A leading streaming platform approached our team with a time-sensitive project: integrating the LCEVC (Low Complexity Enhancement Video Codec) standard into their streaming engine. The integration needed to be completed before one of the most important industry events for video & technology. The objective was to showcase improved transcoding capabilities, using LCEVC to optimize video compression efficiency while maintaining compatibility with widely used codecs like H.264 and HEVC.
The primary challenge was the tight timeline, just three weeks to integrate LCEVC into the client’s existing streaming engine, ensuring it could handle real-world streaming demands. This required updating the engine’s architecture to fully support LCEVC, which added complexity due to the need to maintain seamless compatibility with other codecs like H.264 and HEVC.
In addition to the technical hurdles, the integration had to be robust and functional for a live demonstration at IBC 2024, making time management and efficient execution critical for success.
The integration began by updating the transcoding system from MainConcept version 13.5 to version 15, which was necessary to support LCEVC’s advanced compression capabilities. The team focused on modifying key components, such as the scaler, to ensure that the system could efficiently process video using LCEVC.
The team developed a new encoder specifically for the LCEVC library, designed to optimize the system’s video compression processes. During this phase, a proof of concept (POC) was created, using the LCEVC library for all transcoding processes. This allowed the team to test the integration in a controlled streaming environment, ensuring that the system could support the required transcoding workflows.
Testing was conducted to validate performance across various bitrates and resolutions, with a focus on ensuring smooth functionality and stability throughout the transcoding process. These efforts ensured the system was fully prepared for the live demo at IBC 2024.
The team successfully delivered a fully functional proof of concept (POC) that relied exclusively on the LCEVC library for transcoding. The POC demonstrated LCEVC’s ability to reduce bitrates by up to 40% while maintaining high video quality, enabling significant bandwidth savings, over 850 MB per hour for typical 1080p streams at 5 Mbps.
The solution was specifically tailored for the IBC 2024 demo, showcasing the potential of LCEVC to reduce operational costs by optimizing bandwidth usage, all without compromising video quality.
The live demo at IBC 2024 showcased the success of the LCEVC integration, highlighting the improved compression efficiency at lower bitrates while maintaining video quality. The demo not only validated the proof of concept but also opened the door for further enhancements to fully integrate LCEVC as a long-term feature of the platform.
The project was a key milestone in positioning the client’s streaming engine at the forefront of video compression technology. This success demonstrated the potential for future scalability and optimization, laying the foundation for next-generation streaming solutions.
