Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

A timely migration to the cloud for motion compensated frame rate conversion

22/09/2022

James Shepherd, CTO, InSync Technology, takes a look at how frame rate conversion can help broadcasters meet the ever-growing demand for high-quality content

By Contributor

Published: September 22, 2022

James Shepherd, CTO, InSync Technology, takes a look at how frame rate conversion can help broadcasters meet the ever-growing demand for high-quality content

target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>

Meeting the demand for perfect high-quality content is something all broadcasters have at the front of their minds, but nowhere more so than during live events, where anything less than the best fan experience is critical. Even the slightest jerky motion, pulsing, flickering, ghosting or other visible defects is unacceptable to fans and advertisers alike. Motion compensated frame rate conversion analyses adjacent frames, detects, and calculates the movement of objects within the scene, creating new frames with appropriate object placement and display timing while converting content from one frame rate to another.

The main use cases for frame rate/standards conversion are linear channels with ongoing demand, assets that need to be distributed to different markets in different formats, and events-based content such as live sports. While ongoing services are not always financially viable in cloud environments, it is in the latter case where we see the greatest degree of demand with significant spikes around major events, such as the Olympics or major golf and tennis tournaments. Due to its highly specialist nature, this demand also comes all at once.

For many areas of the broadcast chain, while the migration to cloud is the ultimate destination, we will not be there for a few years yet. The huge spikes in demand are what make motion compensated standards conversion for premium live sports an exception. Traditional hardware-based solutions are not well suited to these high-volume peaks; adding capacity not only means a huge cost outlay, but in most live environments, where space is at a premium, also requires additional footprint.

When we are talking multiple, concurrent sporting events, the issues are further compounded. As broadcasters meet demand for new services and drive to give sports fans the best possible experience, with multiple camera angles, etc., demand for frame rate conversion spirals even higher and hardware is just unable to keep up.

The cloud answers these demands very neatly, delivering a degree of agility and scalability that hardware simply cannot match. Cloud services eliminate the need for costly capex-based infrastructures and allow broadcasters the flexibility of paying only for what they actually use, as and when needed. Additionally, almost unlimited CPU processing power allows processing to be scaled rapidly and cost-efficiently.

Meeting pain points While customers are keen to sweat their investments as effectively as possible, their hardware is becoming more difficult to maintain. Added to the need for flexibility, the availability of high-quality motion compensated standards conversion in the cloud has come at a timely point, just as many existing hardware assets approach end of life. Broadcasters are now looking at how these assets will be replaced, and with what.

In parallel, with so much of the IP transport and delivery workflow now residing in the cloud, it is an enormous operational inconvenience to bring those IP streams back to an on-premise facility, where hardware decoders take them back to baseband SDI for conversion before being reencoded and pushed back to the cloud. This adds latency which in a live environment must be kept to the bare minimum; the last thing audiences and broadcasters want is for a critical piece of action to appear on social media first. Any additional encoding/decoding cycle also results in a quality impact for the end user.

These pain points were driving the industry to look for answers even before the pandemic, which has only taught us the vital importance of having flexible capability built into systems. We are also able to benefit from the fact that so much of the IP and cloud workflows have already been established. Until recently, motion compensated frame rate conversion has been the missing piece; we expect it will be plainer sailing for customers to make the transition here than in other operational areas.

Anything to do with motion compensated standards conversion has traditionally been the preserve of a handful of specialists and so has been waiting its turn to get focus from the industry at large.

A vital niche The main challenge is ensuring the teams that will be deploying the solution work with it; they need to go through the proof of concept (POC), and confirm they are happy that the necessary controls, monitoring, and backup provision are of an equivalent quality and stability to the previous hardware solutions before deployment.

Of all the processing that has moved to the cloud, motion compensated frame standards conversion remains one of the most demanding and unique, exceeding even the most advanced codecs in terms of complexity. As a result, a big part of our job as a technology partner is building awareness around the growth in complexity that server-based technology can address and solve. InSync brought the FrameFormer standards conversion software engine to market and demonstrated live IP motion compensated standards conversion using CPU-only technology in 2019.

It might have been one of the last on the list to migrate to the cloud, but motion compensated frame standards conversion is by no means least the technology is available and is working now. We have shown that we deliver a quality result across the full breadth of customers' content property, providing complex technology in a plug-and-play format. We have seen an incredible response from broadcasters to ou
LINK: https://www.tvbeurope.com/media-management/a-timely-migration-to-the-c...
See more stories from tvb

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

01/04/2026

DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION

January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...

