DENVER—Wowza has announced that Wowza Streaming Engine, its highly flexible, on-prem video streaming solution, is now compatible with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) VT1 instances from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is available in AWS Marketplace. 

The move will strengthen Wowza’s ongoing efforts to promote faster and greener streams.

Wowza announced their collaboration with AMD in 2023 involving Wowza Streaming Engine and AMD’s Xilinx Alveo U30 accelerator card, resulting in highly efficient transcoding for low-latency and large-scale video streams. 

That same card now powers Amazon EC2 VT1 instances, which are designed to accelerate real time video transcoding and deliver low-cost transcoding for live video streams. Now Wowza Streaming Engine is compatible with these Amazon EC2 VT1 instances.

“Collaboration powers innovation,” says Dave Stubenvoll, CEO of Wowza. “What we’re seeing here is next level streaming technology resulting from the combined efforts of major industry players, namely AWS, AMD, and Wowza.”

In announcing the compatibility, Wowza noted that efficiency is paramount for many organizations looking to process large volumes of streams and that reduced server load can lead to lower carbon footprints and lower costs for companies that need scalability on a budget. It can also increase stream reliability as servers are at a lower risk of being overloaded. Finally, even organizations that already operate at high demand need to consider how that demand might continue to grow.

By working with AMD and AWS, Wowza said that it is addressing those needs. Through high-density transcoding, customers will enjoy scalable low-latency streams without sacrificing quality. They can also save costs not only through reduced server demands, but also thanks to the price performance offered by Amazon EC2 VT1 instances, Wowza reported. 

“Organizations with high processing demands are feeling the pressure relative to sustainability – not only when it comes to the environment, but also when it comes to the sustainability of their infrastructure as their transcoding needs increase over time,” says Ashique Anwar, chief product officer at Wowza. “With Wowza Streaming Engine and the Alveo U30 on Amazon EC2 VT1, we can take a lot of that pressure off via better performance, healthier CPU usage, and considerable cost savings.”

More information about the Wowza Streaming Engine on Amazon EC2 VT1 instances is available at the AWS Marketplace. 

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—AMD has unveiled the AMD Alveo MA35D media accelerator with two 5nm ASIC-based video processing units (VPUs) supporting the AV1 compression standard and will show the card at the NAB Show, April 15-19, in Las Vegas.

Purpose-built to power live interactive streaming services at scale, the new media accelerator is designed for low-latency, high-volume interactive streaming applications, such as watch parties, live shopping, online auctions and social streaming, the company said.

Delivering up to 32x 1080p60 streams per card—four times higher than its Alveo U30 predecessor, the Alveo MA35D enables high channel density while maintaining power-efficient operation and delivering ultra-low latency performance. Compared to the Alveo 30, the new media accelerator delivers 4x max lower latency in 4K and 1.8x greater compression efficiency while achieving the same Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) score, it said.

“We developed the Alveo MA35D with an ASIC architecture tailored to meet the bespoke needs of these providers to reduce both capital and operating expenses for delivering immersive experiences to their users and content creators at scale,” said Dan Gibbons, general manager of AECG Data Center Group at AMD.

Based on purpose-built VPUs that perform all video processing functions to accelerate the video pipeline, the Alveo MA350 minimizes data movement between the CPU and the accelerator. This architecture also reduces latency and maximizes channel density, enabling up to 32x 1080p60, 8x 4Kp60, or 4x 8Kp30 streams per card, it said.

The platform provides ultra-low latency support for the mainstream H.264 and H.265 codecs and features next-generation AV1 transcoder engines, delivering up to a 52% reduction in bitrate for bandwidth savings versus a comparable software implementation, it said.

The accelerator features an integrated AI processor and dedicated video quality engines designed to improve the quality of experience at reduced bandwidth. The AI processor evaluates content, frame-by-frame, and dynamically adjusts encoder settings to improve perceived visual quality while minimizing bitrate. Optimization techniques include region-of-interest (ROI) encoding for text and face resolution, artifact detection to correct scenes with high levels of motion and complexity and content-aware encoding for predictive insights for bitrate optimization, it said.

Scaling high-volume streaming services requires maximizing the number of channels per server while minimizing power and bandwidth-per-stream. By delivering up to 32x 1080p60 streams per card at 1 watt per stream, a 1U rack server equipped with eight cards delivers up to 256 channels to maximize the number of streams per server, rack or data center, it said.

