The Value of a Cloud SaaS Encoding Platform

With digital video encoding can mean everything. The raw data that makes up a video stream – both the visual frames and the audio information – is too large for us to pass through IP networks with any kind of efficiency. It has taken decades of standards developments, such as MPEG-2 and H.264, and evolution of computer hardware for us to be able to stream and watch videos from the internet just as easily as we can view television or a DVD.

Encoding not only makes a difference in size, it also makes a difference in quality. With devices able to capture and render in 1080p, there is a need to stream even high definition video. The quality of an encoder and specific settings given the content being encoded can make a large difference in terms of the visible artifacts presented in the stream.

The time taken to encode is not trivial either. A high-quality encoding of a small HD video on a consumer device can take an hour or more, even with today’s multi-core processors. Considering that in December 2012 it was estimated that the total unique viewers of online video in the U.S was 181.7 million, which states that, the sheer amount of computing resources needed to encode videos is staggering.

Medianova began developing a SaaS encoding platform in 2008 and has been investing in it ever since and servicing millions of videos for our clients. Based on a cloud based multi-core platform, Medianova’s encoding service Encodio has a daily capacity of 320,000 files.

The main benefits are:
– Faster than real time encoding, even on HD
– Up to 30% better compression, resulting lower CDN costs
– Huge and scaleable CPU pool
– SLA enabled
– Workflow automation with APIs and rules based encoding
– Full SaaS, so you pay as you go

Contact Medianova today to learn about our encoding platform and get a free trial account on Encodio.