You still need hardware encoding for the toughest jobs, says Appear TV

While describing the virtualization of encoding and transcoding as an exciting step, Carl Walter Holst, CEO of Appear TV, argues that on-premise hardware video processing, using a dedicated appliance, remains essential if you want the highest quality results or are handling live content. His company is using IBC 2014 to launch its Universal encoding and transcoding solution, confirming its commitment to appliance-based processing.

Appear TV says its Universal product provides the broadcast industry with the ultimate in quality and flexibility. “It enables operators to move to new highly flexible encoding architectures, such as localized encoding that can maintain the highest quality while simultaneously maximizing flexibility,” the vendor declares.

Carl Walter Holst explains: “Encoding was initially provided by high-cost single box per channel solutions. The industry then progressed to more efficient and cost-effective centralized rack-based encoding. The next move is the most exciting of all, with virtualized encoding deployed through ‘pools’ of potentially decentralized encoding and transcoding resources.

“Having looked closely at video coding software and hardware roadmaps over the near-and medium-term we are convinced that hardware encoding and transcoding is essential if you want the highest quality or if you have a complex broadcast or multiscreen offering, especially for live delivery.”

Appear TV says its new hardware encoding solutions, when combined with its carrier-class XC5000 Series Video Processing Platform, ensure its solutions offer the highest possible encoding and transcoding performance and flexibility. The company is inviting IBC visitors to find out why hardware encoding and transcoding continues to play a critical role in the distribution of broadcast and multiscreen content and its part in the virtualized encoding architectures that many operators are investigating.

At IBC the company is also the launching what it describes as a very high quality dual pass video encoder for primary distribution. “This provides truly superior coding performance for applications where quality is of the utmost importance such as mezzanine formats created for onward processing in cloud, pool-based applications,” it says.