IBC 2022: MainConcept Launches VVC/H.266 SDK Beta And Demos Cloud-Ready 8K Broadcast Technology

MainConcept, the provider of codecs for production, broadcast and streaming technologies, announced in a statement today the launch of their VVC/H.266 SDK, which will be demonstrated at the upcoming 2022 IBC Show and will be made available as a part of the company’s Beta program. VVC promises to provide unsurpassed quality and efficiency making resolution jumps like the one to 8K more palatable to content distributors, the company said. In Hall 7, Booth D12 of the RAI, the MainConcept team will share exciting technology demos and highlight their advancements in the development of VVC along with 8K-optimized cloud encoding built on top of their award-winning HEVC/H.265 SDK and other MainConcept technologies that are essential ingredients used to process over 90% of today’s professional videos.

“We look forward to returning to the IBC Show in Amsterdam and to sharing the numerous advancements we’ve made, keeping ahead of the rapid growth of digital video and audio,” said Deacon Johnson, Senior Vice President, Technology Licensing & Strategy, MainConcept. “Our partner ecosystem and codec library have expanded tremendously since we were at IBC in 2019. This is reflected in our optimized ARM architecture compatibility, a broad portfolio of professional FFmpeg plugins, and high-performance HEVC products to support cloud-ready 8K, 4K and HD live encoding workflows on a single low-cost server, as well as newer offerings such as VVC.”

MainConcept is launching their new VVC/H.266 Encoder SDK, which is designed for real-time 10-bit operation. For the Beta program, the SDK will be available for broadcast trials, field testing, and TV standards development and verification. For rapid deployment and evaluation, an FFmpeg plugin will be released as well. You can apply to be part of the MainConcept Beta program today.

The MainConcept VVC/H.266 encoder is designed to support future broadcast standards like DVB and SBTVD, as well as OTT applications. MainConcept also offers a portfolio of components that work together (e.g., audio encoders and multiplexers) to complete the solution for organizations adopting the new VVC standard for broadcast and streaming in 1080p, 4K and 8K.

At IBC, MainConcept plans to demonstrate their VVC SDK capability by streaming VVC multi-layer real time encoding running in parallel on Amazon Web Services (AWS) using MPEG-DASH. This demo directly addresses broadcast applications, showing greatly improved immersive visual quality in more live channels, and opens up countless use cases in streaming over internet and mobile.

MainConcept also plans to showcase encoding of 8K content in real time via a remote AWS instance, complete with a dashboard for visualizing system performance, frame rate and bitrate. This demonstration will use multiple MainConcept technologies, including Live Encoder (powered by their industry-leading HEVC/H.265 encoder), WebASM and Hybrid GPU acceleration to show how you can encode 8K, 4K and HD in a single instance.

“The MainConcept 8K encoder can deliver more live channels or ABR layers per system at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions and is available for use on premises, in the cloud and in hybrid workflows,” the company statement said. “To see for yourself the impact of MainConcept’s essential ingredients for production, broadcast and streaming products, you can also experience using their Content Creation Lab which includes compatibility for Fraunhofer, Panasonic and Sony plugins as well as VVC, HEVC and AVC software. This tool enables users to evaluate the compatibility and quality of encoded files, review the console log and command line parameters, and learn about MainConcept FFmpeg plugin usage.”