Hardware encoding is crucial for the future of streaming, especially for broadcasters, OTT platforms, and live event channels managing extensive workloads. Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) accelerators, such as NETINT Quadra cards, deliver unparalleled speed and efficiency by being purpose-built for encoding, but with even more capabilities. The Quadra cards offer additional capabilities like decoding, scaling, and AI-driven processing. Their scaler functionality, for instance, enables advanced tasks such as cropping, overlay, and rotation, making them an invaluable tool for flexible and efficient workflows. With the ability to handle multiple high-resolution channels simultaneously, ASIC-based hardware encoding ensures exceptional performance for demanding streaming environments.
Broadcasters benefit from on-premise control, maintaining privacy, operational oversight, and energy efficiency, resulting in an optimal solution for high-volume live broadcasting. G&L’s Audio Video Processing Unit (AVPU), equipped with up to 10 ASIC-based NETINT Quadra T1U encoding cards, delivers real-time encoding while efficiently handling multiple concurrent channels. Although exact capacity depends on specific workloads and system configurations, this setup allows broadcasters to process significantly more encoding ladders per machine compared to traditional software encoding, ensuring smooth and uninterrupted performance for high-demand, 24/7 content.
Delivering content across devices with varied format and resolution requirements demands flexible encoding. Traditional software encoding often struggles with this, as CPUs aren’t optimized for simultaneous encoding and transcoding across multiple outputs, leading to high resource consumption and slower processing. ASIC-based hardware encoders are generally optimized for these high-density, multi-format workloads. Purpose-built for complex streaming, these encoders can handle diverse formats (e.g., HLS, DASH, RTMP) while maintaining low latency and high quality, producing device-specific outputs for smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and desktops—without overloading system resources.
OTT platforms need to reach as many users as possible in various formats and on various devices. Therefore, they need encoding solutions that support various formats and resolutions. ASIC-based hardware encoders efficiently handle simultaneous encoding, transcoding, and output generation, allowing providers to reach diverse audiences without straining infrastructure. Tests show the encoding cards found in G&L’s AVPU consume only 5-10 Wh per clip, compared to 15-20 Wh with software CPU encoding on similar 1080p/50 workloads, enabling scalable, widespread, service expansion.
For content providers with high streaming volumes, hardware encoding offers significant savings by reducing CPU dependency. Software encoding often requires frequent, expensive CPU upgrades to manage expanding workloads, while ASIC-based encoding accelerators offload these tasks, minimizing infrastructure costs.
Event platforms recording live streams for on-demand viewing benefit from the cost efficiency of dedicated hardware encoding. The G&L AVPU, with its 10 encoding cards, automates live-to-VoD recording by performing real-time encoding and storing content on NVMe SSDs. This setup reduces CPU load, lowers infrastructure expenses, and enables platforms to expand VoD libraries without increasing operational costs.
When going live, delivering low-latency, high-quality video is essential, especially in fast-paced settings where delays impact viewer experience. ASIC-based hardware encoding supports real-time video processing, synchronizing streams under demanding conditions. In comparison to software encoding the Quadra T1U cards achieved even or higher VMAF scores when using similar encoding settings. This indicates that the hardware encoders maintained high visual quality across various channels, effectively handling diverse and intricate video content.
For live sports and fast-action broadcasts, maintaining low latency and high visual clarity is essential. ASIC-based hardware encoders enable real-time encoding with minimal delay, keeping streams in sync with fast-paced action. Advanced AI-based optimizations on the encoding cards provide vivid, high-definition visuals, allowing sports broadcasters to deliver immersive, uninterrupted experiences for large-scale audiences across varied viewing platforms.
As streaming demands grow, hardware encoding remains a future-ready choice, enabling providers to scale efficiently while delivering high-quality, low-latency output across devices and platforms. Purpose-built ASIC-based accelerators handle intensive, multi-format workloads with speed and efficiency, reducing reliance on CPUs and achieving high VMAF scores even with complex content. Remember, hardware encoding doesn’t need to replace the whole existing setup. It serves as a powerful enhancement to hybrid workflows, increasing adaptability for ever-evolving streaming needs.