Telestream Targets Market Shift as Media and Entertainment Industry Deploys Cloud Workflows

Telestream(stand 7.B26), a leading provider of digital media tools and workflow solutions, will use IBC 2016 to showcase a number of strategic advances to Telestream Cloud, a video transcoding SaaS (software as a service) ideally suited to meet the needs of video production and post production professionals.

In developing Telestream Cloud, the company is responding to strategic shifts by content producers to deploy file-based video processing both on premises and in the Cloud. “Content production networks are leveraging the efficiencies of Cloud transcoding to optimize their workflows and customers are asking us to add functionality to Telestream Cloud beyond standard video transcoding,” said Shawn Carnahan, CTO at Telestream. “We see a significant shift in the market and we’re expanding the capabilities of our Cloud SaaS to meet the needs of video producers’ more complex and demanding workflows.”

“Commodity video transcoding SaaS services do not possess the necessary video processing capability to address the requirements of media and entertainment professionals.  At Telestream, we build the systems that video pros have come to depend upon and have made these services available in our SaaS platform,” he added.

New to Telestream Cloud, and designed to significantly extend the reach of transcoding capabilities to a wider audience seeking Telestream quality workflows, the company has developed a series of Advanced Services. These include:

  • QC validation of input and output files as part of the transcoding process, enabling analysis and comparison of the quality of video and audio data streams.
  • DVB subtitle rendering and multiplexing, TTML and WebVTT and rich CEA 608/708 closed captions that increase audience reach with multi-language support for distribution throughout Europe and North America.
  • Cinnafilm Tachyon motion-compensated video and image processing for frame rate conversion, standards conversion, de-interlacing, inverse telecine, rescaling and cadence correction.
  • AMWA certified DPP Packaging solution for UK content delivery. The service automatically assembles the DPP timeline, including bars, tones, slates and correct multi-part spacing into compliant AS-11 MXF video, formats metadata and assembles DPP compliant packages.
  • MXF for Production, AS-10 for system interoperability throughout production workflows. The service decodes AS-10 source and produces AS-10 compliant output for delivery.
  • Audio Loudness Measurement and Correction is available in Advanced Services to measure and correct audio loudness for European EBU R148 and North American CALM Act compliance.

Workflows will be added to Telestream Cloud accounts on an individual basis, according to customer requests. They will be accessible as presets through API and web interface, and priced by content minutes for the specified workflow. Telestream Cloud transcoding job progress tracking and reporting will be available. For inquiries about Advanced Services, please contact our Cloud sales team at cloudsupport@telestream.net.

"We're using Telestream Cloud to generate broadcast quality videos with frame-rate conversion in H.264, IMX and AVCi, and also consumer renditions of HLS and MPEG-DASH for 360-degree videos,” said Kenneth Ellis, CTO Reuters New Agency. “Their ability to scale based on workload has helped us reduce our time to market, and their support for an event-drive workflow with LiveSync and web service callbacks has helped reduce implementation complexity and end-to-end processing speeds."

New Telestream Cloud Features Available in Standard Self Services

Alongside the Advanced Services, Telestream has developed an extensive range of “self-serve” Standard Services for Telestream Cloud, many of can be integrated with third-party technology and systems.

Amongst the new features already included in the Standard Service within Telestream Cloud is support for Aspera’s patented FASP® (Fast, Adaptive, and Secure Protocol) high-speed content transfer technology. The new integration allows Telestream Cloud users to take advantage of Aspera’s ability to securely and quickly transfer large video files over wide area networks, significantly reducing overall processing time. Aspera Enterprise is now available as one of the storage transfer options in Telestream Cloud that works with customers' existing Aspera installations. This integration also includes support for Aspera transfer node URLs as a source when submitting jobs to Telestream Cloud.

“Aspera has been at the forefront of the migration to cloud infrastructures since first introducing on-demand high-speed transfer five years ago," said John Wastcoat, VP of Business Development at Aspera, an IBM Company. "The integration into the Telestream Cloud validates our common vision and the demands of our joint customers, allowing them to take full advantage of the benefits of the cloud with the speed and security Aspera offers.”

Telestream Cloud also adds cloud-based motion compensated frame rate conversion as a standard service. Frame rate conversion is a key feature for all media companies that need to convert their content to meet broadcasting requirements across multiple geographic locations and in many different SD and HD broadcast standards without sacrificing quality. Telestream Cloud leverages Telestream proven FPS conversion engine that uses variety of techniques to ensure optimal video output quality. This feature is available through the Telestream console.

Other third-party collaborations enable GPU Accelerated transcoding with the AWS NVIDIA NVENC and Microsoft Azure NV-Series Tesla M60 GPU encoders. Using GPU instances for transcoding is particularly beneficial when high parallel processing capability is required. Leveraging the high performance hardware video encoders Telestream Cloud can shorten transcoding times up to 10 times. Telestream Cloud users can take advantage of GPU transcoding power with new GPU preset that is available through the Telestream Cloud user interface and API just like any other preset. GPU instances are available in US and EU regions for users on metered subscriptions.