Post-IBC report: The bright future for HEVC

High efficiency video coding (HEVC) received a lot of attention at IBC this year. That's not surprising - as the emerging technology predicted to take video compression capacities to new heights, it is an integral part of Ultra HD and IPTV video broadcast systems. While broadcasters and programmers are understandably concerned about the potential investment required, HEVC is ultimately going to be the industry standard - likely sooner rather than later.

A key part of the conversation is understanding the full extent of HEVC's capabilities and use cases. Broadcast Engineering editor Michael Grotticelli recently observed that HEVC, in addition to the way it can improve streaming infrastructure for terrestrial multichannel distribution and multi​-platform file transmission, offers opportunities for satellite video transport as well. Sufficient bandwidth remains a concern for satellite operators and the compression efficiency potential of HEVC stands to substantially reduce transmission costs.

Some operators are concerned about the logistics and cost of making the switch from MPEG-2 to HEVC. Streaming Media contributor Dan Rayburn recently compared and contrasted the rationales for upgrading directly from MPEG-2 to HEVC versus going from MPEG-2 to AVC (H.264/MPEG-4). He opined that it is in MSOs' best interests to prioritize the update of their compression standard, whether it's to HEVC immediately or to AVC as an interim solution.

In doing so, companies should look to invest in hardware solutions, such as video transcoders, integrated receiver decoders and compressed media analyzers, to help facilitate the transition from one compression standard to another. Sencore offers a variety of next-gen hardware assets optimized for the use in both HEVC and legacy standard environments. 

"We are excited to deliver a feature that utilizes HEVC technology and allows our customers to benefit from the efficiency the new standard provides. HEVC affords them opportunity for them to lower their OPEX while not sacrificing the quality of the delivered video content." said Jeff Briden, Vice President Product Management at Sencore.

Sencore provides reliable, cost-effective solutions for signal transmission and content delivery. Our line of transcoders optimize video compression for bandwidth savings and maximum configuration flexibility, maintaining peak delivery capacity for multichannel distribution environments. Contact us today to learn more.