At the 2013 NAB Show, Snell unveiled a new way for customers to gain access to its high-quality image processing technology, long revered for its quality but often considered too costly for many rank-and-file broadcasters.
The company announced its Snell On Demand platform, a new media processing framework that offers on-demand access to Snell's award-winning image processing algorithms in file, virtualized broadcast and digital media environments.
By taking advantage of advances in cloud computing and virtual machine technologies, the Snell On Demand framework facilitates highly scalable solutions, from a single computing instance to a cloud-computing environment delivering a service over a network. Snell On Demand allows users to deploy processing solutions on reliable, cost-effective commodity IT infrastructure rather than employ dedicated hardware for discrete processing operations. In addition, Snell On Demand enables users to differentiate their service offerings for their clients and end users.
Users can scale Snell On Demand according to their needs. To increase performance, users may add acceleration hardware or commercially available off-the-shelf products such as graphics processing units (GPUs), or they may choose to distribute processing applications across multiple virtual machines or server farms. The framework assures ease of integration with cloud providers, thus supporting delivery of Snell product solutions as a service on a network.
The first Snell On Demand product is the Alchemist OD software-based frame-rate converter that accommodates rapid conversion of media files. For international program delivery or integration of international content into domestic schedules, Alchemist OD will provide the world's best quality frame-rate conversion. The initial product implementation will support broadcast standards from SD to 3G 1080p, with frame-rate and format conversion between common broadcast file formats.
Snell On Demand standards conversion software can be deployed on a single server node, with optional GPUs. To further improve efficiency, the user may run parallel conversion jobs on a server farm. Because Snell offers OpenStack compatibility, the software may be implemented in either a public or private cloud.
