Brevity

Brevity Delivers High-Speed Transcode, Transport for Sports Broadcasting

Thu, 31 May 2012 10:32:00 -0400

By: Karen Hogan, Assistant Editor, Sports Video Group

The Sports Video Group is pleased to welcome Brevity as a platinum sponsor.

Formed in 2010 by Jacob Bronstein and Abdul Sulieman, Brevity offers technology that delivers simultaneous transcoding and highly accelerated transport of high-resolution video as an integrated process on any network. The technology is currently installed or in testing at six major networks, three postproduction houses, one professional sports team, and two studios.

“Brevity is supporting the key formats and platforms used today in sports broadcasting and adds dramatic new efficiencies in sports-related file-based workflows,” says President Timothy O’Brien. “Brevity is pleased to join SVG as it focuses on reducing complexity, costs, and time across the sports-broadcast industry.”

Brevity technology transforms file-based workflows through a Web-based video-management system that includes automated project-driven workflows, advanced algorithms, virtual storage, and teraflops of computing power. It shortens the time and cost associated with critical file-based workflows.

The Brevity solution was deployed during last fall’s football season to simultaneously transcode and transport sports highlights from a complex legacy format to a standard, ready-to-use editing format. That file was then delivered directly back to a leading playout system in the proper format, without redundant ingest.

“Joining SVG was a no-brainer for us,” says CEO Jacob Bronstein. “Many of our clients work in sports so it was only natural to become part of an organization that has such an established presence in the industry.“

Brevity’s patent-pending advanced algorithms provide highly accelerated speeds on transport and transcode for bit-for-bit lossless or visually lossless video that has been successfully used for HD sports broadcast. Brevity combines advanced compression with teraflops of computing power enabled by graphical-processing-unit video routers.

Since the NAB Show in April, Brevity has been actively following up on a number of strategic deployments.

Brevity Speeds Video Delivery

Wed, 30 May 2012 09:41:00 -0400

By George Winslow , Broadcasting & Cable

Its V3 technologies are being tested at six major channels

As producers and programmers struggle with the difficulties of moving large HD video files between production sites or between facilities, a New York City-based start-up, Brevity, is getting some significant traction with a new solution that offers much faster transport of high resolution video by using technologies that allow for simultaneous transport and transcoding.

Improvements in delivery times using Brevity’s V3 technology vary with formats and the type of algorithm but one of V3’s core algorithms, Data Warp, offers speed improvements of two to eight times faster while a second, Image Warp, offers up to 30 times faster speeds than previously seen, argues Brevity CEO and co-founder Jake Bronstein.

Those improvement have also caught the eye of a number of TV players, including six major networks and channels, two studios, three post-production facility and one major sports team that have either deployed or are testing the solution, adds Bronstein.

Unlike traditional compression, which typically sacrifices quality for speed, V3 works under what COO, Tim O’Brien calls “a new concept in technology that some are calling network coding.”

That means their solution essentially “models or creates a blueprint set of instructions” that are sent across the network that allows the technology at the other end where another unit “rebuilds the video,” he says.

This allows multiple formats to be sent simultaneously so that significant time is not wasted transcoding the video. “It can come out in multiple formats that don’t require another step at the other side,” O’Brien notes.

Most clients who have tested or deployed the product have not been willing as yet to have their names used, but Brevity has announced a deployment with a major New York City post-production house, the Creative Group.

“The ability to provide simultaneous transport and transcode enables us to offer our clients significant improvements in file-based workflow…while ensuring very high quality,” noted Joe Avallone, president of the Creative Group, who also called the technology “a game changer” in a statement.

It has also partnered with the production service company Tranzxl, which is renting Brevity’s units at Tranzxl’s New York and L.A. facilities to clients for specific projects.

Creative Group implements Brevity transcoding solution

Thu, 24 May 2012 10:42:00 -0400

NEW YORK – Brevity (www.brevityv.com), which has designed a new media transcoding, transfer, storage management and collaboration platform, recently made a sale to international post house Creative Group. Since last Fall, Creative Group has deployed Brevity’s V2 solution, seeing workflow gains for transport and transcode of sports highlights, TV programs and promotions of HD content. Brevity recently introduced V3 of the solution at NAB.

“The ability to provide simultaneous transport and transcode enables us to offer our clients significant improvements in file-based workflow, shortening turnaround time and driving production efficiencies while ensuring very high quality,” explains Creative Group president Joe Avallone.

At the NAB show in April, Brevity debuted V3 for the first time. The latest version delivers simultaneous transcoding and highly accelerated transport of high-resolution video as an integrated process on any network. V3 delivers this through a Web-based enterprise video management solution.

