By S. Scott Grizzle M.A
There have been a lot of questions about streaming and choosing gear. Some companies say you say if you use their platform you have to use their gear. But most of the industry realizes that it’s a completely a stupid idea to force customers to use a proprietary encoding device. This limits the number of customers and limits the options or choices for those customers.
Every customer has different needs and use cases. So it make sense to pick out the right encoder for you. There are apps, software, hardware appliances, and software appliances. These will work on a phone to camera mount encoder, encoding farm or a telco data center. From a simple webcam to HDMI to HDSDI or even off the air.
What is your use case?
TV Station:
Are you a TV station like a TV station? Are you taking Free to Air (FTA) Satellite or Terrestrial feeds? Are you airing live news or events or doing full productions and shows? There are a variety of vendors and encoders out there for you. First of all these will typically be a hardware/software appliance in a 1-4RU server case. The main differences will be the capture cards used. Will it be setup for HD-SDI, Satellite or Terrestrial RF reception? I didn't list HDMI for a reason in most cases HDMI isn't used in profession TV stations it's considered to be a consumer connection. Plus with some devices a security lock called HDCP that is put on and makes the workflow for the TV station a living hell.
One cool thing with this use case is you can pre produce content and then upload and create live playlists. There are hardware playout servers and at Ustream we offer this functionality as a part of the platform. Add videos then set a schedule and now you have a 24/7/365 TV station with all of the content you want to be aired and when. You can even add in monetization tools like ad tags or just do inline ads.
Depending on the features you want like ad insertions or scheduling. These encoders can start from the $5000.00 range up to $50,000.00. In most cases the top of the line for 95% of all TV stations for the functionality they would need would be about $25,000.00 the versions above this are use more for the Cable Sport providers, and the Corporate Television networks that need to work in the Mezzanine level quality. There is a well-known sports provider that is known to have some parameters of a minimum of 35Mbps for their video bitrates and a high of 100Mbps. Granted these are extremes and most people will rarely need to be over 20Mbps which is very common for most professional encoders. Which would start off in the $5000.00 range and there are roughly 10 well known manufactures that can help here.
Online movie distribution:
With the explosion of growth of companies like Netflix and Hulu more companies are getting into this field. They however use a file based encoder vs a live encoder. This takes mezzanine quality (highest possible quality or uncompressed) and then set to adaptive VOD for streaming quality. With the 4k movement the larger players are encoding for 4K, 1080, 720, 480 with a variety of bitrates to go along with this. Now the Bigger players have rooms of rackmount encoders along with massive storages servers. I know one company actually spent $1million dollars a few years ago in accelerators to help speed up the encoding process. But not everyone needs to do this.
It's possible to get started with some simple software and a decent PC for a few hundred dollars. It's not going to give you the performance of the larger company but it will get the job done. It just may take a few hours. But for a 1ru file based encoder these also start at $5000 and run up to $25,000 depending of the number of simultaneous processes it can output and the time to complete the jobs. Plus the quality, bitrates, resolutions and codecs I can work with. Not all encoders all created equal. In many cases with file based encoders you get what you pay for.
Production / Live Webcasting Company:
Production and Live webcasting can take many different forms. It can be as simple as a single camera shoot to a multi-camera with graphics and complete audio mixing. So we should probably break this down to the simplest options. Camera mount, Portable, Rackmount (flypack) and turnkey switcher encoder.
There are a few camera mount encoders out on the market today. You will only want ones that offer HDMI or SDI because this will connect directly to your camera. These usually sit atop of the camera next to the mic. Some of the better units allow the option to take power from the camera via a Hirose connector. This is a great this due to it saves your battery life. Also the better units offer a built in rechargeable battery while some of the cheaper units offer AA batteries which don't last very long. Last thing you want to be doing is looking for batteries or changing out while you have an event going. You can also get these with Cat5 Ethernet and some with bonded cellular. (Rule of them cellular is a great backup but not highly recommended for primary streaming. You will use up minutes but the connectivity and how cellular works allows for a great chance of dropout.) Price ranges from these are from $399 to $2500.00
Portable options some people call lunchbox encoders. They are smaller encoders with touch screens, SDI or hdmi inputs and in most cases have a battery or multiple power options. These are the perfect unit for the encoding tech that runs from event to event. These run from $5000 to $15,000 depending on the features
On the Rackmount side this is very similar to what you could use for the TV stations with SDI or HDMI in. These are usually a 1RU up to a 4RU that can be customizable for the features and inputs needed. These can do multiple HD streams and SD streams. These run from $3500 up to $15,000.00
If you need to do production and encoding with a single box it's possible. There are a few companies out there. These boxes are somewhat customizable with SDI and HDMI plus computer inputs. These allow video switching, graphic and some audio processing. Then it can encode to the desired format. Prices start from $5,000. (Entry level) to a high of $25,000 but not very common. The sweet spot is around $10,000.00
User Generated / Citizen Journalism:
A few years ago there was a lot of traction with Occupy everything and then the Ferguson protests. These can be as simple as a phone app, using a GoPro and a tether then using cellular. Quality is not the biggest concern here it’s the speed of the post and ease of use. The cost of this is free usually. There are a million apps out there. The Ustream app is installed on a million plus phones. Then there are those who do the tethering option with the use of 3rd party cameras it really opens up the doors to great opportunities for getting news of the world out from the citizens.
