “The media industry is undergoing its most disruptive period of transformation, and this has triggered huge changes in consumer expectations. By unifying the industry’s two greatest pedigrees in hardware and software-centric video processing, Ericsson MediaFirst Video Processing provides a no-compromise approach for our customers and enables them to transform functions and operations to deliver ultimate quality with real efficiency – whatever the deployment environment.â€
Avni Rambhia, Industry Principal for Digital Transformation at Frost & Sullivan (the consulting firm), comments: “As the industry gravitates towards IP-based software defined workflows, solutions like Ericsson MediaFirst Video Processing will play a critical role in helping content owners, broadcasters and service providers evolve their infrastructures for more efficient and seamless delivery of video content.”
This is the first product offering resulting from the integration of Ericsson’s compression and Envivio’s software-based encoding portfolios. Ericsson acquired Envivio in Q4 2015.
We will be taking a closer look at Ericsson MediaFirst Video Processing next week.
