Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Smart Chunking: What is it and what does it mean for video encoding?

16/03/2023

Bitmovins Markus Hafellner talks to TVBEurope about the companys update to its VoD Encoding solution, and how it will create better visual quality for viewers

By Jenny Priestley

Published: March 16, 2023

Bitmovin's Markus Hafellner talks to TVBEurope about the company's update to its VoD Encoding solution, and how it will create better visual quality for viewers

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

Earlier this month, Bitmovin announced the introduction of Smart Chunking into its VoD Encoder, which it describes as an evolution of the split and stitch algorithm.

The original algorithm was created in response to problems with how long it takes to encode a file on a single machine. Split and stitch allows the encoding job to be split into multiple parallel encodings or segments, accelerating the entire process.

However, split and stitch can also lead to potential quality drops when using fixed GOPs and segments, degrading the overall visual quality for viewers, Bitmovin's senior product manager, Markus Hafellner tells TVBEurope.

Smart Chunking optimises chunk lengths and bitrate distribution, which positively impacts the visual quality throughout the whole asset and achieves this faster than before.

The introduction of Smart Chunking means that video streaming companies will be able to deliver their streams in the best possible quality, adds Hafellner.

The split and stitch algorithm was a significant advancement in video encoding because it made it possible to horizontally scale the compute intense workload, he continues. However, we saw an opportunity to build on it and further improve the visual quality of video content, and we have the data to back this up.

Currently, video quality is measured with VMAF, an objective quality metric created by Netflix, and it's one of the most widely used metrics in the video streaming industry to benchmark video quality. We used VMAF when benchmarking the image quality of a highly complex video asset processed with the standard split and stitch approach compared to Smart Chunking, explains Hafellner.

The results showed the lowest quality 1 per cent frames increased by 6 VMAF points (6 VMAF is exactly the noticeable difference for the human eye). There was also an impressive 22 VMAF points increase in the lowest quality 0.1 per cent frames, and the worst frame saw an increase of an astonishing 60 VMAF points.

For audiences, this means that the visual quality of their favourite content will look even better than before. Hafellner adds that Bitmovin's data shows a noticeable increase in visual quality that's perceptible to the human eye when Smart Chunking is used compared to the legacy split and stitch algorithm.

The technology has been developed for VoD services, but Bitmovin hasn't ruled out applying to live content. However, the shown quality gains would affect latency which then becomes a limiting factor for the optimisations, he adds.

Smart Chunking is paving the way for us to develop Per-Shot Encoding and make it available to our customers. Per-Shot Encoding aligns segment boundaries and thus I-frames with shot boundaries, which reduces the bitrate while maintaining the same visual quality.
LINK: https://www.tvbeurope.com/media-management/smart-chunking-what-is-it-a...
See more stories from tvb

Most recent headlines

04/09/2025

Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Dalet Win Prestigious 2025 NAB Show Project of the Year Award

Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...

09/05/2025

Harvard Taps Studio Technologies for Sports Telecasts

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. Studio Technologies said the Harvard University athletics department has integrated Dante-enabled equipment from the vendor into its broadcast ...

09/05/2025

ITN, Magnite Launch Programmatic Solution for Local Linear TV

NEW YORK ITN, a provider of a local linear supply side platform, and Magnite, a independent sell-side advertising company, have announced that they working toge...

09/05/2025

Nugen Audio Unveils DialogCheck Speech Intelligibility Software

LEEDS, U.K. Nugen Audio has launched a new speech intelligibility plug-in, DialogCheck and offered up quotes from technologists working at places like Netflix p...

09/05/2025

AJA I/O Gear: The Heart of Broadcast Solutions' VEGO Mobile Editing Solution

AJA I/O Gear: The Heart of Broadcast Solutions' VEGO Mobile Editing Solution Brie Clayton May 8, 2025 0 Comments When working remotely on broadcas...

09/05/2025

What do they teach in an Advanced Adobe After Effects Course?

What do they teach in an Advanced Adobe After Effects Course? Roland Kahlenberg May 8, 2025 0 Comments There aren't many advanced After Effects co...

09/05/2025

Larry Jordan Sits with Trevor Morgan of OpenDrives at NAB 2025

Larry Jordan Sits with Trevor Morgan of OpenDrives at NAB 2025 Brie Clayton May 8, 2025 0 Comments Trevor Morgan, COO of OpenDrives, shares how the co...

