At NAB video processing vendor Elemental Technologies partnered with Akamai and Level 3 to demonstrate a world first realtime encode of a 4K stream over a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Both demos paired an HEVC software implementation with adaptive bitrate solution MPEG-DASH. Akamai’s test ran 4K 60p, Level 3’s showed 4K 30p frame rates.
The Level 3 demo featured live playback of a cinematic 4K short captured by Sony Pictures Entertainment’s F55 camera, encoded in Elemental technology and routed over Level 3’s network from New York to Las Vegas, with final rendering on a 65-inch Sony 4K Bravia TV on Elemental and Level 3 booths.
Elemental showed wider interoperability of 4K HEVC with chipset and set-top box vendors at the show, including implementations with ViXS chipsets, and with Broadcom and France’s Sagemcom.
“We’re the fastest growing video processing supplier on the market,” claimed Elemental’s marketing chief Keith Wymbs, pointing to the vendor’s 25 partnerships at NAB2014, which is triple that of 2013.
“We’re outpacing Harmonic and Envivio. When we’re doing demos of realtime live processing of 4K HEVC 60p it’s a real demo. I sense from press events that other people are skirting around that. We are the only ones able to do this type of processing and create a demonstration with end-to-end interoperability. Before any type of commercial deployment these type of tests are important so that interested parties can say that they have demoed it and that it does work.”
To counter the limited amount of 4K content in the market, Elemental has even shot its own, including Major League Soccer games and the Nutcracker ballet performed in Portland.
Wymbs said the company is actively involved with rights holders in 4K demos during the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Sony and FIFA are to record three matches from the finals, including the final match, in 4K and make it available for broadcasters to test transmit.
“There will be a number of operators pushing the ecosystem during the World Cup and we are looking forward to playing a small part in the early trials.”
