The Greenest Codec: LCEVC – Jan Ozer | Streaming Media

One of the most fascinating recent threads on LinkedIn focuses on the need for video compression technology to “go green.” It’s a discussion that all of us in the streaming video space should be thinking about.

The thread was started by David Ronca, current director of video encoding at Meta and former director of encoding technologies at Netflix. On Dec. 8, he posted, “Based on current trends, global data centers will consume > 20% of global power in 2025 (from ~3% in 2020). The primary drivers of this growth are video processing and video understanding. … We do not need new generations of encoders that increase global compute (and pollution) by an order of magnitude. We need codecs that solve the pollution problem.”

Read the full article here

“V-Nova’s mic-drop moment has arrived. [It] is about to go mainstream in Brazil” – Rethink Research

In yesterday’s edition of Faultline’s Rethink Research, Tommy Flanagan announces that the SBTVD Forum officially published the results of its Call for Proposals for SBTVD TV3.0, including LCEVC in its recommendation.

 While the gory details aren’t strictly public, we understand it involves notifying the legal departments of every TV manufacturer, silicon maker, encoder supplier, and every other relevant video component active in Latin America that they must support LCEVC – V-Nova’s low complexity enhancement codec – to do business on the continent from 2023.

Read more here

Or listen to the corresponding podcast here

LCEVC bitstream standard now published by ISO!

After having been approved by MPEG over a year ago, the LCEVC bitstream standard (ISO/IEC 23094-2) is now officially published by ISO. You can get a copy from the ISO website.

A massive thank you to all the teams who contributed to the review between approval and publication!

“Why Low Complexity Video Coding is Answer to UHD TV Success” – Rick Clucas

V-Nova’s own Rick Clucas recently wrote an article for EETimes about LCEVC as an enabler of UHD and how it can reduce bitrate enough for broadcasters to afford to send whole new UHD channels atop their legacy full HD ones.

Ever since regular TV broadcasting began by the BBC from my home town London on 26th August 1936, the broadcast industry and the technology ecosystem around it has been continually striving to improve it and make it look better.  However, in recent years we have failed to upgrade traditional terrestrial broadcasting to ultra-high definition (UHD), with the consequence that most people who have been buying UHD TVs have never watched any actual UHD TV content on them!

The main reason UHD TVs have been a great success for TV manufacturers is because they have the opportunity to sell premium products that for the same screen size actually cost them less to manufacture than a full HD panel. This is because the display production yield for UHD is greater than full HD due to there being four times as many pixels for the same screen size, meaning the allowed percentage of non-defective pixels is much easier to meet.

Read more here

CORE TECHNOLOGIES FOR STREAMING WORKFLOWS, IN 2021 AND BEYOND


Nicolas Weil offers a compelling overview of the evolution of Codecs so far together with his perspective on the most promissing future technologies in the sector.

 

 

APEX Group considering LCEVC as compression solution for inflight entertainment

A Working Group for the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) is looking for solutions among big tech companies to best provide compressed video and audio files that passengers can easily access from their personal electronic devices or from the seatback.

The group is focusing on VP9, AV1 and HEVC codec algorithms that are used extensively in the streaming industry hardware and software as well as new standards such as LCEVC.

Full article here: Video Clip: APEX Group seeks encoding standardization

Digital TV Europe: “V-Nova introduces LCEVC SDK licensing terms”

Digital TV Europe’s Jonathan Easton reports on V-Nova’s latest Press Conference and Press Release announcing V-Nova LCEVC licensing terms.

The new SDK adds MPEG-5 Part 2 LCEVC (Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding) ISO/IEC 23094-2 encoding and decoding to any existing video delivery workflow, device or application. The licensing terms have been designed to “reflect the enhancement nature of LCEVC as well as a modern approach to licensing.”

Speaking at a press conference, V-Nova CEO and co-founder Guido Meardi said that the “standard itself is pioneering, but its licensing is as modern as the technology.”

Check out the full article here

Streaming Media: “V-Nova LCEVC Royalty Structure Announced”

In a recent article for Streaming Media, industry expert Jan Ozer recounts the Press Conference announcing V-Nova LCEVC licensing terms, find the original Press Release here.

V-Nova, the primary developer of the Low Complexity Enhancement Video Codec (LCEVC), today announced royalty terms, which apply a capped, low per-user fee on the streaming service actually using the codec, and is free for encoder and decoder vendors. According to company president Guido Meardi, the structure is integrator friendly and applies the royalty to the “service operators who benefit directly from the standard, producing measurable quality and profitability benefits.”

For perspective, though there are minor royalties on content with H.264 and HEVC, the bulk of the royalties apply to encoders and decoders in computers, mobile devices, OTT/STB boxes, and television sets. The VP9/AV1 royalties proposed in the Sisvel patent pools apply to consumer display devices like TVs, and consumer non-display devices, like set-top boxes and OTT dongles. According to V-Nova, “we chose not to charge any fees to hardware manufacturers, operating systems, browsers and other ecosystem enablers, so as to facilitate rapid adoption at scale.”

Check out the full article here 

Faultline breaks down V-Nova LCEVC Licensing Terms Pricing

In the second Rethink Research article of the issue about LCEVC, Alex Davies breaks down the money aspect of the V-Nova LCEVC Licensing Terms (find the latest Press Release here).

Make sure to read the article here: LCEVC licensing terms suggest AVoD is bigger fish than SVoD.

Tommy Flanagan describes V-Nova LCEVC Licensing Terms as “real McCoy, not a decoy”

In one of two Rethink Research articles about LCEVC, Tommy Flanagan covers V-Nova’s latest Press Conference and Press Release announcing V-Nova LCEVC’s licensing terms for entertainment video services. He says:

This model is about more than money – it is about driving adoption of new devices and services because device makers believe draconian codec licensing models slow down global adoption.