The company is making its Media Acceleration software development kit (SDK) available with the Alveo MA35D. It supports FFmeg and Gstreamer video frameworks to make development easier.

Samples are now available. Production shipments are expected in Q3.

See AMD at NAB Show booth N2158.

More information is available on the company’s website. 

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—AMD will provide Canon with its Versal AI Core series, which leverages AMD AI Engine technology, for the Canon Free Viewpoint Video System which is expected to transform live sports broadcast and webcast viewing.

AMD Versal AI Core devices deliver machine learning (ML)-based video processing at the edge for Canon camera systems, AMD said.

The Canon Free Viewpoint video system consists of a ring of high-resolution cameras that surround a stadium or arena to allow broadcast viewers to see the action on the field from any position or angle in the stadium. The technology changes how sports are viewed, putting viewers in the middle of the action, it said.

The Canon system is expected to be deployed at multiple U.S. professional basketball arenas and other premier sports venues around the world.

“This single-chip Versal solution allows our system to do more in real-time than we ever envisioned possible,” said Masanori Yamada, senior managing executive officer, head of the Canon Imaging Group. “Versal AI Core’s powerful edge-processing capabilities enable our system to handle multiple functions simultaneously so broadcasters can deliver new and immersive viewing experiences.”

The Versal AI Core series delivers high performance and ultra-low latency processing to enable reduced image processing time, which makes it possible for live replays to be produced in near real-time, compared to several minutes with traditional architectures. The technology offers unique images that have never before been experienced by broadcast viewers. Live broadcast networks can also monetize live event metrics, such as game and player statistics, it said...

Moving the intelligence of AI-based video processing to the edge enables Canon to reduce the workload in the data center. The Versal AI Core powering the image-processing system implements proprietary Canon algorithms for image detection and segmentation using ML at the edge and sits behind each Canon camera deployed around a venue, it said.

“The implementation of machine learning at the edge during a live broadcast is an exciting first in the industry,” said Yousef Khalilollahi, vice president, Asia Pacific, at AMD. “The Canon camera system really puts the viewer in the game like never before. At the heart of Canon’s cutting-edge systems is the Versal AI Core series delivering the low latency edge-processing that is key to heralding this new era in live sports broadcasts.” 

More information of the Versal AI Core series is available on the AMD website.

More information on the Canon Free Viewpoint Video System is available on the Canon website.

ARLINGTON, Va.—The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su will offer a keynote during CES 2021. Dr. Su will present AMD’s vision for the future of research, education, work, entertainment and gaming, including a portfolio of high-performance computing and graphics solutions.

“Technology and innovation help us all respond to these rapidly changing times,” said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CTA, in a statement. “As we reimagine CES 2021 and move to an all-digital experience, we look forward to hearing from Dr. Su as she highlights how AMD is working with other industry leading partners to solve some of the world’s toughest challenges. The advanced solutions and technologies introduced by AMD will undoubtedly redefine how we move forward as an industry.”

“AMD technology is at the heart of some of today’s most popular consumer products and services. As we push the envelope on performance, we expand what is possible in personal computing, gaming and online services and experiences,” said Dr. Lisa Su, President and CEO of AMD. “I look forward to sharing exciting new technology developments at CES 2021, and what it will mean to the way we live, work, learn and play.”

Dr. Su has held the position of AMD president and chief executive officer since October 2014, and serves on the AMD Board of Directors. Prior to that she was chief operating officer responsible for integrating AMD’s business units, sales, global operations and infrastructure enablement teams into a single market-facing organization responsible for product strategy and execution.

This will be the first time the CES keynote series will be available in real time to registered attendees around the world. Dr. Su joins recently announced keynote speaker Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg.

LOS ANGELES—With the goal of “empowering virtual reality content creators,” Radiant Images and AMD have announced in a press release that they are collaborating on AMD’s Project Loom, a real-time video stitching technology.

Built off of AMD’s OpenVX computer vision accelerator, Project Loom features an open source stitching engine to allow content creators to finish VR content. The system has the capability to pull in 24 camera feeds at 1080p and 60 FPS and then stitch and output a 360 video in 4K and 30 FPS.

Radiant Images, the LA-based digital cinema developer and rental house, will offer Project Loom to interested productions. In addition, Radiant says it will teach, promote and endorse Project Loom and has announced a project with SuperSphereVR that will use the stitching technology for an upcoming music event.