The Quest for Greater Efficiency in Video Processing
随着越来越多的消费者选择升级他们的观看体验，转向4K电视和兼容的流媒体设备, there’s a growing demand for high quality 4K video content. 高分辨率4K视频内容为观众提供更清晰的图像和更高的清晰度和细节, which enhances the overall viewing experience. 虽然4K才刚刚成为电视的行业标准, 8K TVs are already available, 消费者甚至可以在拉斯维加斯的Sphere等音乐和娱乐场所体验到16K超高清的效果. The consumer transition to higher-resolution content seems inevitable.
然而, as content resolution increases, 文件大小也是如此, and this is creating some challenges for media providers. Firstly, as files increase in size, they take up more storage space. 其次，视频文件越大，传输所需的带宽就越多. 此外，编码和呈现等任务需要更多的时间和处理能力. 当然，这些问题都会对运营和成本产生影响, 因此，媒体公司正在寻找减轻运营挑战的方法也就不足为奇了, and reduce additional costs, by improving efficiency in video processing. 视频压缩技术的技术发展无疑将在这一努力中发挥关键作用.
Improving Video Compression Efficiency
对高分辨率视频的需求不断增长，同时也产生了对更有效的数据压缩方式的需求. 结果是, video compression technology has come a long way in recent years, 使媒体公司能够将视频文件压缩到更易于管理的大小, without loss of quality.
A prime example is the codec HEVC/H.265 (High-Efficiency Video Coding), 它主要是为了满足超高清4K和8K内容的需求而开发的. 使用比传统压缩标准更先进的算法, HEVC允许4K和8K内容被非常有效地压缩. 它在压缩数据方面比其前身AVC/H效率高25-50%.264 (Advanced Video Coding), 一般认为哪个是视频压缩的主要标准. The result of encoding with HEVC is smaller files with lower bitrates, which helps to reduce storage costs and lower bandwidth requirements, all while achieving the best possible quality.
Even more advanced again is VVC/H.266(通用视频编码)，提供比HEVC更好的压缩效率, while maximizing visual quality. 使用VVC编码比HEVC更能减少文件大小，这有助于进一步减少存储需求. It also reduces bitrate requirements by 50%, 因此，比特率为80mbps的8K视频可以用VVC编码，并降低到40mbps. 像这样, 它特别适合直播高分辨率8K，甚至今天的4k, while being well-positioned for 16K video content in the future. Although still in its infancy, VVC预计将在明年开始进入商业工作流程. By adopting more efficient compression standards, 媒体公司可以将高分辨率的内容压缩成更小的文件，而不会损失质量, 哪一种方法对缓解文件大小不断增大所带来的挑战有很大帮助.
Leveraging the Cloud and AI-based Technology
尽管这些先进的编解码器可以提供比现有标准更有效的压缩, 它们确实需要更多的处理能力和时间来完成编码过程. This matters more in some use cases than others. Unlike on-demand content where encoding speed is less of an issue, with live programming such as sports or news broadcasting, the speed of the compression process is a vital consideration. In order to deliver content to viewers in near real-time, broadcasters and content providers need efficient live encoding, which again takes up vast amounts of computing power. For maximum operational efficiency, 媒体公司需要在需要时扩大计算能力的能力. 云可以提供所需的可伸缩性，因此在有意义的地方使用它是值得的.
Alongside adopting cloud-based workflows, 许多公司开始将人工智能描述附加到他们的产品中. As the technology develops, 毫无疑问，真正的人工智能和机器学习将进入市场，在整个工作流程中实现更高效的视频处理和更高水平的自动化. 许多科技公司已经在探索基于人工智能的视频压缩技术, 未来几年，我们很可能会看到人工智能在视频压缩领域掀起一些重大浪潮.
4K, 8K and Beyond
消费者对高分辨率内容的偏好逐渐演变，无疑推动了对更高效视频处理的需求. As consumers embrace 4K, 8K, 及以后, 媒体公司将需要利用视频压缩技术的发展, as well as cloud tools and services, to mitigate the challenges posed by escalating file sizes, and to enable video to be processed more efficiently. And as AI-based technology develops, 这也可能使媒体公司进一步提高效率. Video compression is an integral part of the broadcast workflow, 这一领域的技术发展为广播行业制作和向全球观众分发高质量的内容铺平了道路. Video compression techniques are continually evolving and improving, it’ll be exciting to see what comes next.
[Editor's note: This is a contributed article from MainConcept. 流媒体接受供应商署名完全基于它们对我们读者的价值.]
相关文章
在2024年纽约流媒体展上，蒂姆·西格林采访了流媒体学习中心的简·奥泽. Ozer讨论了流媒体学习中心如何扩展为一个提供流媒体相关主题课程的平台，以帮助行业中的技术人员熟悉术语, 技术, 最佳实践, 和工具. He also talks about machine learning, the shift towards Neural Programming Units (NPUs), 以及由于潜在的专利侵权而选择编解码器的法律和财务影响.
2024年6月10日
How close to obsolescence is AVC in 2024, AV1和其他更高效、越来越成熟的“新兴”编解码器，如VP9和HEVC正在崛起? Meta's Hassene Tmar, Netflix's Andrey Norkin, AMD's Sean Gardner, 和“帮助我流媒体”的蒂姆·西格林在2024年流媒体连接的这段视频中发表了看法.
2024年3月29日
约翰·C. 席梦思床品公司, Principal Engineer at John 席梦思床品公司 Consulting, 有限责任公司, discusses patent licensing for streaming, 鉴于最近德国法院对Broadcom v. Netflix案和Avanci宣布推出视频流媒体专利池.
2023年10月23
Companies and Suppliers Mentioned