Elemental Technologies Blog

Shhhh! Elemental Manages the Noise at CES 2012

Eli — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:22:02 +0000

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is one of the busiest and loudest technology trade shows of the year. This year, Elemental is pleased to reign in the noise with a demonstration of its new audio management technology with partner SRS Labs at the Trump International Hotel.

Almost everyone has experienced obnoxiously loud commercials while watching television. The local car dealership may air an advertisement that is ten times louder than the television program it interrupts. Abrupt changes in broadcast audio levels and the extremely unpleasant viewing experience this creates became such an issue in the U.S. that legislators stepped in to enact the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act. The legislation mandates that networks and broadcasters deploy technology and equipment to ensure delivery of a consistent audio volume across programming and commercials to consumers. With comparable initiatives being put into place internationally, many of Elemental’s customers will be impacted worldwide.

Elemental is offering newly-integrated audio management technology that helps video service providers comply with the CALM Act by measuring, correcting, and reporting across hundreds of audio services. Video processing and delivery solutions from Elemental support audio normalization for traditional broadcast as well as audio correction for web broadcast for a consistent audio experience across all media. Download and read Elemental’s technical note to learn more.

If you would like to come by to check out our demo at CES, let us know!

Elemental Creating Video on Demand for ESPN com Elemental Technologies

Eli — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:29:49 +0000

Elemental, today named one of America's Most Promising Companies by Forbes, is working with ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports programming, to create the on-demand video offered on the ESPN family of websites and ESPN iPhone, iPad and Android applications. ESPN is using Elemental™ Server to create 14 distinct video outputs for adaptive bit rate playback on each of these platforms. This enables the sports network to put high-quality digital highlight packages online faster than ever before to satisfy fan demand.

In the ESPN deployment, Elemental Server quickly converts a variety of inputs, including MPEG-2, DVCPRO HD and MOV files, to a wide range of web-based outputs. These assets are made immediately available for viewers to watch any time on their platform of choice. In addition to the ESPN.com flagship site, Elemental Server also powers the video for ESPN’s mobile applications and regional properties, such as ESPN New York and ESPN Dallas. Foreign language-speaking fans can find Elemental video on the internationally-focused ESPN Deportes.

To see for yourself how Elemental is enabling web-based coverage for the network giant, head over to ESPN.com where you can find video clips and highlights of the best in sports online, anytime.

Extracurricular Activity: A Round-Up of Elemental’s Participation in Sports Worldwide

Eli — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:34:18 +0000

2011 has proven to be a sport-acular year for Elemental, as our gear is now found within several major sports leagues’ networks, at some of the world’s largest tournaments and competitions, and even inside athletic stadiums and venues. Helping companies deliver live video and highlights to fans via PCs, tablets or mobile devices is one of Elemental’s sweet spots, and we are excited about playing a significant role in this evolution. Let’s take a look at the ways Elemental is making an impact on the streaming sports world.

Host team New Zealand was recently crowned champion of the 2011 Rugby World Cup, winning an 8-7 nail biter over France in the final, and two companies leveraged Elemental solutions to deliver video coverage of the tournament to fans around the world. TF1 took advantage of Elemental Live for live event capture and delivery to six different service providers across France, while deltatre provided near real-time turnaround of match highlights on the official event website and mobile applications using Elemental Server. More than 17 million video clips were viewed on the mobile application, which was available on BlackBerry, iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 devices. Fascinatingly, this was over three times the number of videos viewed on the official website.

Just as the Rugby World Cup semifinals were underway, another worldwide event kicked off: the 2011 Pan American games. In this case, Terra, a subsidiary of Telefonica, used Elemental Live to deliver high-quality adaptive bit rate video streams of the multi-sport games to a variety of IP devices. It was important for Terra to choose partners wisely to be in top form for the 17-day event. Why? According to Terra USA CEO Fernando Rodriguez, the Pan American games served “as the pre-amble to [their] London Olympics coverage in 2012,” for which Terra also has the streaming rights.

