What is Transactional Transcoding?

Transactional transcoding is a solution approach to transcoding that manages a number of unique ‘transactional’ parameters with each and every transcode request – all in real time, and according to a policy set by the content owner, hoster, or delivery provider.

Historically, transcoding has occurred as either a nailed-up live stream or an off-line batch file-to-file process. That model worked fine when the volume of live streaming was small, the number of source video files was small, and the number of needed output formats was limited. Traditional “box transcoders” could focus on ‘set and forget’ transcode algorithms – akin to Henry Ford’s Model T automobile marketing, ”…you can have any color you want, as long as it’s black”.

The world has changed, and video providers now have a much larger set of transaction choices that must be made for profitable, scalable video delivery. Forward thinking customers are asking a new set of business model questions before making an investment in transcoding equipment – to ensure they are prepared for the modern world of Internet video delivery. Here are a few insightful questions that shed light on the coming age of ‘transactional transcoding’:

• Our business has thousands to millions of files in my video library – stored in a multitude of container, video codec, and audio codec formats. How can we possibly convert them all to the latest file format in vogue?
• We want to enable my video file inventory to be usable by mobile devices. But there are hundreds of mobile devices across my customer base. Isn’t there some way to deliver the right format at the time of request, rather than having to transcode every source file to 100 formats in advance?
• We want to change the number of bit rate outputs for each file, depending on the quality of the content, target device set, or even for different classes of paying subscribers. How can we do this in real time?
• We really want to achieve very high transcode concurrency with my data center, and are willing to relax real time transcoding performance to get there. But, other times, the delivery model requires that we preserve real time. How can this be accomplished in conjunction with my business needs?
• Our device base varies greatly in terms of the video delivery protocols supported. We see everything from traditional RTSP streaming to the newer HTTP Progressive Download, to vendor proprietary adaptive streaming protocols. We need a transcoder that can transparently discover these needs, make a real time container and delivery protocol decision automatically.
• Our business model dictates that we insert on-the-fly, highly targeted, pre-roll video advertisements in front of the end user’s requested video clip. Can this be done seamlessly and with policy-configured rules and auditing around how many ads were delivered and watched in their entirety?
• We are very sensitive to the amount of bandwidth consumed by mobile devices and want the ability to transcode to a lower delivery bit rate without compromising quality of experience. Further, we ant to adjust the bit rate reduction according to source file bit rate, device class, subscriber class, and even time of day. We need a transcoding platform that can accomplish this.

RipCode is taking transcoding to its logical end – a transparent, real time, network transaction that factors into each transcode request not only decode and encode requirements, but also everything required to achieve dynamically changing business objectives in the face of fluctuating network conditions, device differences, content variety, monetization policies, and more.

Further, not only are we the first to recognize and deliver products that perform transactional transcoding, we are the first and only company that can extend this value across any type of transcoding – including live, offline file-to-file, and on-demand file transcoding and we do it all from our innovative unified platform architecture – RipCode’s TransAct Platform.