House of Worship:
The house of worship uses of video is an ever growing segment of the market. Many pastors and parishioners are starting to realize if they need to get the word out this is the one of the best ways to achieve this. It’s all a lot cheaper than television time and basically any church can do it on any budget not just the mega churches. It’s also a great way to reach those members who can't make the service due to travel or illness.
On the production side of a Church service these can rival a small TV station. They have audio mixing, Graphics, lighting and multi camera’s. So depending on the need and the budget of the church the pricing would run from $399 to the $15,000 depending on the bells whistles and all the features needed. Most commonly thought the price range is from $2000 to $5000.00
Sporting:
Encoding for sporting events can be some of the most complicated encodes to do. Is your event in the round? Are you doing multi camera and need a multi view of multi streams? These all need to be taken into consideration. Because even in the round or multi view you will want all of your streams locked and synced together in audio and timecode. This way if you look at one view your audio will stay correct and the video sync will be perfect. Now typically since sporting events are very fast motion unless you are doing turtle races. But let's assume you are doing fast action sports. For the best quality you will want to encode at a higher bitrate. Usually the company that do 24/7 sports of the professional sports use the higher end encoding boxes. The top professional sports are usually being encoded at a minimum of 25Mbps but one company has been reported to have encoded at 100Mbps which only a few encoders can do. So those range from $25,000 to $50,000.00 depending of the density of streams and some of the features.
However that is not saying every sporting event or team needs to spend $25,000. A lot of teams us Tricasters and similar devices. You will want to do a 720p at 5Mbps if doing anything fast action. Usually I recommend the sweet spot of 2.5 Mbps for a 720p but that if for normal speed video like news and talking heads. But really fast action with that bitrate you will get artifacts do you will want to do a higher bitrate. So saying that you can get encoders like Flash Media Live Encoder (FMLE) and others for free but you need to add the hardware. But you can also get turnkey solutions from a variety of companies starting at $4500 to $15,000 that will do the job and some in most cases.
Corporate video:
Corporations are using video more and more every day. Some are using for internal communications while others are using for Investor Relations, Product Launches and Human Resources may use for New Hire or Enhancement trainings. So these use cases are similar but different and the equipment need to be flexible for all. Easy to setup and start so it's basically turnkey or push of a button. Plus will automatically archive locally or to a video storage unit. This way the in house video editor can edit and make pretty, then make public.
There are a variety of options for the corporate video communications. From software packages that allow switching and encoding like the Ustream Producer to turnkey solutions like Newtek Tricaster. There are also software and hardware appliances that is very to do this. The software packages can start from free to $1000 while the appliances start at $3500 and can run up to $10,000.00 to $15,000.00 depending on the features needed
Summary:
There are a lot of options for various encoders out there. There are software encoder’s packages that allow switching and encoding like Ustream Producer to turnkey solutions like Newtek Tricaster. But at the same time there are standard encoders like Elemental, Envivio, Harmonic, DVEO, Media Excel, NTT, Teradek and Imagine Communications. Plus there are the apps that can work on any phone. You can get started for free in many cases with an app or software solution. with a little research you can get a good inexpensive encoder while if budget doesn't matter and quality or certain features are a must there are customizable solutions for any use case or workflow.
One thing I can say is if you ever have any questions on any workflow or use case with encoders never be afraid to ask questions. There are a lot of great subject matter experts who will be happy to give advice. There are also consultants and providers who work with encoder companies. So there are a lot of resources to help find the right encoder for your price point.
Comments