NAB 2017: Haivision To Demo Live 4K HEVC/H.265 Software Encoding
Haivision will show off live 4Kp60 HEVC software-only performance video streaming, leveraging the unparalleled quality of x265 software encoding, while running at a performance level that was previously only possible with dedicated hardware. This demonstration will be presented by Haivision’s HaiGear Labs, the company’s technologies research group, at the Renaissance Hotel (suite Ren Deluxe – B) next to the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Through the use of commodity off-the-shelf processing capabilities, Haivision will showcase how x265 software encoding, running on readily available dual-socket servers from the Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v4 product family, addresses the growing demand for high-quality 4K video streaming. This development brings down the costs associated with encoding live 4K video and enables 4K video streaming on ubiquitous Intel cloud compute architectures.
The foundation for these video streaming innovations come from the company’s four years of active involvement in the x265 open source project, a commercially backed initiative founded with the goal of producing the highest performance, most efficient HEVC/H.265 video encoder software implementation. Haivision is an original charter licensee of the x265 project and has made significant contributions to the x265 initiative through tight technology collaboration with MulticoreWare, the primary developer of the widely adopted open-source codec.
Haivision’s quality-to-performance in its live 4K HEVC demonstration leverages UHDKit, MulticoreWare’s extended encoding library built on top of the x265 HEVC encoder. By heavily investing in advancing UHDKit for low-latency live encoding, Haivision has been able to push the boundaries on what has been possible in HEVC software encoding.
“Haivision has been an active contributor to x265 and UHDKit and has helped MulticoreWare push the envelope with regard to live encoding performance,” said Tom Vaughan, VP and GM, Video, of MulticoreWare. “Haivision’s numerous contributions are invaluable to every user of x265.”
“Haivision’s long-term association with MulticoreWare’s x265 project and our tuning of the UHDKit for high performance streaming on the Intel platform has enabled our customers to benefit from software-only or CPU/GPU balanced performance,” says Mahmoud Al-Daccak, Haivision CTO. “We will continue to pioneer and contribute to these development communities that rely on open-source initiatives to move the streaming video industry forward.”
Haivision innovates in the areas of live hardware and software encoding/decoding, video stream transport and management. The company is dedicated to pushing the technology envelope, and fostering partnerships and collaboration within the industry to expand the ecosystems of performance video that its customers depend on.
Makito X HEVC Decoder
In addition, Haivision has announced the latest addition to the Makito X series – the Makito X HEVC video decoder – bringing end-to-end transport of secure, high quality, live HEVC/H.265 and AVC/H.264 video over any network at extremely low bit rates.
Available as a single or dual channel appliance, the Makito X HEVC decoder delivers HD digital video to 3G-SDI and HDMI interfaces, supporting all HD standards up to 1080p60. The Makito X HEVC decoder is a perfect match for the Makito X HEVC encoder, together delivering HEVC or H.264 1080p60 video with an extremely low end-to-end latency.
By using Haivision’s end-to-end video streaming workflows with Makito X HEVC encoders and decoders, broadcasters can reduce Opex for live video workflows by reducing bandwidth requirements by up to 50 percent, while maintaining video quality when compared to H.264 workflows. The award-winning features of the Makito X platform, combined with the power of HEVC encoding/decoding engines, create the ideal solution for broadcasters to future proof live, interactive and bandwidth-constrained backhaul and distribution applications.
Makito X HEVC encoders and decoders are powered by Haivision’s SRT protocol, bringing secure end-to-end 128/256 AES encryption, resiliency and dynamic endpoint adjustment based on real-time network conditions to deliver the best video quality at all times. With SRT, users can optimize video streaming across unpredictable networks, like the internet, by assuring quality-of-service when faced with packet loss, jitter, latency, and fluctuating bandwidth. SRT is included at no charge within all of Haivision’s products, including the Haivision Media Gateway for stream management and distribution, on premise or in the cloud.
“The Makito X series continues to be the industry’s go-to encoding and decoding platform for high quality, low latency video backhaul,” said Peter Maag, chief marketing officer, Haivision. “Now with an end-to-end HEVC video workflow and our SRT protocol, broadcasters can realize even more benefits for low cost video transport over any bandwidth constrained network, including public internet.”
Haivision is also offering an attractive upgrade program for Makito X users to migrate to the HEVC version. A key benefit of both the Makito X HEVC encoder and decoder is that they offer the exact same H.264 performance as the base Makito X systems with the additional HEVC capabilities.