March 17, 2009
Inlet Technologies, a leader in advanced encoding solutions for new media, announces the availability of Armada 2.0, the second phase of its automated encoding workflow management solution. This latest edition of Armada provides pre-encoding functionality to further streamline the digital media workflow process, allowing users to bring high-quality video content to market more quickly and cost-effectively.
Data Tech Ventures is utilizing Armada’s new 2.0 features to transcode high volumes of content used for video on demand. DTV uploads hours of feature film content that is then broken down into short clips users can easily search. This content arrives in a variety of formats and resolutions, requiring many man-hours of sorting before the encode can ever happen. Armada 2.0’s automated pre-encoding analysis now performs that same review much faster than real time, guaranteeing each film is encoded to the correct settings and is the highest possible quality. This process means content gets encoded much more quickly as it comes in. At the same time, Armada catches things a human operator might miss and fixes errors before they occur.
“Armada is a real time-saver in our workflow,” says Jay Strowd, Data Tech Ventures vice president of media technologies. “Incorporating hands-off automation to support our large volume operation at the pre-encode level saves valuable time and resources from being wasted on faulty source material.”
Armada 2.0 analyzes content and performs a variety of sorting and parameter changes such as checking file attributes, scanning, sorting and changing file settings prior to the encode or transcode process. Regardless of an organization’s existing encoding or transcoding solution, users can apply Armada’s pre-encode analysis and incorporate results into their own system.
“With the surge in demand for video over IP, transcoding for multiple clients is quickly becoming a choke point,” says Colin Dixon, Broadband Media practice manager with the Diffusion Group. “The industry is now recognizing the need to automate this process in order to scale and meet this growing content demand. Inlet’s Armada 2.0 offers a holistic approach to managing the digital media workflow and provides enhanced hands-off automation for high-volume operations.”
Inlet Armada was introduced at NAB 2008 as a new approach to encoding workflow systems that eliminates many of the manual workflows and steps required by traditional approaches. Its multi-format, multi-CPU, high-output architecture can manage an entire workflow or plug into existing facilities and asset management tools.
Armada 1.0 delivered encoding functionality; Armada 2.0 provides pre-encoding and analysis capabilities. Armada 3.0, scheduled for release in early Q2, will complete the full workflow cycle by allowing for post-encoding functionality such as quality control, integration into other systems and asset management tools.
.
|