“Our goal is to eliminate many of the commercial, creative and technology challenges associated with management and distribution of diverse media files and formats,” explains Jake Bronstein, CEO, Brevity. “Creative Group was one of the first to implement Brevity, to really understand how they could create a fundamental workflow change, and we can’t be happier with the impact it’s had for them and their clients.”

"Edison’s electric light did not come about from the continuous improvement of the candle."

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:14:14 -0400

“Edison’s electric light did not come about from the continuous improvement of the candle.”

- Oren Harari

The power of Brevity on Canon DSLR HD workflow

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:20:00 -0400

Do you use Canon DSLRs on your HD workflow? Are you spending hours importing footage into Avid or FinalCut for editing?

TranzXL, our service bureau partner had to transcode, transport and import 48 raw camera files from Canon 5D, 7D, and 60D cameras; a total of 9.4GB in 88 minutes of footage.

Utilizing an high-speed data transfer protocol to move the 9.4GB from location to post facility on a 20 Mbps connection, the transfer took 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Utilizing Avid Import to DNX115 MXF 24p on the Avid editing workstation, the import took 2 hours and 27 minutes.

Utilizing FCP log & transfer to import to ProRes 4:2:2, the process took 1hour and 42 minutes.

Utilizing the multi-transcode and accelerated data transfer power of Brevity, the process of transporting these 48 files between two locations over a 20 mpbs WAN, and simultaneous transcoding on the edge to ProRes 4:2:2 and DNX115 MXF 24p was completed in 1 hour and 24 minutes.

ScoreCard

Without Brevity

5 hours 19 minutes, multiple steps, multiple operators and manual operations.

With Brevity:

1 hour 24 minutes, all automated workflow, one person and one button click.

In summary, transport the files to their destination and transcode them to two editing formats in less time that it will take you to just transcode to one format!

Brevity - UI walktrough (Project collaboration and workflow...

Wed, 02 May 2012 09:41:59 -0400

Brevity - UI walktrough (Project collaboration and workflow automation, with highly accelerated multi-point transport, and simultaneous multi-format transcoding.

Brevity - Core technology

Tue, 01 May 2012 10:02:37 -0400

Brevity - Core technology

Brevity: True Cloud Collaboration

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:56:26 -0400

Brevity: True Cloud Collaboration

"The enterprise is back. For the last few years all the noise has been on the consumer side. I..."

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:00:00 -0400

“The enterprise is back. For the last few years all the noise has been on the consumer side. I believe that a lot of new disruptive technologies are innovating how large organizations procure and manage their IT infrastructure.”

- Dev Ittycheria

Brevity FAQ #4

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:54:00 -0400

Question: Does Brevity have the ability to run a transmission on the same network as other video WAN Optimization transport companies?
Answer: Yes, but Brevity must be allocated a percentage of the pipe. Brevity provides tools to manage allocation of bandwidth to ensure that proper network usage is maintained.
Question: What extra functionality does Brevity offer for transcoding?
Answer: Brevity has extensive functionality for all transcoding requirements. Brevity offers de-interlacing, audio remapping, scaling, cropping, HD to SD down conversion, standards conversion, frame rate conversion, and much more. If your company has a complex transcoding requirement or workflow, Brevity can provide custom profiles or integrated Application Programming Interface (API) functions to integrate processes.
Question: Can Brevity be accessed from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers?
Answer: Yes, Brevity fully supports any devices that use HTML5 including tablets, phones, and all laptops with modern browsers.
Question: Can a file transfer be initiated from a mobile device? Can the file itself be viewed on a mobile device?
Answer: Yes, you have full access to the system’s tools on all mobile devices. Although you cannot view an original file from mobile devices, you will have full access to move and send files. We are in the process of developing a way to preview low-resolution videos from your mobile devices.
Question: How does Brevity protect security using a mobile device?
Answer: The Brevity security model is the same across all access points. On your mobile device all communication is fully encrypted 4096 bit level SSL during transport and storage, requires live two-way handshaking and authentication, and the V3 project management structure allows granular control of who has access to what assets. In addition, no usable video is transmitted outside of the LAN – the proprietary Image Warp format requires Brevity software and hardware to rebuild.
Question: Does Brevity provide deployment and training?
Answer: Yes, Brevity provides full deployment and training based on the scope of the engagement. There is an initial set-up fee to cover these activities.

"The relative skill and speed with which you extract insights from the voice of the customer, and..."

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:51:33 -0400

“The relative skill and speed with which you extract insights from the voice of the customer, and adapt your organization to deliver the required insightful products and services, will determine whether you win or lose in tomorrow’s marketplace.”

