Transcoding for User Generated Video

The rise of the consumer as content creator has led to an explosion of user generated online video. Unlike traditional broadcast and pay TV, Internet video is predominantly populated with short form content, with UGV being the most popular content type. Overall, IDC estimates that as many as 500,000 videos are being uploaded to the Internet each day – the majority of which is user produced.

IDC research also found that more consumers are looking to create content. Combined with the consumer appetite for new waves of daily content, IDC believes that uploads of UGV could easily approach 5 million daily within 5 years.

Large volume video sites are struggling to keep up with the explosion of transcode transactions needed to process the amount of user generated video that is uploaded on a daily basis. Take the example of one user generated site which receives approximately 65,000 video uploads each day, requiring 300 general process servers to transcode to a single viewing format. What happens when this UGV site wants to extend their reach from a single viewing format – the PC, to two formats – the PC and iPhone. This now requires a second transcode transaction to make their 65,000 daily videos available to both viewing media – doubling their server requirements from 300 to 600. If this UGV site wants to reach only one-third of the total transcodes needed to reach viewing ubiquity, that multiples the server requirements to 9,000. You can see from this chart below that the data center space, server hardware, storage and energy needed to keep pace with the explosion of online video is exceeding the current capabilities of traditional transcoding solutions.

RipCode’s innovative on-demand video transcoding appliance revolutionizes the process of re-purposing video into multiple viewing formats such as PCs, smart phones, mobile devices, or iPods®;  eliminating the need for broadcasters, syndicators or user generated video sites to pre-transcode and store multiple file formats of their entire video library. RipCode enables the video Long Tail to be transcoded and served to a customer on any screen size as they request it, giving viewers an expansion of content choices while reducing an operator’s server hardware, storage and energy use. By dynamically transcoding video on demand, operators can monetize their entire library of video content – not just the most widely viewed titles – enabling them to grow their business and add new revenue streams.

RipCode can support a variety of user generated video application requirements: