cloud Archives - Page 2 of 2

Get Your Head Out Of The Cloud And Your Video Files Into It

Posted on July 9, 2019August 28, 2024 by Fiona Ashe

Size matters. And when it comes to video file sizes — things are just getting bigger.

Over the last decade, we’ve graduated from standard definition to high definition, 2K, 4K and now 8K. Combine that with image enhancement technologies and we are talking about file sizes ballooning.

The media and entertainment industries are driving the changes, hoping that the better quality will drive more viewership and lead to more revenue. But it’s not just the M&E industries that are chasing higher quality; businesses and brands are jumping on the bandwagon too. So just what are the implications for businesses?

Do video file sizes matter?

Size certainly does matter if you find you don’t have enough storage space for your large video files and it takes absolutely ages to transfer or share it with stakeholders or collaborators. This will slow down your production workflow and delay time to market. A recent Adobe survey revealed it takes brands on average 27 hours to create a single piece of long form content such as video and it takes companies on average 12 days to take a single piece of content to market. We think this is crazy!

How big is Big Video?

So let’s break down the problem: how big is Big Video? 1 hour of 4K (cinema resolution) video shot for a 30-second TV ad is equal to 300GB — that’s larger than the hard drive storage on an average computer! The next step up from that is 8K, which is 16 times bigger than HD (high definition) video. The graphic below by Signiant shows that one hour of 8K RedCode Raw 75 amounts to 7.29 TB (terabytes). That’s 121.5 GB per minute for raw 8K.

It’s not just the resolution either. There are also other factors which drive larger file sizes, in particular, image enhancement technologies such as Wide Colour Gamut (WCG), improved colour depth, and High Dynamic Range (HDR) — which, in simple terms, means the whites are brighter and the blacks are darker.

So what’s the solution?

Even if you’re not working with 4K or 8K files, if you are producing a lot of videos, you will need a workflow that can store your large files and allow your team to collaborate on them efficiently and effectively. The cloud is the obvious frontrunner by a mile. Overcast HQ is a cloud platform built on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using the most advanced technologies for automating video processes and making it possible to send and share large video files quickly. It’s simply changing the way media content is managed. You can request a demo by clicking here.

The Cutting Edge Of Sports Production Technology

Posted on December 10, 2018August 27, 2024 by Fiona Ashe

SVG Summit

Are you involved in any aspect of sports production, content creation or distribution? If so, why not swing by the SVG Summit 2018 at the New York Hilton Hotel today and tomorrow (10th and 11th December). There’s so much to check out in terms of the latest in digital sports video technology such as augmented reality, machine learning, workflows, digital ad insertion and the impact of 5G.

All Hail The Cloud

As in previous years, the SVG Summit will feature a Cloud and Virtualisation Workshop. This seminar will be full of tips and tricks about cloud-based production and media asset management workflows which are being used by sports-media organisations. It will give insight into how the cloud, virtualisation and SaaS are transforming video production.

This transformation will be discussed by a panel that will include Scott Bounds of Microsoft and Rick Gilpin of Google Cloud. They’ll talk about how the entire video-production ecosystem is undergoing a makeover: from storage and editing to encoding and transcoding and beyond.

Cutting Edge Technologies

Another fascinating panel discussion will explore what’s new for digital sports content creators and distributors. 5G cellular connectivity is on the horizon; AI is putting its stamp on the clipping and enhancing of highlights and social media content; and UHD/HDR streaming has the potential to make a big difference to those live streaming to compatible Smart TVs. Experts will share what needs to happen next.

Video Workflow

Every minute counts when it comes to getting post-produced content out across social media and other digital channels. Your team’s creative vision is challenged by tight timelines. Your business obligations might not match internal resources. So what do you do? A case study at the summit will show how production teams at MLB Network have adopted an agile workflow to get both internal and external stakeholders reviewing media faster from the first version to final delivery.

Keynotes

The summit will also feature keynotes by some of the biggest names in sports TV.

Brad Boim will talk about how heading into the 2018 NFL season, NFL Media upgraded its asset management system to enhance metadata tagging with the ingestion of GSIS data, Next-Gen Stats and Speech-to-Text transcriptions into their MAM. This extra metadata has enabled producers to run deeper searches within the database.