In other deployments, BTN (the Big Ten Network) has gone live with BTN2Go, offering streaming of live games to subscribers’ PCs and mobile devices. Across the Atlantic, Eurosport uses Elemental solutions to convert its entire content library as well as improve video quality and increase the number of live streaming offerings available to end-users.

Whew! 2011 has certainly been big, but at Elemental it’s pretty clear that 2012 is shaping up to be the biggest year ever in streaming sports. In fact, we dare say that the 2012 Olympics in London will be the best and most widely viewed live streaming event the world has ever seen. Keep an eye out for us over the next few months as more exciting news flows in. In the meantime, if you plan to attend Streaming Media West in Los Angeles November 8-9, stop by booth 89 and see Elemental's video processing solutions in action.

Remembering Steve Jobs: Two Degrees of Separation and Inspiration

Sam — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:11:15 +0000

Although he passed far too early, Steve Jobs’ impact on human endeavor cannot be overstated. Much has been written about how the products he helped create at Apple changed the way people interact with technology, and how his attention to aesthetic beauty and intrinsic usability created machines with which we formed intense personal connections. The confluence of art, technology and design that Jobs brought to his work is something that many entrepreneurs aspire to – but only he was able to master.

I’m proud to consider myself an entrepreneur as well, albeit a far less successful one (aren’t we all?). Looking back, my path is due in no small part to Mr. Jobs’ influence, although I never had the good fortune to meet the man himself. I was born in Southeast Portland in 1976, the same year Jobs and Wozniak established Apple. A sweet family lived next door to me then: Barb and Jack Dudman and their son, Joe. Jack was a much-loved math professor and later Dean of Students at nearby Reed College. I spent much of my free time as a child at the Dudmans; first and foremost because they were great friends and secondly because they had wondrous computers: an Apple II, an Apple III, and then, in 1984, the first Macintosh. At my house, the most advanced technology was a 12” color TV.

Despite my mother’s strong preference that I grow up to become a writer, she couldn’t ignore the fact that whenever we went to OMSI, I was strongly drawn to the electronics section. When I was six years old, Barb Dudman offered to teach me Logo on the Apple III. Logo is a programming language that uses commands to move a turtle cursor around the screen, a deceptively simple concept that can generate amazing graphics. After one lesson with Barb, I was hooked: at home, I wrote a long program that drew a complicated picture, as I recall it was an American flag. At the next lesson, I typed in the program – and lo and behold the turtle drew the flag for me in beautiful green-on-black monochrome. What power! My programming skills improved over time, and soon Barb was teaching me Pascal. By then there was a true reward for doing well in the lesson: I would get to play One on One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird with Joe on their Mac.

Only later did I learn how the Dudmans came to have such amazing computers in their Eastmoreland home. During Jobs’ legendarily brief time at Reed, after he dropped out but before he returned to California, Jack Dudman helped him survive those tight, couch-surfing days when Jobs audited classes – including the famous calligraphy course that inspired the ground-breaking fonts pioneered on the Mac. Steve never forgot Jack’s kindness during this period, and made sure the Dudmans were always equipped with the best Apple gear; they in turn patiently tutored the eager kid next door.

I’ve worked in the technology industry for over a decade now. My engineering days are behind me, and I’m learning a new set of skills in leading the team at Elemental. Once again, the environment that Steve created at Apple is a guiding light. We are working hard to build a culture that will allow us to hire new people at a steady clip while maintaining and strengthening the core values with which we’ve attained our modest level of success so far. It’s been a challenge, to say the least. Yet a friend of mine recently interviewed for a position at Apple, and during the process was told that the only goal for each employee is “to make the platform cool.” That’s it. So simple, yet so effective; this mantra permeates everything Apple creates, from the lovely devices themselves to the shimmering operating system to the elegant packaging, even down to the environmental impact statement on Apple’s website.