26/03/2026

Phantom C-Series High-Speed Cameras Set a New Standard for Automotive Crash and Safety Imaging

Wayne, N.J., March 26, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the latest product li...

25/03/2026

In The Hot Seat: The Art of Directing a Premier League Match

Live match directors Sarah Cheadle (Sky Sports), Rob Levi (TNT Sports), and Andrew Swift (BBC Sport) sit down with the Premier League's Rachel Nightingale t...

25/03/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Kyle Maier, St. Bonaventure University

The senior from Upstate New York is manning the mic while also interning for the athletic department's sports-information team In the live-sports-video ind...

25/03/2026

NAB 2026: Synamedia Launches Edge Watermarking Solution, Marks 10 Years of ContentArmor

Synamedia has announced ContentArmor Edge Watermarking, a server-side solution t...

25/03/2026

SES Taps K2 Space to Build meoSphere MEO Satellite Network

SES has announced meoSphere, a medium Earth orbit (MEO) satellite network targeted for operation by 2030. The first phase will pair SES-developed software-defin...

25/03/2026

Reuters and TVU Networks Begin Satellite-to-IP Migration for Live News Distribution

TVU Networks is working with Reuters on a phased migration from satellite to a c...

25/03/2026

Nielsen Names Three Senior Hires in Sports, Advertising, and Publishing Roles

Nielsen has announced three senior appointments. Seth Ladetsky has been named Head of Global Sports. Trevor Fellows will lead Nielsen's advertiser and agenc...

25/03/2026

Anoki and Amagi Bring Scene-Level Intelligence to In-Content CTV Ads

Anoki and Amagi have launched In-Scene Ads powered by Anoki ContextIQ across Amagi's portfolio of in-content ad formats for Free Ad-supported Streaming TV (...

25/03/2026

NAB 2026: Arkona to Unveil BLADE//planner and Platform Updates

Arkona Technologies will announce a series of enhancements to its BLADE//runner platform at NAB 2026 (Booth C.1808). The updates focus on usability and workflow...

25/03/2026

San Diego Padres Partners With Daktronics to Enhance Petco Park

Daktronics has installed two tower displays and a video wall in the Lexus Club at Petco Park in San Diego ahead of the 2026 season. Continuing to improve the ...

25/03/2026

NAB 2026: MultiDyne Marks 50th Anniversary

MultiDyne Video & Fiber Optic Systems is celebrating its 50th anniversary as NAB Show 2026 approaches. The company was founded in 1976 by Vincent Jachetta, an N...

25/03/2026

NAB 2026: IPC to Debut with One Connect Intercom Platform and New One Link Keypanels

IPC, a provider of integrated communication solutions, will make its NAB 2026 de...

25/03/2026

ESPN Tops 2026 Sports Emmy Nominations With 63 Nods

Live production categories were led by NBC, FOX, and ESPN's NFL coverage...

25/03/2026

Atlanta Braves and Spectrum Reach Multiyear Distribution Agreement for BravesVision

The Atlanta Braves and Spectrum have announced a multiyear distribution agreemen...

25/03/2026

The AI Doc Asks the Question No One Wants to Answer

(L-R) Charlie Tyrell and Daniel Roher attend The AI Doc: Or How I Became An Apocaloptimist Premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre ...

25/03/2026

Kelsey Lu and Savanah Leaf Lean Into the Emotional Core of Running To Pain' in Episode Three of Directed By'

Directed By, Spotify's documentary-style series that pulls back the curtain ...

25/03/2026

BTS and Spotify Bring ARIRANG' to Top Fans in New York City

BTS is so back., This week, the global pop superstars took the stage at New York City's Pier 17 for their first U.S. performance in four years. Part of Spo...

25/03/2026

Step Into Sound at Our New Spotify Listening Lounge in London

How you listen can shape what you hear. That's the idea behind the new Spotify Listening Lounge, an acoustic space at our London headquarters purpose-built ...

25/03/2026

Iconic Instruments launch Transport Vintage Tape

Tape effects taken to the extreme The latest release from New York-based developer Iconic Instruments is said to accurately recreate the saturation and comp...

