Brightcove launches support for Zencoder with new advanced encoding formats to bring broadcast + professional workflows to the cloud

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brightcove-logo-video-advertising-platform-distribution-content.jpgBrightcove, a leading global provider of cloud services for video, has today announced that it has added support in its Zencoder service for new encoding formats for the next generation of Web and mobile playback that address the diverse needs of broadcasters and other professional content providers.

Brightcove Zencoder will also support new, mission-critical codecs for content providers seeking to distribute video in broadcast and other professional workflows. Along with existing, broad support for popular Web and mobile encoding formats, Zencoder will now support advanced codecs such as MPEG-2, MPEG-TS, JPEG 2000 and AVC-Intra in MXF container in support of DPP guidelines for European broadcasters.

Brightcove is also announcing major advances in Web and mobile format support, adding HEVC (H.265), the successor to H.264, and MPEG-DASH, the HTTP streaming standard. With better compression, H.265 promises to deliver higher-quality video at lower bitrates, including high-resolution 4K / Ultra HD content and HD 1080p at standard consumer bitrates. MPEG-DASH is the first adaptive bitrate, HTTP-based streaming solution that is an international standard with the potential to unify workflow for high-quality, cross-platform, adaptive bitrate video experiences.  

Says Mark Lemmons, CTO at T3Media: “We’re focused on helping our customers manage and deliver their enterprise content libraries to every screen. Today, we use Zencoder for Web and mobile encoding. With Zencoder support for these advanced use cases, we will now be able to scale even more of our media processing operations in the cloud. That translates to more efficient and focused operations for us, and faster time-to-market for our customers.”

Says Jon Dahl, vice president of technology at Brightcove: “Brightcove Zencoder helped to unlock a new generation of Internet video use cases by providing companies such as AOL, the Wall Street Journal, PBS and Funny or Die with an API that offers nearly limitless encoding power. With the addition of Zencoder’s advanced video processing features, we are bringing the same power and flexibility to new workflows for broadcasters and service providers such as T3. It’s thrilling to be building the tools that will enable a fundamental shift for the entire production workflow.”

As the over-the-top (OTT) and streaming services landscape continues to expand, content creators face an increasingly fragmented landscape. These content providers must create a video rendition for every streaming outlet, create files for endpoints such as international subsidiaries and distribution partners and provide encoded libraries of content to support licensing deals. These endeavors require substantial capital expense for on-premise encoders as well as ongoing maintenance and support. Content providers also face challenges with capacity planning, as they may need to over-provision to meet spikes in demand, or face queue times if demand is high and there is not enough encoding capacity.

With today’s announcement, Zencoder is applying the elastic scalability of the cloud to solve this encoding challenge for a new segment of the production workflow. Just as Zencoder empowered publishers to rapidly transcode video to support the fragmented Web and mobile ecosystem, the service is now enabling broadcasters and professional content providers to scale their media processing operations in the cloud.