I’m a Windows user now, and have been ever since a late-1990s engineering curriculum forced me to trade in my Power Mac for a PC. But Steve Jobs will always be a guiding light for me and entrepreneurs everywhere, and Apple the company we endeavor to emulate. Thank you, Steve, for your incredible innovation and inspiration.

Live Streaming the Ig Nobel Prize Webcast

Lisa — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 21:58:35 +0000

Elemental is excited to find itself among the friends of the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony this year. For those not familiar with the annual Ig Nobel event, this is not your run of the mill awards ceremony.

The Ig Nobel prizes recognize scientific achievements that make people both laugh and think. According to the highly entertaining program bill, "The Igs are intended to spur public curiosity and interest in science and other fields of endeavor." In addition to the awarding of ten prizes for improbable scientific achievement that give one a moment of pause, the evening features Nobel Laureates, flying paper airplanes and a mini-opera in five acts.

The ceremony is put on by the Annals of Improbable Research, an organization dedicated to humorous dissemination of scientific discovery led by AIRhead in Chief @MarcAbrahams, and will be held at the Sanders Theatre at Harvard University on Thursday, September 29, 2011. Live streaming coverage begins at 7:30pm ET. Discussion on Twit ter is already well underway.

The technical team bringing the ceremony to an online audience elected to use Elemental Live to stream the event this year. After trying and testing several different encoders, the group found Elemental Live to be the best option for their application. Easy integration into an existing workflow has given the folks behind the scenes time to focus on what really matters: high production values and reaching a larger online audience than ever before. During the event, Elemental Live will capture a live HD feed and send multiple bit rate streams to YouTube (where the ceremony is a featured live event this week) and embedded websites of over 20 major media organizations from around the world.

A performance of Tom Lehrer's song, "The Elements" will figure prominently in this year's Ig Nobel prize ceremony. Although "demonstrably the finest song about chemistry ever written by a mathematician," we at Elemental like to think of it as a fortuitous sign as Improbable Research prepares to put Elemental gear to work in support of its live webcast tomorrow. To all who tune in, enjoy the show (and those fabulous HD streams).

Elemental’s Growth Recognized by the Oregon Entrepreneurial Community

Lisa — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:18:41 +0000

Elemental was proud and humbled to bring home two Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards from the OEN award ceremony held last night at the Portland Hilton. We were honored first as the winner in the Working Capital Stage Company category and again when Elemental’s CEO, Sam Blackman, was recognized in the Individual Achievement category for his leadership in guiding the remarkable growth and success of the company he co-founded five years ago.

In Sam's words, “we are proud of the growth our company has achieved over the past year and of the positive contribution we’ve made to our state’s economic development. At the same time, we believe our progress thus far is just the foundation and the real work of building a great firm is just beginning. We are more excited than ever by the opportunities we anticipate in the coming months and years, and it’s an honor to garner such strong support from the Oregon entrepreneurial community.”

Congratulations to all the Tom Holce Award winners and finalists and thank you to the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network for this recognition, which is particularly meaningful as Elemental strives to restore luster to the video cluster established in our region by pioneers like Tektronix, InFocus, Planar, Pixelworks and Rentrak. With continued growth and hard work, a commitment to excellence and strong community support, Elemental hopes to keep the cluster shining brightly for years to come.

Elemental Goes for a Wheelie

alisa — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 19:12:23 +0000

Elemental fosters a culture where environmental care and community involvement are core values. Not only do we recycle, compost, host company volunteer opportunities and supply employees with bike parking, transit passes and zipcar memberships, we take it a step further and incorporate sustainable best practices into our product offerings as well. It’s no wonder Elemental is being recognized for its efforts with none other than … a Wheelie?

Yes, a wheelie, but not that kind. This wheelie is of a whole different caliber. We’re talking about a Wheelie Award at the Bus Project’s upcoming red carpet event!

The Bus Project is a 10-year old local organization dedicated to supporting grass-roots democracy and other related good causes, right here in the state of Oregon. As the name suggests, the project maintains an actual bus used for trips to drive nonpartisan volunteer canvasses throughout the region.

