Last week over a hundred thousand broadcasters and industry vendors descended on Las Vegas, including the Bitmovin team. We know that everything that happens in Vegas is supposed to stay in Vegas, but the news we have from the show is just too good not to share!
It’s not just the bigger (and still crowded) booth, or the number of meetings held at that booth. By far the biggest attraction was our demo of the world’s first live stream using the AV1 codec, the newest compression technology from the Alliance for Open Media. Customers, competitors and the simply curious stopped by our booth to see for themselves how the bits got compressed to 1/900th of the original file size while maintaining both the speed and image quality the market has come to expect from the video experts at Bitmovin!
Our AV1 demo had an appeal off the show floor as well – drawing crowds at the sold-out DASH-IF Networking Event at the swanky Bank Nightclub at the Bellagio. Let’s just say we were more than a little surprised when folks still wanted to talk compression after hours!
Saving the best for last – Streaming Media magazine recognized this world’s first with The Best of NAB Award! We are excited to be honored for our efforts in advancing open standards in video compression. To learn more about AV1 and the work Bitmovin is doing with the Alliance for Open Media, read our earlier post here.
(The good part starts at #t=11m55s)
In addition to our cutting edge work in video compression, we also showcased our video solutions with real world use cases.
Our CEO, Stefan Lederer, led a NextGen TV session on delivering Immersive Media Streaming with High Quality of Experience – taking a deep dive into the end-to-end cloud-enabled workflows for VR & 360-degree video.
Our CRO, Sean Longworth, gave a fascinating presentation on a seemingly mundane subject of video encoding. The audiences tuned in to learn how cloud and on-premise video encoding will need to adapt in the era of increasing file sizes and high-compression codecs.
We also demoed our managed on-premise encoding solution with the team at Scality, illustrating how the Scality S3 Server enables enterprise customers to leverage the security of a virtual private cloud without compromising on features or performance of Bitmovin Cloud Encoding.
Later in the week, Stefan participated on a panel of industry experts to debate one of the more sensitive subjects in cloud workflows – CAPEX vs. OPEX of cloud-based services. With the technology proof points in place, TV and Content Providers consider the costs of making the switch to the cloud.
This year’s show was a ton of work for our entire team. From boots on the ground in Vegas (my FitBit counted triple the steps on the setup and takedown days), to our amazing team that stayed back to support us from the trenches, and everyone who worked tirelessly to create this amazing experience!
After working hard all day, we also had fun after hours. Not taking any chances scoring party invitations from the cool kids, we got together with the like-minded geeks at Mux, Peer5 and Unified Streaming to host our very own happy hour at the classy AquaKnox at the Venetian. We also gave out party invitations to the DASH-IF Networking event, joining media innovators devoted to the transformative technologies of MPEG-DASH for an evening of networking at The Bank Nightclub at the Bellagio. We hope you were there, advancing the cause of open standards in adaptive streaming!
