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Scalable Cloud Video Encoding in the Google Infrastructure

Christopher Mueller
. 1 min read
Google cloud infrastructure for cloud encoding

Cloud Encoding with Bitmovin and Google

cloud encoding service in googles cloudBitmovin is utilizing Google infrastructure to provide cloud video encoding 100x faster than any other encoding service. Our distributed software based encoding approach is not bound to any specific cloud provider but Google Compute Engine (GCE) provides great performance. This enables faster  encoder provisioning and in the end decreased queuing delay for our users. Additionally, Google’s virtual machines are very well connected with each other, which increases the encoding performance of our encoding clusters. Sometimes the network interconnection between individual virtual machines is becoming a bottleneck for our encoders, but this problem does not affect us greatly on GCE compared to other cloud infrastructure providers.

Bitmovin Immediate Preview

As our users know, we provide immediate preview of the encoded video during the encoding process. This is perfectly possible as Google’s virtual machines are pretty well connected with the Google Cloud Storage (GCS). We use GCS to store your encoded videos in a secure way. The encoded output format used for the preview is segmented MPEG-DASH and Apple HLS, similarly used by Netflix and YouTube. Therefore, we can write data to GCS on a per segment basis which allows us to use the already available content for the preview. We do not need to encode another format for the preview. We just reuse parts of the final encoded video for the preview. To enable smooth playback of our preview, we need to encode faster than the actual playback speed of the video; but this is fortunately not really a problem for us.


Google cluod infrastructure for cloud encoding

Conclusions on Cloud Encoding in Google’s Cloud

Overall, we are very impressed by the performance of the Google infrastructure, which helps us provide a great cloud video encoding service for our users. For more information on how Bitmovin partners with Google to deliver cloud encoding services, check out their article explaining how we operate on top of their infrastructure. You can find the details at the official Goolge Cloud Platform Webpage: Bitmovin turns hours into minutes by encoding video fast using Google Compute Engine.

Christopher Mueller

Christopher Mueller

Bitmovin Co-Founder

Christopher Mueller is the CTO and Co-founder of Bitmovin. He leads Bitmovin's long-term technology vision, and is responsible for overseeing product development, industry thought leadership and advanced technology incubations. He published more than 40 research papers in the areas of multimedia streaming, networking, and multimedia adaptation and currently holds several U.S. patents. He co-created the MPEG-DASH video streaming standard which is used by Netflix and Youtube and is the author of the MPEG-DASH reference software and a contributor to multiple open source tools.


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