Every two years, The Bus Project hosts the Wheelies, a benefit and awards show that celebrates the individuals, organizations and businesses of Oregon. Wheelies awards are given to those that do right for the greater good of Oregon. This year, the Wheelies will be held on October 10 at the Gerding Theater in the Portland Armory.

Elemental finds itself in good company as a nominee in the High-Road Business category. This award honors an Oregon business that keeps things green, looks out for its workers and attempts to find innovative solutions to big challenges and problems facing the world today. Online voting is live now through October 7. Winners are solely determined by public opinion and all comers are welcome, so please take a moment to support Elemental and cast your vote now!

IBC 2011 - It's a Wrap

Lisa — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:18:47 +0000

We’re winding down at IBC today. What a show! The multi-screen experience was the pervasive theme at the RAI this year. And Elemental’s booth was abuzz with excitement. Only a few short months since our initial launch in the EMEA region, the Elemental team is humbled by the attention we received at this year’s event.

What became clear to us throughout the show was the passion our customers have for their business and how Elemental’s solutions and support are a key ingredient in their successful evolution to multi-screen video delivery. Customers and prospects alike stopped by to discuss the opportunities they see in new media and the challenges they know Elemental is best positioned to help them address.

But, most of all, we saw customers grateful to put a name to a face, thank us for our tireless support of their high profile projects, and give us further encouragement as we continue to put them at the center of all we do. The two-way, unfiltered, and passionate feedback experienced at IBC serves as a great motivator for us. So here’s to continued success: to our partners, to our customers, and to all things multi-screen.

Gearing up for IBC 2011 @elementaltech

Lisa — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:05:40 +0000

IBC is quickly approaching and Elemental is preparing to exhibit and present at this key industry event, held each September in Amsterdam. We are bringing our complete product lineup to this year’s show to demonstrate the industry’s foremost adaptive bit rate multi-screen video delivery.

On the show floor, Elemental will provide an exclusive look at features and applications geared toward content programmers, solution providers and broadcasters. Demonstration highlights include live video streaming with ad insertion and programmable image overlay. We’re particularly excited to show attendees dynamically changing graphics in a live output stream – and integrating Twitter to do it!

Visitors to Elemental’s stand at IBC can live tweet using a variety of hashtags (#IBC11, #multiscreen, #elemental) and see Elemental Live burn that image into its output stream within mere seconds! Come see your live tweets at Elemental’s stand in a terrific demonstration of image overlay that can be used in real-world applications for video branding, tracking and spoiling.

You can find Elemental in Hall 7, Stand 7.H37. Visit us to find out why customers like deltatre in the UK, TF1 in France and QVC in Italy are using full-featured solutions from Elemental for a variety of live and on-demand streaming video applications. Better yet, schedule a meeting with Elemental to learn how Elemental can help deliver any video to any screen, at any time – all at once. If you plan to attend IBC, be our guest and register here for a free 5-day pass (select Elemental, use passcode 16606).

X marks the spot for Elemental, thePlatform and Comcast

Whitney — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 05:51:58 +0000

Just how fast are Elemental solutions? They’re Xtremely fast! And today we’re pleased to let the world know that Comcast thinks so too. Comcast has tapped Elemental to create the video available to its subscribers on XfinityTV.com and to power its Xfinity TV app for Apple devices.

The Comcast deployment, completed in conjunction with our content management partner, thePlatform, validates our vision for perfecting the media experience in a media multiplied world. Elemental customers include not only the most prestigious content programmers on the planet, but the largest service providers as well. And with Comcast, which owns an enormous number of media properties, we get both.

Why? Well, the bottom line is that Elemental has video processing solutions for adaptive bit rate streaming that scale in large deployments better than any other products on the market. When a company like Comcast needs to make the transition from the one-to-one world of the past (TVs) to the one-to-many universe of the future (every device) where total ubiquity is the bar, there is no substitute for a video processing solution that can support your business by driving more revenues and reducing overall costs. Simply put, Elemental provides high-quality, high-value content in less than 50% of the footprint and at less than 50% of the cost of our competitors.