Charlie Ebersol, who has created a new American pro football league, will give a presentation on how video production and distribution technology will play a key role in it.

Fresh off a busy year when NBC Broadcasting/NBC Sports Group broadcast the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, its chairman Mark Lazarus will reflect on the successes and challenges of 2018 and examine issues and opportunities facing the live sports production industry.

Fan Engagement

If you’re interested in how to fill stadiums for matches, then don’t miss the panel discussion on how teams in the New York area attract fans to the stands game after game, using tech tools from larger-than-life video displays to mobile gaming.

AR, AI and Machine Learning

Other panel discussions will look at new ways to use Augmented Reality technology, camera tracking and data visualisation to give much more impact to a sports production and whether 1080p HDR sports production workflows are the sweet spot in terms of cost and performance.

There will also be a Sports Content Management Workshop exploring AI versus machine learning. It will tease out how major sports-media organisations are leveraging AI and machine learning for speech-to-text and translation; object and facial recognition; automated personalisation and content discovery.

Trends

The 2018 SVG Summit is also the go-to place for one-on-one conversations, case studies, tech showcases and insights into trends shaping the future of the sports-media business.

Overcast HQ CEO Philippe Brodeur will be at the SVG Summit 2018 and would be delighted to show you our video platform. If you would like to meet up with him and chat about all things video, please tweet him: @PhilippeBrodeur or email philippe@overcasthq.com

Does Size Matter?

Posted on October 8, 2018August 28, 2024 by Fiona Ashe

“Video consumption grows 100%+ every year” — YouTube.

The global online video platform in media and entertainment market is projected to grow at an annual rate (CAGR) of 17.5% from 2018 to 2025 (— Allied Market Research). Businesses will ignore it at their peril.

In our last two blog posts, we explored search and collaboration, as well as management and video production. Once created, video needs a home to live in (storage) and a destination to go to (distribution). Today we are talking about one of the fundamental challenges — size of video files.

Size matters

How big is Big Video?

1 hour of 4k (cinema-resolution) video shot for a 30-second TV ad is equal to 300GB — this is more than can fit on the average computer! To put it in further perspective, 1 year of CCTV video for an average police department amounts to 1.5PB (which is approximately 80,000 Harry Potter movies in HD)!

PB? What on earth is a PB? Well, a petabyte — or PB — is a crazy large chunk of data. You’re on first name terms with a gigabyte (GB), right? And you may have been introduced to the terabyte (TB). A TB is 1,024 times bigger than a GB. Sounds like a lot? Think about this: the Hubble Space Telescope generates about 10 terabytes of new data every year.

So, getting back to the question: what is a petabyte? A single PB is 1,024 TB — or more than 1 quadrillion bytes! That’s a heck of a lot of data.

“1 PB is equivalent to over 4,000 digital photos per day over your entire life.” — Lifewire.

So if you’re generating a lot of video content, it’s easy to work out that you’re going to need a lot of storage space and the cloud might be your best option.

Cloud is the champion

Using a cloud-based platform provides more advantages than just storage. It facilitates you to share media across projects, groups or channels and to respond quickly to partners, distributors or clients.

No doubt you’ll be channeling a particular promotional campaign though your social profiles, website, email marketing software and you’ll want it to look amazing on mobile. So you need all of these to work off the same set of base assets for that campaign.

Getting your video out there

And then there’s outputting. How many versions of your video do you need? Disney has to create 234 versions of every film it produces to accommodate the aspect ratios of the various distribution channels (cinema, broadcast and streaming) and to supply versions in different languages for worldwide distribution.

Once you’ve decided on the number of versions you’d like to create, then there’s the quandary of formatting each one. How do you export your video file in formats optimised for YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and all of the other different platforms without a degree in transcoding or bribing a highly-skilled technician? The secret is (shhh, don’t tell anyone): choose a platform that does all of this heavy lifting for you. And preferably one that automates it.

“81% of businesses say video increases sales.” — Optinmonster

Saving $$$

With the time saved on collaboration, reviews, approvals and outputting of your video assets — not to mention the cost savings on sending “urgent” DVDs/drives via FedEx or UPS — it’s a no-brainer to use a streamlined platform to manage your video projects. One login, one solution, one happy you!