This is the first in a series of blog posts in which I’ll address some of the most common misconceptions about cloud computing specifically related to media. This week’s post focuses on a question that we hear frequently, particularly when we are dealing with professional media workflows with high resolution master files: “What about the bandwidth?”.

Any time you host services outside of the media enterprise firewall, it’s natural for people to become concerned about the bandwidth implications of delivering large files across public or private networks to third party service providers. Companies are afraid that the costs of delivering the media will outweigh the savings provided by the cloud approach.   Security concerns come into play as well, of course, but that’s a separate issue which I will address in a future post. For now, however, I’d like to address the bandwidth issue.

As I explained in my previous post, the only form of “cloud computing” that can truly be considered to be a paradigm-busting innovation is one which guarantees instant access to a scalable pool of virtual servers as a service.

Enterprise video processing provides a perfect use case for true cloud computing since it requires significant computing resources and is naturally unpredictable in nature. But what about the bandwidth necessary to transfer large video sources into the cloud? Won’t the time and cost required to deliver these files negate the benefits of on-demand processing?

The answer, in the vast majority of cases, is no. The following example shows why:

Company A is a content owner that needs to deliver 30 different versions of a single program to multiple distribution partners:  1 broadcast quality version for cable VoD, 24 broadband quality versions for various online channels, and 5 low res versions for its mobile partners. Company A believes that a cloud-based service will save time and money, and will allow them to take advantage of on-demand post production operations such as bug overlays, closed captioning and muxing, which they are usually forced to outsource to costly, manual video editors. But, they’re worried about the cost of sending a large source file over public or leased networks. A quick analysis reveals this fear to be unwarranted.

Since these encoded derivative files for TV, web and online are all compressed to some degree, they are each theoretically smaller in size than the source file. When you add them all together, however, you can end up with an aggregate file size that is considerably larger than the original master.

So, why is this a problem? Because if Company A is not using a cloud service like Panvidea, they will have to rely on in-house resources to deliver all of the derivatives, using their own bandwidth. And, since all of the derivatives add up to a larger size than the original master, the bandwidth costs can be significant. Since Panvidea delivers the results itself using its own network resources, most companies will use less bandwidth using us than doing it themselves.

TThere are a few exceptions to this rule which I’ll explain in a future post, but fear not – Panvidea has the solutions for them.

So, in summary, not only will Panvidea save you time and money when processing large volumes of video but, in most cases, we’ll also save you bandwidth.

Cloud computing is more than just marketing buzz. It’s a mature, enterprise-ready technology approach that is changing the economics and workflows of entire industries. And the team here at Panvidea is passionate about applying its benefits to the worlds of media, advertising, and direct marketing.

This all-encompassing term has been defined in many different ways and encompasses a range of on-demand or online computing models. But don’t be fooled. Not all so-called “cloud computing” solutions provide the same benefits or unique characteristics. For example, many pundits cite basic Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications such as Gmail or Salesforce.com are examples of “cloud computing.”  Although web applications such as these are hosted remotely and accessed via an online interface, they cannot be said to represent the true potential of cloud computing.

Other offerings, which tout the benefits of infrastructure-as-a-service (IAAS) or “utility computing” may come closer to realizing this potential, but they still don’t guarantee that an application is utilizing cloud computing to its fullest potential.

So what is the real potential – and defining characteristic – of cloud computing? In one word: scalability.

Just because an application is hosted by Amazon Web Services or a similar utility computing service does not make it truly powerful or innovative in itself. A lot of applications that are built on utility platforms are nothing more than plain old web applications. They make no effort to optimize the use or availability of these shared resources and are, therefore, little better than the first generation of hosted services, which relied on a fixed infrastructure for every customer. Scaling these sorts of applications required the installation of new hardware.  Virtual servers are really no different than regular servers if they are running all the time and have no element of automatic scalability. Virtual servers take a fraction of the time to set up, but the performance and cost efficiency enhancements of such a system are minimal. True cloud computing requires intelligent resource management to ensure real scalability and performance. For example, web applications can use services like Rightscale to automatically scale up and down based on traffic. Now that’s new.

Panvidea uses cloud computing to its fullest. By analyzing the amount of traffic, specifically the unpredictable peaks and valleys inherent to video processing and distribution, Panvidea scales up its resources immediately. And when the resources are no longer needed, we release them to the cloud. This is why we are able to price our service as a utility. But how many resources do you need? The answer requires a deep analysis of the input source video, the formats in the selected output workflow and an immense understanding of the nature of video processing. SD vs. HD, one-pass vs. two-pass and post processing filters such as splicing, clipping, cropping, overlays and thumbnail extraction all have implications on the processing speed of an entire job. Panvidea analyzes each job individually to determine the proper allocation, performs the job and learns from the results the optimal amount of resources to allocate in the future.

This automatically scalable form of utility computing is the new feature that makes cloud computing worthy of its nomenclature. When an application can scale up and down automatically it is truly using the cloud to its fullest.

Those of you who knew us as mPOINT have probably noticed that we’ve made a few changes around here recently. As of today, we have officially retired the mPOINT and TranSend brands in favor of our new name – Panvidea. We’ve think it does a better job of capturing what it is we’re all about – helping media companies, ad agencies and marketers prepare and package their digital content for distribution to any platform or device.

But it’s not just about a new name and a revamped web site. We’re re-launching with an enhanced product offering and an increased emphasis on the needs of professional video producers and publishers across the digital media value chain. Automating video preparation provides value across multiple industry groups including content owners and producers, advertisers, direct response marketers, broadcasters, and publishers.

We’ve improved video processing performance and added new video processing capabilities such as standards conversion, audio downmixing and commercial slate creation. Our aim is to be the premier  on-demand, digital content servicing hub for the preparation and  distribution of entertainment and advertising content across the entire convergent media supply chain (broadcast, cable, online, mobile, and beyond).

And, honestly, it’s about time. It’s becoming painfully clear that the traditional methods for editing, packaging, and distributing professional content are permanently broken. Large capital investments for enterprise software solutions? Hourly rates for slow, manual workstation-based dubs at your favorite post house?  You can do better than this!

With the arrival of secure, scalable cloud technologies, digital file-based tools, and high speed distribution network, it’s no longer necessary to waste money on expensive capital infrastructure or high margin post services. We let you take control of your content – with increased speed, broadcast quality content, and significantly reduced cost.

So, we hope you like the new look and new focus. We intend to update this blog frequently with product news, opinions, and observations. So, check back in from time to time and let us know if there are any topics you think we should be exploring.