Don’t just take our word for how well Elemental stacks up against the competition. A newly published industry report from a third-party expert details exactly how we compare to other transcoding and encoding solutions based on extensive benchmark testing across a multitude of dimensions including speed, throughput and quality. Read the report now to learn how Elemental came out on top.

Elemental Sets Sail in Europe

alisa — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 23:40:46 +0000

Elemental embraces the wind as we navigate overseas to establish our presence in the European video market. With the launch of our EMEA office in the United Kingdom and significant customer wins throughout Europe, Elemental’s ship is unstoppable. TF1 Group in France, WRN Broadcast in England, QVC in Italy and VMMa (Flemish Media Company) are among the most recent customers to come on board.

John Nemeth, Director, EMEA, captains the new office, located just outside of London in Reading, England. Nemeth brings a strong background in sales and marketing to his role at Elemental. Formerly, Nemeth was sales director at IBIS Limited and prior to that was director of sales at Omneon (now owned by Harmonic). The UK office provides sales, marketing and systems engineering service and support to Elemental’s growing customer base in Europe and manages the reseller channel throughout EMEA.

Customers in Europe use Elemental solutions for a wide range of multi-screen video applications. WRN Broadcast deployed Elemental Live to create 10 simultaneous streaming outputs from a live HD-SDI playout source. QVC uses Elemental Live to capture live outputs in three minute increments to create Adobe Flash assets for later use on the company’s website. VMMa plans to broadcast live sporting events using Elemental Live streams formatted for Microsoft Smooth Streaming. TF1 Group uses Elemental Live to create live streams for Adobe Flash, Apple HLS and Microsoft Smooth Streaming.

To celebrate the debut of our European operations, the Elemental UK Team took to the waters in Portsmouth, Hampshire to compete in the 2011 Diamond Cup Regatta, July 17-19. Elemental joined crewmates from Alliants, Atom Systems, BSkyB, Hurst UK and WRN Broadcast. The proceeds from this competitive event benefit The Outward Bound Trust, an educational charity that helps young people access outdoor adventure.

NBA Posts Record Streaming Numbers, Dirk Sings to Celebrate

Eli — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 18:37:48 +0000

As we watch the live streaming coverage of the Dallas Mavericks’ victory parade this morning on NBA.com, one thing is clear: Dirk has not put as much time into his singing voice as he has his shooting stroke. But that’s okay—it wasn’t his singing that won him the NBA championship and finals MVP. It also doesn't keep him from belting out the lyrics to "We Are the Champions" as Mark Cuban dances and Jason Terry's big ol' cigar hangs out of his mouth. Yes, the NBA season must be over.

While we wait for next season (it could be awhile, unfortunately), let’s take a look back at some numbers reported by Turner Broadcasting for the 2010-2011 NBA campaign.

Over the course of the NBA playoffs, viewers watched 141 million video streams on NBA.com, an 89 percent increase over last year.
During the season as a whole, viewers tuned in to 2.7 billion streams, which was an increase of more than 133 percent.
The NBA Game Time app, which features on-demand video highlights and live audio, saw a 90 percent increase in downloads on mobile and connected devices.

Some impressive data posted by NBA Digital, and congratulations to Steve Hellmuth, EVP of Operations and Technology for NBA Entertainment, who has been named a 2011 Streaming Media All-Star. Hellmuth notes that the NBA’s “Next Big Thing” is digitizing the league’s entire video library—more than 450,000 hours of footage dating from 1946. That’s a lot of encoding, but we’re pretty confident the NBA will find a way to get it done.