09/05/2025

Berklee Popular Music Institute Announces UK Festival Debut and Tour Dates

Berklee Popular Music Institute Announces UK Festival Debut and Tour Dates For the first time, BPMI will bring Berklee-affiliated artists and students to the ...

08/05/2025

What to Watch: 6 Sundance Institute-Supported Films by Filipino Directors

A sinister fairy infiltrates a desperate family in Kenneth Dagatan's In My Mother's Skin, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Photo co...

08/05/2025

Expected weak market dynamics weigh on business development in the first three months 2025

As expected, continued weak demand from key sales markets and declining economic...

08/05/2025

BBC announces Agatha Christie's Endless Night, adapted by Sarah Phelps

A new three-part series is coming to BBC iPlayer and BBC One (Image: The Christie Archive Trust) The BBC has announced Agatha Christie's Endless Night, a...

08/05/2025

Managing the Mission: Teaching Technique to C3ISR Operators

For skyward-bound operators, training focuses on the unique aspects of flying ISR missions, including the management of onboard surveillance equipment and the e...

08/05/2025

Cable Industry Backs Broadcasters' Move to Software-Based EAS

The cable industry has told the Federal Communications Commission it supports the National Association of Broadcasters' proposal to allow broadcasters to us...

08/05/2025

CTA Tells FCC: Dont Mandate ATSC 3.0 Tuners

WASHINGTON The Consumer Technology Association has continued its opposition to mandates requiring that NextGen TV/ATSC 3.0 tuners be included in new TV sets, sa...

08/05/2025

TAG Video Systems Appoints Paul Maroni as Vice President...

TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real time visualization, has named Paul Maroni as Vice Pres...

08/05/2025

BroadcastAsia 2025 Showcases Best of British Innovation

This year's UK Pavilion in hall 5, once again managed by Tradefair, will provide visitors with the unique opportunity to discuss and be involved in cutting ...

08/05/2025

Rohde & Schwarz to highlight innovative broadcast technol...

Rohde & Schwarz will showcase its latest energy-efficient transmitters and 5G Broadcast technologies, designed to support network operators and content provider...

08/05/2025

Nexstar Appoints Bill Nardi VP of Station Operations

IRVING, Texas Nexstar Media Group has tapped Bill Nardi as vice president of station operations, responsible for overseeing the day-to-day broadcast operations ...

08/05/2025

LumaTouch Partners With CNN Academy on Training

SEATTLE LumaTouch is partnering with CNN Academy to improve mobile storytelling techniques and support training across all of CNN Academy's training simulat...

08/05/2025

SBE Backs NAB Proposals to Change EAS Rules

WASHINGTON The Society of Broadcast Engineers has filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission that support a proposal by the National Association ...

08/05/2025

OAN to Provide News to VOA, USAGM Networks

Senior adviser to the United States Agency for Global Media Kari Lake has announced that One America News Network (OAN) will provide newsfeed services for fre...

08/05/2025

EdMon Expands as AI-Driven Post Production Workflows Gains Traction in Sweden and Beyond

EdMon Expands as AI-Driven Post Production Workflows Gains Traction in Sweden an...

08/05/2025

Using Luma Mattes in Adobe Premiere Pro

Using Luma Mattes in Adobe Premiere Pro Graham Quince May 7, 2025 0 Comments This very quick tutorial shows you how to take an RGB clip and apply its ...

08/05/2025

OpenDrives Unveils Free Your Data' Initiative with New Astraeus Cloud-Native Data Services Platform

OpenDrives Unveils Free Your Data' Initiative with New Astraeus Cloud-Nativ...

08/05/2025

Student Spotlight: Grigori Balasanyan

Student Spotlight: Grigori Balasanyan The Armenian composer, who was named Boston Conservatory at Berklees 2025 student commencement speaker, talks about his ...

08/05/2025

VEON Shareholders Re-elect Board at 2025 AGM, Founder Augie Fabela to Serve as Chairman

08 May 2025 VEON Shareholders Re-elect Board at 2025 AGM, Founder Augie Fabela ...

08/05/2025

Will Mellor & Ralf Little return to U&Dave for more Will & Ralf Should Know Better

Comedy and entertainment channel U&Dave bring back their #1 ranked programme of ...