- Branden Kelley, Innovation Excellence

TRANZXL Brings Brevity to Rental Market in New York, L.A.

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:14:00 -0400

Brevity and TRANZXL, a bi-coastal service company, have inked a deal whereby TRANZXL will launch the first “Brevity powered service bureaus,” drop-off rentals and on-location packages designed to speed and simplify HD file conversion and delivery. The goal is to allow producers, broadcasters and creators to use and rent units at TRANZXL’s New York and Los Angeles facilities for short periods of time on a per project basis.

“Brevity’s V3 technology was developed to transform the current state of the broadcast and production industry,” says Jake Bronstein, CEO, Brevity. “TRANZXL is working along the same ideal as us to further the opportunity for those in the video production and media industry who may only need a Brevity unit for a specific project.”

Brevity FAQ #3

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:22:59 -0400

Question: Do I get unlimited access to all of the transcode engines and codecs my company needs?
Answer: Yes. All supported formats are included with every Brevity license. Brevity is continuously adding newly supported formats, which will automatically be added to your system at no additional cost.
Question: Does Brevity ingest handle both pre-compressed and uncompressed content?
Answer:Brevity can handle both compressed and uncompressed footage. However, Brevity’s technology is most effective in dealing with high bit-rate or uncompressed formats. The higher the bit rate, the higher the acceleration gains will be. There will be future enhancements made to address highly compressed, low-bit rate content.
Question: Do you lose source quality during transport?
Answer:No, when using the Data Warp algorithm the transmission is bit-for-bit and therefore mathematically lossless. When using Image Warp there is no discernible quality loss, as the algorithm re-creates the source file to be “visually lossless” by using highly sophisticated algorithmic techniques and models tuned to the human visual and perceptual system. It further tunes the results to the automated workflows and processes required by high-end post-production and distribution. In fact, significantly higher quality loss is experienced in “workarounds” when going to tape or transcoding to other formats.
Question: Can Brevity be used with a low bandwidth Internet connection?
Answer: Brevity can operate at even low bandwidth connections. As there is no minimum or maximum bandwidth required, Brevity will always provide improvements in file transfer speeds. Brevity includes WAN optimization based on UDT but also provides additional file transfer speed and simultaneous transcode benefits beyond simple WAN optimization through its advanced Image Warp and Data Warp compression.
Question: Does the original file format get reconstituted at the delivery point?
Answer:Yes, not only can Brevity reconstruct the original format, but Brevity’s technology can also convert the file or deliver any other supported format(s) on the receiving end. For example, you can push content to five or more different locations in multiple formats, including the original file format.
Question: What is the transcode time at each end (as separate from the transmission time)?
Answer: The transcode time occurs simultaneously as an integrated process during the file transport, so there is no additional time required for transcoding as the file arrives at the target destination. Today, much transcoding is done in centralized transcoding farms. By combining transport and transcode, Brevity moves transcoding to the “edge”. This is a unique benefit of the Brevity solution.
Question: Do users sign in with their own credentials (username and password)?
Answer: Security design is a high priority so we have made it a low-administration system with invitation and delegation. Every user has his or her own credentials.
Question: What if Brevity does not support the format my company needs?
Answer: Brevity supports most industry standard formats. If your company utilizes a format we do not currently support, our deployment team will work with you to implement and test any new formats required. Our average turn-around time to implement formats is typically one to three weeks depending on the format and the availability of tools needed.

"The social enterprise is not a burden, it’s an incredible gift to companies that want to rethink..."

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 01:17:25 -0400

““The social enterprise is not a burden, it’s an incredible gift to companies that want to rethink their businesses and pull ahead of slower, less innovative companies held back by their own inertia. The social enterprise exists both internally and externally because your customers and your employees are interacting everywhere, all the time. It’s time to harness that. Capture the insights, the intelligence and the value by making it part of the fabric of your business.””

- Dave Yarnold, Guest blog post in Forbes.com

The public launch of BREVITY & TRANZXL at the 2012 NAB...

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:25:07 -0400

The public launch of BREVITY & TRANZXL at the 2012 NAB Convention in Las Vegas.

"The best companies are liberators. They bring motion where there was obstruction."

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:14:15 -0400

“The best companies are liberators. They bring motion where there was obstruction.”

