Ericsson Virtualized Encoding unifies TV Anywhere video processing

• Launches industry's first software solution for intelligent utilization of multiple encoding resources, regardless of the platform 

• Enables TV service providers to address the growing consumer demand for high quality TV Anywhere experiences across all devices 

• Ensures best-in-class video processing performance and picture quality, while allowing most agile use of platforms and technology improvements  

In Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERIC) vision of the Networked Society there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020, 15 billion of which will be video enabled. The proliferation of these devices, combined with consumer willingness to pay for high quality, premium content, is resulting in a new age of TV Anywhere. Today's TV service providers must deal with an ever-growing level of infrastructure complexity to deliver high quality video anywhere, anytime and to any device, faster than their existing and new competitors.

As they strive to address consumer demand for TV Anywhere, TV service providers have had to make choices between balancing investment, architecture and video compression performance with their multi-screen video processing deployments. This has been especially true as service providers look to address both linear and live TV services and the rapid growth of on-demand services.

In response to this, Ericsson is launching Ericsson Virtualized Encoding, the industry's first unified software solution designed to remove the complexity of TV Anywhere video processing. The new solution is completely task and service-oriented, intelligently allocating resources and simplifying the process of selecting the right encoding method and platform based on the operator's priorities for deployment speed, video quality and output. It eliminates complexity, enables more efficient resource utilization and bandwidth management and bridges the gap between broadcast and IT infrastructures, allowing deployment of enhanced TV services much more quickly.

Michelle Abrahams, Senior Analyst at research firm SNL Kagan MRG says: "Ericsson's new virtualized encoding solution provides an answer for customers who increasingly need to prepare content in more formats for more screens than ever before. It will allow them to choose their encoding infrastructure based on factors important to them such as performance, density, and time to market."

Dr. Giles Wilson, Head of TV Compression, Ericsson says: "In today's TV Anywhere world there is no 'one-size fits all' solution to video processing and a variety of compression platforms are being used to balance investment, architecture and performance. With the launch of Ericsson Virtualized Encoding we are unifying all these processing platforms under one intelligent software abstraction layer to ensure best-in-class performance, simplification of processes, reduced operational burden and far greater agility in deploying services. Our customers are especially welcoming our approach in removing the burden of deploying HEVC compression, and the inevitable platform upgrades as performance demands increase rapidly."

Ericsson Virtualized Encoding is part of Ericsson's Video Processing range. It supports all input-types (compressed off-air or mezzanine and uncompressed), all output-types (traditional linear broadcast on cable, IPTV, DTH satellite and DTT, Multiscreen ABR delivery over IP) and all codecs (MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and HEVC). It can be implemented on processing platforms containing a combination of dedicated programmable hardware such as Ericsson's video processing chip, in customer premises and software or GPU-based servers on premise, or potentially deployed in the cloud.

Ericsson's solution builds on its video compression leadership which spans more than two decades. Ericsson is harnessing its engineering resources to bring a new approach to a complex question. Ericsson Virtualized Encoding is a further step in giving our customers the tools they need to deliver successful TV Anywhere services.