We hope next season starts on time this fall, but should it not, at least LeBron will have the NBA Game Time app to take his mind off his latest disappointment. Don’t get us wrong, we at Elemental think LeBron has taken enough heat for his performance in the championship series. But we do want to point out that had he gone to college, he would’ve learned the importance of showing up for finals.

Any Video, Any Screen, Any Time - All at Once

Whitney — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:29:17 +0000

Multi-screen video delivery is changing the face of the broadcast landscape. After decades of traditional linear distribution, professionally produced video is now accessible across multiple platforms and a myriad of mobile devices. As viewing devices proliferate and consumers seek content any time and anywhere, service providers are tasked with developing innovative ways to satisfy growing demand.

Today marks day one of The Cable Show in Chicago, where MSOs and other cable service providers are unveiling their solutions for video delivery to Internet-connected devices. Elemental is exhibiting at the show in the CableNET pavilion, showcasing live and file-to-file video processing solutions for multi-screen delivery.

Elemental is working with a number of major media providers, including Avail-TVN, to help facilitate the shift of video from traditional distribution via set-top box and satellite to delivery beyond the TV set. Specifically, Avail-TVN will deploy video processing solutions from Elemental to provide more than 100 channels of content to viewers who are changing the way they consume video. Read Avail-TVN's announcement at The Cable Show here.

Content providers are quickly implementing cost-effective and long-term solutions for getting high-quality video into the hands of video watchers anytime, anywhere, on any device – all at once. We call it Media Multiplied.

Elemental Comes to Atlanta to Play

Lisa — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 18:54:11 +0000

This week, Elemental is attending and exhibiting at the College Sports Video Summit (CSVS) in Atlanta, Georgia. Sponsored by the Sports Video Group, CSVS is all about building the business of college sports video and it's where schools and universities learn how to increase the value of their college sports content. As SVG notes, more college sports content is being produced and distributed than ever before – and most schools have only just scratched the surface.

It was not so long ago that a college sports fan settled for watching a national game-of-the-week on television or tuned in to listen to a favorite team play on local radio. But with the proliferation of “pads, pods and tabs”, typical supporters don’t need to settle for these limited options any longer. College fans increasingly expect and demand expanded coverage of their school’s sporting events online and on mobile devices. Delivering video, both live and on-demand, is now a priority in the world of college sports and prominent networks and programmers turn to Elemental to make this happen in a high-quality and cost-effective manner.

As Elemental continues its mission to provide video to any screen, any time, all at once, we also strive to help college sports networks and universities deliver video in ways never before possible. If you are attending CSVS this week (June 7-8), we look forward to meeting you at the show and demonstrating how Elemental's video processing solutions can enable your streaming video application. To learn more about Elemental’s solutions for college sports video, read the application brief here.

Thank You, TechAmerica, for Honoring Elemental at the Oregon TechAwards

Whitney — Sat, 21 May 2011 00:29:44 +0000

I’m going to just come right out and say it…

We won…twice!

Thanks to the tireless work of all our employees, Elemental brought home two awards from the Oregon TechAwards ceremony last night.

The first honor Elemental received was the Rising Star Company of the Year award, which was decided by a selection committee and presented during the show. The second award went to Elemental Live for Cool Product of the Year. After the three finalists presented their cool products back to back in two-minute pitches, the audience selected the winner by text vote.

Elemental was in good company with FLIR and InFocus in the running for the Cool Product of the Year award and Jama and Janrain vying for the Rising Star Company of the Year award.

Elemental’s groundbreaking technology is used worldwide by major cable operators, content programmers and broadcasters. It’s exciting to see Elemental’s growth as a company and the strides our technology has made over the past year. It is truly an honor to be recognized by TechAmerica Oregon for these achievements.

The Oregon TechAwards, sponsored by TechAmerica, was held on May 19, 2011 at the Portland Art Museum. A total of seven awards were given to companies and individuals who have made significant strides in the region’s technology community over the course of the year.

Check out our newsroom for more information about Elemental at the 2011 Oregon TechAwards, or visit the Oregon TechAwards website.

Go Elemental!