How to Choose an Enterprise-Class Video Encoder
For companies looking into the enterprise encoder market, Jan Ozer offered plenty of hands-on advice at the recent Streaming Media East conference in New York City. He first explained that he would only look at on-demand encoders, then told how to divided the market:
"I divide the enterprise encoder market into two camps: one is high-volume encoding tools, the other is workflow systems," said Ozer. "I want to set that dichotomy and tell you what I mean for those two groups of products."
Of the enterprise encoders, Ozer says there are two basic types:
"There's two types: there's hardware and software. Hardware, the unit I've worked with the most is the Elemental Server. There's also Vantage Lightspeed, which is kind of a hybrid hardware and software, and there's a bunch of others: there's VBrick, Envivio, ViewCast, bunch of hardware vendors. Basically, all they do is encode. They're very fast encoders," noted Ozer. He also listed the main software encoders: "Bunch of software tools: Squeeze Server, Telestream Episode Engine, Telestream Vantage, Harmonic, Carbon Coder. So, this is the encoding engine. All they do is encode."
Workflow systems, however, are much more ambitious.
"The workflow systems, they want to change your life, they want to make everything better for you," said Ozer. "We're going to look at the operations in detail, but they want to check your files when they come in, bounce them out if there are any problems that should prevent encoding, put them in the right bin for encoding, do quality control after the encoding, and then, if there's a problem, notify you at any stage of the way."
To view the full presentation, watch the video below. Also, download a PDF of Ozer's presentation.
Choosing an Enterprise-Class Video Encoder
This session will discuss factors to consider when choosing an enterprise video encoding systems from the likes of Digital Rapids, Elemental, Harmonic, Sorenson, and Telestream. Factors incorporated into the analysis will include performance, output quality, quality control options, format support, expansion options, programmability, and other variables. If you're considering buying an enterprise encoder or upgrading your current systems, you'll find this session particularly useful.
Speaker: Jan Ozer, Principal, Doceo Publishing
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