08/05/2025

Tribeca Festival 2025 Unveils New Premieres Spanning Film and Music

May 8th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here Tribeca Festival 2025 Unveils New Premieres Spanning Film and Music Slick Rick's Victory with Idris Elba a...

08/05/2025

Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces Lineup for Inaugural Storytelling Summit

May 8th, 2025 Press Materials Available Here Tribeca Festival 2025 Announces Lineup for Inaugural Storytelling Summit 11-Day Industry Event Launches with Tal...

08/05/2025

SVG Sit-Down: Vizrt's Nicholas Jameson on AI in Workflows, Pushing Boundaries With XR/AR

SVG Sit-Down: Vizrt's Nicholas Jameson on AI in Workflows, Pushing Boundarie...

08/05/2025

Creating Alternative Brand Experiences: Live Sports in the Age of Fortnite, Meta Horizon, and Beyond

Creating Alternative Brand Experiences: Live Sports in the Age of Fortnite, Meta...

08/05/2025

PGA TOUR's David Piccolo: Advanced Graphics and Virtual Production Tools are Elevating Live Golf Coverage

PGA TOUR's David Piccolo: Advanced Graphics and Virtual Production Tools are...

08/05/2025

Tech Focus: Advancing Immersion in Sports Broadcasting with AR and Virtual Production

Tech Focus: Advancing Immersion in Sports Broadcasting with AR and Virtual Produ...

08/05/2025

Now in Production: Comedy Action Film Husbands in Action' Puts Unlikely Allies on a Rescue Mission

Back to All News Now in Production: Comedy Action Film Husbands in Action'...

08/05/2025

TenneT Relies on Arvato Systems for Market Communications

TenneT relies on Arvato Systems for market communication Energy industry: Impressive market communication know-how and system integration expertise G tersloh...

08/05/2025

2025-05-08

When Taiki Hamamoto, 22, came across a Hanafuda deck at his local game shop, he was intrigued. He had grown up playing the traditional Japanese card game with f...

08/05/2025

Joe Duffy hangs up his mic on Liveline as he confirms Retirement from RT after 37 Years

The Liveline is now open , said Joe Duffy earlier today, as he previewed this af...

08/05/2025

RT reveals first look at comedy drama The Walsh Sisters, based on novels of Marian Keyes

RT , in association with the BBC, Screen Ireland and Cineflix Rights has reveale...

08/05/2025

Wildfire Prevention: AI Startups Support Prescribed Burns, Early Alerts

Artificial intelligence is helping identify and treat diseases faster with better results for humankind. Natural disasters like wildfires are next. Fires in th...

08/05/2025

Join the Family: GeForce NOW Welcomes 2K's Acclaimed Mafia' Franchise to the Cloud

Calling all wiseguys - 2K's acclaimed Mafia franchise is available to stream...

08/05/2025

LM Studio Accelerates LLM Performance With NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs and CUDA 12.8

As AI use cases continue to expand - from document summarization to custom software agents - developers and enthusiasts are seeking faster, more flexible ways t...

07/05/2025

Experience a New Dimension of Music Discovery With More Controls and Enhanced Tools

Discovering music should feel effortless and fun. That's why Spotify continu...

07/05/2025

SBS and NITV mark National Reconciliation Week with compelling premieres recognising the strength and resilience of First Nations peoples

SBS and NITV mark National Reconciliation Week with compelling premieres recogni...

07/05/2025

SBS commences search for a new Western Sydney production hub location

SBS commences search for a new Western Sydney production hub location 7 May, 2025 Media releases SBS has today launched a Request for Expressions of Intere...

07/05/2025

March 2025 Less Time Spent Watching Video

Warsaw, Poland - April 28, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has released its latest March All Screens Video Landscap...

07/05/2025

Studios Delay Moving Films to Streaming to Protect Box Office

LONDON Movie fans hoping to save money by waiting until their favorite new films appear on streaming services will have to wait a bit longer now, according to a...

07/05/2025

Saudi Broadcasting Authority Turns to Grass Valley for Major Tech Upgrade

MECCA, Saudi Arabia Saudi Broadcasting Authority (SBA) has selected Grass Valley to provide a major technology upgrade of its broadcast facility here....

07/05/2025

Sony and Nevion provide guidance on IP network architecture options for live production in new whitepaper

Sony and Nevion provide guidance on IP network architecture options for live pro...