As entertainment, sports, fashion, science, food and more-info junkies, humans are using video as a quick, easy way to satisfy their needs to stay informed and connected to the things they care about. Whether viewing via the Internet, TV, or mobile devices, video is a part of everyday life. Yet how do you make it an excellent experience for millions of viewers?
Video solution providers are vying to deliver real-time, reliable content available everywhere and at high-quality with brilliant colors and immersive experiences¾all with an efficiency that allows room for profits, innovation, growth, and more reach.
It’s all driven by computing¾from data centers to encoders/decoders to edge devices. This is where Intel® Xeon® processors with built-in media accelerators best fit the bill for performance, coupled with Intel’s media software tools to speed video transcoding, deliver efficient/high-density streaming, and help vendors build competitive features for their products and services.
And sports is the perfect place to start. Video acceleration is a fast growing demand with game-changing results in the world of sports--a key example of just how is shared here.
Gaining the Video Replay Advantage
We all remember that one play where the referee made the wrong game-changing call, and our favorite team lost the competition. It’s human error. It happens. But it doesn’t need to anymore. Now, new video replay solutions with the latest Intel technologies can help resolve challenging game calls.
Slomo.tv, an innovator in tapeless video production technology, has developed the videoReferee family of servers that provide instant high-quality video replays from up to 11 cameras with direct to referee viewing systems. This line of Intel processor-based servers leverages Intel® Media Server Studio software for fast, high-quality video transcoding and has helped the company transform its products, which are now being used around the world. In addition to a server and video cameras that are placed around the sports arena, the system includes a monitor and easy-to-use control panel that any referee can learn to use in less than an hour. Video can be reviewed in real time or recorded by up to four cameras simultaneously at different angles, in slow motion, or with the zoom function for objective, error-free analysis of game plays.
Figure 1: VideoReferee's capabilities, platform, and user interface were demoed at the International Broadcasters Convention in September 2016
SDK Makes Better Performance Possible
Slomo.tv’s videoReferee has caught on at organizations like the international Kontinental Hockey League and basketball leagues in Korea, Russia, and Lithuania. Even canoe racing teams at the 2016 Rio Olympics took notice, using it to help get their sports judging calls right. FIFA, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, is also testing similar systems for possible use in its worldwide football (also known as soccer) competitions.
What makes slomo.tv’s solution different from others is how it manages video compression. By using Intel Media Server Studio (a tool suite that provides the Intel® Media SDK; runtimes; and advanced analysis tools for media, video, and broadcast application development), to optimize, accelerate, and compress its video streams, the company sees a performance and efficiency advantage over traditional hardware-only designs.
“Without the Intel® Media SDK [in Intel Media Server Studio], we could not have created our innovative video replay and server products now in use worldwide,” says Slomo.tv CTO Igor Vitiorets. “It was the cornerstone for our software development and innovation.”
Learn More
- Discover Intel hardware and software building blocks that enable delivery of visual content via the cloud at intel.com/visualcloud.
- Media software developers can try the free Intel Media Server Studio Community Edition at makebettercode/mediaserverstudio.
- Find out more about other Intel-based sports judging solutions from slomo.tv at slomo.tv/solutions/sports-video-judging.
Slomo.tv was created in 2007 by Picture Element.
Reviewers
Asia Nezhdanova, Intel Media Tools engineering manager, [email protected]
Michael Gilman, slomo.tv CEO, [email protected]
Igor Vitiorets, slomo.tv CTO, [email protected]
Kate Krivitskaya, slomo.tv VP of operations, [email protected]
For more complete information about compiler optimizations, see Intel’s Optimization Notice.
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