M+E Daily

 announced at the NAB convention today V3, a technology that delivers simultaneous transcoding and accelerated transport of high-resolution video as an integrated process on any network.

V3 delivers its transport capabilities through a Web-based enterprise video management solution that utilizes automated project-driven workflows, advanced algorithms, virtual storage, Web-based interfaces, and teraflops of computing power. The technology moves securely encrypted files over Internet, fiber, or data satellite up to 30 times faster than otherwise possible, while maintaining high quality resolution and support for leading industry codecs and formats such as Avid DNxHD, EVS MXF, Final Cut Pro, Sony camera formats, and others. Brevity says that V3 has been tested successfully on uncompressed, high bit rate video, 2k and 4k DPX files, as well as on compressed HD and SD files.

“Our goal has been to enable anyone who works with large volumes of media to work smarter, faster and more intuitively than ever before,” says Jake Bronstein, Brevity co-founder and chief executive. “Our clients have achieved massive acceleration in transfer speeds with no compromise to image quality and they’ve also eliminated hours of additional time that would’ve been spent transcoding files. We are transforming file-based workflows and opening up new opportunities for the entire industry.”

“Before Brevity, the tasks of transcoding, frame rate conversion, standards conversion, and transport required a range of separate tools and point solutions- each demanding manual operation, automated management or a combination of both to serve the linear workflow,” adds Tim O’Brien, Brevity’s chief operating officer. “As a result, the M&E industry has endured with hardened workarounds that have been budgeted as a cost of doing business. Even with digital tools there are analog workflows, and overnight delivery of hard drives has become the unfortunate industry norm. Brevity is positively disrupting all of this.”

The Brevity solution is currently deployed in production or testing at three post-production facilities, one major sports team, two studios, and six major networks. The new release, V3, is based on more than six months of testing with leading M&E customers. The technology will be commercially available in the second quarter of 2012.

Within V3 there are two core algorithms: Data Warp, which is bit-for-bit lossless, and Image Warp, a customized algorithm for video that is visually lossless. Image Warp has been tested successfully against ProRes 4444 and Avid DNxHD 220 in a recent Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) test, scoring at over 60 decibels, which is an objective industry measure of quality. Both Data Warp and Image Warp create “transport” mezzanine files that reduce storage requirements while supporting a range of industry-standard camera or editing formats at ingest and at output. The Brevity solution also includes graphical processing unit (GPU) based video routers to provide teraflops of computing power to handle the compute intensive algorithms.

V3 is based on a project paradigm that allows for approved users from one or more organizations to access project files virtualized across storage arrays, private clouds, or public clouds like Amazon. If a file is ingested, there can be a set of rules associated with the video that sends it to users automatically via accelerated transport and simultaneous transcode. The video moves with speed to all locations, arriving at the destination already in one or more requested formats based on pre-set profiles. V3 also has open web-services interfaces that enable integration and connections with a wide range of existing applications and tools.

Brevity’s main security measures consist of live handshaking shared key credentials and 4096-bit encryption during transit and storage. Brevity sends a transport file, not a playable video, over the network and each file requires the Brevity algorithm and data format to open properly. If intercepted, the file would be unusable without the specific source code.

Brevity’s industry partners include Avid, with support for all Avid DNxHD formats and EVS, with support for the proprietary legacy EVS MXF format as well as the EVS OpenCube suite that wraps files in OP1a or QuickTime formats. Brevity also offers complete support for ProRes including the much in demand ProRes-DNxHD conversions.

According to Brevity, the new technology benefits anyone dealing with media, inclusive of affiliate broadcasters, network hubs, studios, content providers, production houses and post-production houses. The technology has the potential to save time and money across the board. “What use to take hours to transmit takes minutes,” O’Brien says.

Brevity is also announcing a strategic partnership with TRANZXL, a bi-coastal company that is launching the first Brevity-based service bureaus and on-location rentals to accommodate the growing need for time and cost savings associated with HD media for the TV, film and commercial production industries. A Brevity demo will be available at the TRANZXL booth located in the Lower South Hall, SL12807. The Brevity solution is also being demonstrated at the NEP production truck, located in the outdoor/mobile media area between the North and South Hall, booth OE2319. The three demo booths will be connected so that visitors can send files between them, and see how fast and easy workflows could be with this technology.

Brevity is located at booth SL13316 at NAB from April 16 to April 19.