How to Choose an Enterprise-Class Video Encoder
For companies ready to step up from a desktop encoder to an enterprise encoder, Jan Ozer led a helpful session at the recent Streaming Media East conference in New York City. As an introduction, he first explained how desktop and enterprise encoders differ.
"What is an enterprise encoder?" Ozer asked. "That's going to vary by product, but here are some concepts to keep in mind. Enterprise encoders are built for shared use, and typically that's managed through three or more schemas: One is direct UI, one is watch folder encoding, and one is API-based encoding. So Squeeze Desktop does not have an API. You can't write to it. You can use the watch folder, you can use the UI, but you can't automate it to your content management system, to your digital asset management system, to your media asset management system because there is no API for doing that."
When making a choice, understand the limitations of desktop versions and the additional features that enterprise versions offer.
"A lot of products, like Squeeze and Episode, the desktop versions are slowed down in some way, so Episode Pro can encode two files simultaneously. It can't do split-and-stitch, which is a way to divide a single file up into multiple components so you can encode it faster on multiple core systems," Ozer said.
For more on choosing an enterprise encoder, watch the video below and download the accompanying slides.
How To: Choosing an Enterprise-Class Video Encoder
This session will discuss factors to consider when choosing an on-demand enterprise video encoding systems from the likes of Digital Rapids, Elemental, Harmonic, Sorenson, and Telestream. Factors incorporated into the analysis will include performance, output quality, quality control options, format support, expansion options, programmability, and other variables. If you're considering buying an enterprise encoder or upgrading your current systems, you'll find this session particularly useful.
Speaker: Jan Ozer, Principal, Doceo Publishing
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