Just in Time Transcode in the Cloud

September 2015 – At IBC 2015, Imagine Communications introduced a new software service and product for Just in Time Transcode (JITT) that is available in the cloud and can be run on any web server. The product is called SelenioNext. In addition to being a real time transcoder for both live data feeds and UDP feeds, it is a high density content transcoder.

One of the main applications is the use for playout from cloud based DVRs. The solution allows for any content that is in the cloud DVR under the user’s account to be transcoded in real time to the format for the endpoint that initiated the playback. This transcode not only manages color depth, resolution and screen size, but also dynamic bit rate adjustment to provide and optimized QOE for the playout whether the end device is a phone, tablet, computer or TV.

The system uses local storage of about 1TB of cloud storage for the source content in a high resolution profile (1080p 60fps 8b color in the current version). Each user with a DVR has their own copy of the content that is addressable from the DVR locker. The transcode supports HLS, DASH, HDR and other protocols as needed to provide valid bitstreams for the end device including dynamic buffer sizing.

As the system supports multiple transcode options in the cloud, and the processing is done in realtime, both stored content and live content can be used. The live content is usually provided by a playout engine that is co-located at the same cloud provider,