Sorenson Media has released a new version of its video encoding and transcoding engine, Sorenson Squeeze 8.5, that offers significant improvements processing speed, streamlined workflows and cloud-based collaboration tools.
Eric Quanstrom, COO of Sorenson Media noted in an interview that the push to supply much more content to multiple screens by broadcasters and other content creators was creating increased demand for faster more streamlined encoding and transcoding solutions.
As a result, speed was a major priority in the development of the new version. "After the November release of 8.0 we took an aggressive focus on speed in the core architecture so we could do encoding better," he notes.
That effort means 8.5 is 200% faster rates than the prior 8.0 version released only six months ago, and even faster than earlier versions, offering seven times faster performance than their 5.0 version. "It is a very remarkable increase in such a short time frame," Quanstrom noted.
To boost those speeds, the new version is optimized for such major output formats as MP4, QuickTime (MOV), WebM and Matroska (MKV) and uses parallel rather than sequential processing.
The company also worked with Intel engineers to optimize Squeeze 8.5 for Intel's Quick Sync platform and codec, which allows uses to very quickly produce proxy files.
The new version also offers faster adaptive bitrate encoding with parallel processing, which creates encodes of 200% faster on average.
Another major focus has been improved features to improve workflow productivity. These include some free permanent storage within Sorenson 360, Sorenson Media's online video platform and a simplified process for reviewing and approving materials, which greatly speeds up video production.
Other features include manual timecode control; support for outputting files in MPEG DASH in MP4 with H.264 and AAC and the ability to input and decode JPEG 2000.