- “How to Spot the Future”, Wired Magazine, May 2012, p. 187

Brevity FAQ #2

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 20:46:38 -0400

Question: Does running a file through ImageWarp multiple times degrade the quality? If so, how many times can you run the file before it is noticeable?
Answer: Brevity software is designed to avoid this type of quality degradation. Our system transports a proprietary transport or mezzanine file created by our Image Warp and Data Warp algorithms. This transport file is created at the first ingestion of the video. Since the instructions to rebuild the source media is included in the transport file, there is no “cumulative loss” since any re-transcodes can always pull from the source. Since Data Warp is a lossless compression algorithm, there is no loss of any kind, no matter how many times it is compressed and uncompressed. The only way it could be a factor is if you’re doing multiple generations of the same file when doing meaningful pixel edits where you re-warp the files. Our tests show that you can do roughly six of these with ImageWarp before you see any meaningful loss; this is well below the threshold of any standard workflow process. Overall, we never re-compress unless the user specifically wants to accomplish that.
Question: Is there any special Metadata handling?
Answer: We never alter metadata and take steps to carefully save and preserve metadata as part of the way that the Brevity solution processes content. Metadata capture is an integral frontline feature that we offer, as it is a very important part of any project. The Brevity enterprise project paradigm may also extend to any partners. There are extensive provisions for metadata at all levels (individual clips, final products, a franchise series you’re working on, and much more). Throughout the project, there are a number of ways to access, utilize, and integrate metadata.
Question: Is Brevity hardware required on both ends to send and receive content?
Answer: Yes, hardware is required at the source and destination end of transported files. In order to move high bit rate video and transcode on the wire, Brevity requires teraflops of computing power on both ends of a transmission. A standard Brevity license includes a hardware component, with the necessary parallel compute power of GPUs and the high speed Solid State Drive (SSD) arrays to process media files with the compute intensive Image Warp and Data Warp algorithms. Special hardware is not required to access Brevity’s web application. Any device supporting leading browsers can get access through a login as long as authorization has been granted. An upcoming web based component will enable users to download transcoded files from the cloud at accelerated speeds.
Question: Is the data itself securely encrypted when being stored or being sent from point A to Point B?
Answer: Yes, all client and server communications have 4096 bit encryption. Additionally, the Brevity transport file is not a playable video but rather a set of instructions how to rebuild the video on the other end. This means that no video is ever being transported in the clear. If this file were to be intercepted, it would be unreadable without Brevity’s source code and hardware, which adds an additional layer of security.
Question: Is the margin of error when sending content from point A to point B?
Answer: The margin of error is entirely dependent on the network itself. In the event that there is an issue with one of the parties dropping packets or disconnecting, the Brevity units error correction system will resume and resend the necessary packets of information until the send is completed.
Question: Do I get unlimited access to all of the transcode engines and codecs my company needs?
Answer:Yes. All supported formats are included with every Brevity license. Brevity is continuously adding newly supported formats, which will automatically be added to your system at no additional cost.
Question: Does Brevity ingest handle both pre-compressed and uncompressed content?
Answer: Brevity can handle both compressed and uncompressed footage. However, Brevity’s technology is most effective in dealing with high bit-rate or uncompressed formats. The higher the bit rate, the higher the acceleration gains will be. There will be future enhancements made to address highly compressed, low-bit rate content.

"I’ve been a hands-on producer and editor for over 20 years. I’ve seen tape to tape, to digital, to..."

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 21:35:00 -0400

“I’ve been a hands-on producer and editor for over 20 years. I’ve seen tape to tape, to digital, to cards and files…more shooting and HD cameras than imaginable. Working with Brevity to develop unique solutions for HD content production will have an immediate impact on our industry saving even small and independent producers and creative talent significant time, money and resources spent on the editing and post process.”

- Paul G Goldberg, CEO, TRANZXL

Online buzz about Brevity

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:53:00 -0400

Online buzz about Brevity

Brevity

Brevity Delivers High-Speed Transcode, Transport for Sports Broadcasting

Brevity Speeds Video Delivery

Creative Group implements Brevity transcoding solution

"Edison’s electric light did not come about from the continuous improvement of the candle."

The power of Brevity on Canon DSLR HD workflow

ScoreCard

Without Brevity

With Brevity:

Brevity - UI walktrough (Project collaboration and workflow...

Brevity - Core technology

Brevity: True Cloud Collaboration

"The enterprise is back. For the last few years all the noise has been on the consumer side. I..."

Brevity FAQ #4

"The relative skill and speed with which you extract insights from the voice of the customer, and..."

TRANZXL Brings Brevity to Rental Market in New York, L.A.

Brevity FAQ #3

"The social enterprise is not a burden, it’s an incredible gift to companies that want to rethink..."

The public launch of BREVITY & TRANZXL at the 2012 NAB...

"The best companies are liberators. They bring motion where there was obstruction."

Tag cloud created by crunching the content of 1,000 online...

Brevity FAQ #2

"I’ve been a hands-on producer and editor for over 20 years. I’ve seen tape to tape, to digital, to..."

Online buzz about Brevity