25/03/2026

Sonuscore introduce Fantasy Vocal Phrases

Launched alongside new Vocal Phrases bundle Sonuscore's latest release has been designed specifically for composers working on fantasy TV, film and game...

25/03/2026

Steinberg unveil Nuendo 15

Latest update now live The latest version of Steinberg's post-production-focused DAW has just arrived, and comes packed with new dialogue editing, sound...

25/03/2026

Rohde & Schwarz joins FormFactor's MeasureOne partner program

Rohde & Schwarz joins FormFactor's MeasureOne partner program FormFactor and Rohde & Schwarz advance their partnership for on-wafer RF component character...

25/03/2026

L3Harris, RFTEQ Sign Agreement to Advance Sovereign Electronic Warfare Capability in Australia

L3Harris Technologies and RFTEQ Pty Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding to ...

25/03/2026

L3Harris to Provide Autonomous Underwater Capability for US Navy Submarines

L3Harris delivers combat-ready Torpedo Tube Launch and Recovery system, which deploys and retrieves Iver4 900 autonomous underwater vehicles through submarine t...

25/03/2026

Nielsen Names New Senior Leaders Supporting Sports, Advertising and Publishing Clients

The company expands leadership team under Chief Revenue Officer Amilcar Perez S...

25/03/2026

Stable TV Viewership in Poland in February as Warner Bros. Discovery Retains Top Spot

Winter Olympic Games Opening Ceremony features in top 10 programmes of the month...

25/03/2026

Mediaproxy to Show Upgrades to LogServer at 2026 NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

Hitomi transforms production synchronisation with the lau...

Providing wide view timing visibility across the entire production chain...

25/03/2026

Bitfocus showcases complete control at NAB Show 2026

Continuing development drives advances in security, availability, access and connectivity...

25/03/2026

Caudalie Paris HQ elevates brand experience with INFiLED...

Caudalie, the renowned French cosmetics brand, has unveiled a state-of-the-art 200-seat auditorium at its new headquarters in the historic Marais district of ce...

25/03/2026

Telestream Unlocks Adobe-Centric Media Pipeline and Strea...

Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, today announced expanded integration with Adobe Premiere, Adobe Media Encoder (AME), and Frame.io, d...

25/03/2026

Marshall Electronics Showcases New Feature Rich CV320 and...

Marshall Electronics is expanding its lineup of high-performance POV cameras designed for broadcast, live production and professional AV applications with the d...

25/03/2026

OOONA Achieves TPN Gold Star Shield - the Highest Level o...

OOONA, a global provider of professional management and production tools for the media localization industry, announced today that it has been awarded the TPN G...

25/03/2026

Gray Media to Simulcast 2026 Atlanta Braves Home Opener

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

2026 NAB Show Exhibitor Insight: Appear

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

Deepfakes Vulnerable to AI Fingerprint Hacks, Study Finds

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

SipMX launches at NAB Show 2026 to democratize media orch...

SipRadius, specialists in secure, low-latency media transport, will drive innovation and interoperability still further with the launch of the SipMX Alliance at...

25/03/2026

QuickLink to Showcase StudioPro Video Production Ecosyste...

QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote contribution solutions, will showcase its award-winning StudioPro ecosystem at The 2...

25/03/2026

Alfalite returns to NAB Show alongside FOR-A showcasing L...

Alfalite, the only European manufacturer of LED screens, will once again be present at NAB Show, the leading global event for the broadcast, media and entertain...

25/03/2026

First Time Exhibitor IPC Introduces One Link Keypanels fo...

PC, a leading provider of integrated communication solutions, will make its NAB 2026 Show debut in Booth C 3341. The company will highlight the newly branded On...

25/03/2026

LTN showcases satellite-to-IP migration solutions for cha...

Open video transport network simplifies satellite transition with new partnerships and global reach as spectrum auction nears LTN will demonstrate how its purp...

25/03/2026

Leader to present full suite of advanced Test and Measure...

Test & measurement innovator, Leader Electronics, will present the full range of Leader, PHABRIX and LeaderPhabrix T&M solutions at the NAB Show, which takes pl...

25/03/2026

MNC Software Appoints Heartland Video Systems as North Am...

MNC Software, a global leader in network management and operational support systems tailored to the broadcast and media industry, today announced the appointmen...

25/03/2026

Samsung Launches Shoppable TV Experience with Amazon

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

25/03/2026

Gray Media to Simulcast 2026 Atlanta Braves to Home Opener

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...