AWS Elemental has announced the addition of an adaptive bitrate (ABR) feature for its MediaConvert file-based video transcoding service.
The company said that the new Automated ABR Configuration automatically customises the ABR encoding configuration for each source video, and “simplifies the set-up of transcoding, optimises video quality, and reduces ABR package size”.
ABR packages are created when encoding video content for OTT distribution to web players, mobile devices, and smart TVs and contain multiple renditions of a video, encoded in a range of bitrates and resolutions. Each viewer’s player can dynamically pick the rendition that meets the current bandwidth restrictions while playing back the content smoothly.
The company continued, “When you create ABR packages today you are required to carefully select the bitrates, resolutions, and the quantity and distribution of renditions. The ideal package configuration varies depending on the specific content being encoded, because the visual complexity of the content affects how the content can best be compressed. Automated ABR Configuration automates this set-up for you and allows MediaConvert to pick the ideal rendition configuration based on a content classification analysis performed during the encoding process.”
