The WOW! Buzz

Last week we discussed some broad differences between digital and analog video technologies, mostly to set the stage for discussion around video codec technology.  While this is mostly “industry” stuff, increasingly it is becoming important to enthusiasts, particularly those involved in video and audio production as hobbyists or semi-pros.

As digital video has evolved, various means have been deployed to compress the digital signals to take even less spectrum, whether RF bandwidth, IP capacity, or “file storage” size on a hard drive.  Enter the “Motion Picture Experts Group”–mpeg for short–which have defined industry standards for digital audio and digital video compression for nearly 20 years.

Most digital video out there right now is mpeg-2–an older compression standard that paved the way for wide deployment of digital content.  This standard is pervasive in most cable systems and video on demand systems deployed in the world today.  While there are many digital encoding/decoding systems available, mpeg-2 has the advantage of being a “standards-based” (as opposed to proprietary) codec that has broad industry support.

Enter mpeg-4.  In the early part of this past decade, digital technology had evolved to the point that additional features were contemplated, including interactive applications, video on demand (and all its various flavors), digital rights management, and so forth.  Many companies were involved with the definition of the new digital codec, most notably Apple with its Quicktime implementations on its product line.  Because mpeg-4 part 14 specifically addressed streaming video standards, this codec has been embraced heavily by the computer industry generally.

The purpose of any digital codec standard, whether proprietary or standards based, is to allow the best possible video and audio (and all the attendant feature sets) in the smallest possible bandwidth (either RF or “file size”).  This is particularly important with HD video because of the huge amount of digital information required to produce an HD picture.  Mpeg-4 (and its H.264 subset) does this in spades, allowing beautiful HD video with file sizes that used to be associated with digital audio only just a few years ago.  Video hobbyists can now produce studio quality video on their personal computers with relatively inexpensive hardware and software systems.

As video and audio content becomes increasingly oriented toward internet streaming, local storage (as files on home video servers, ipods, etc.), and amateur and semi-pro production, mpeg-4 will continue to be the standard of choice for this type of media.  It enables stunning video and audio, small file sizes, less transmission bandwidth (over cable or OTA), new interactive feature sets, and is standards based, allowing deployment on many platforms and in many situations.  It is disruptive, elegant, and enabling–a winning combination.  I expect it to be the digital standard of choice for many years.

WOW! has embraced mpeg-4 and its variants as the standard of the future, taking advantage of the rich feature set and bandwidth “economy” this standard provides.  This will translate into more efficient use of our plant, allowing additional services and choices for our valued customers.