Oliver.Gunasekara@NGCodec.com

Previous CEO/Founder NGCodec Advisor to Xilinx Data Center Group

RECENT TRENDS IN LIVE CLOUD VIDEO TRANSCODING

Agenda

NGCodec History

Cloud Transcoding Market

Benefits of Hardware encoding

Conclusions

Q&A

2

NGCodec History

NGCodec History

● 2012 - Founded on the back of HEVC/H.265, Silicon IP licensing business● 2013 - Failed to close funding with IP business model● 2014 - Pivot to FPGA Cloud encoding with Saas, Seed $3M from Belmore cap● 2015 - License of FPGA encoder to HaiVision● 2016 - Xilinx 1st round of investment, First company to demo FPGA on AWS ● 2017 - Starts VP9 development, commits to all CODEC and ASIC● 2018 - Xilinx 2nd round of investment, Twitch customer deal signed● 2019 - Demos 4K AV1 Intra live encoder, Acquired by Xilinx

AV1

A V C

V P 9

C h e sV P 9 2

NGCodec History (Founded 2012)

2015 2016 2017 2018

C a sh e w (H E V C )

P in e (H E V C )

C h estn u t 1(H E V C )

C h estn u t 2(H E V C )

2019

C h estn u t 3(H E V C )

● I&P fra m es● 1 ref fra m e● 10 8 0 p60

+ B fra m es+ Ad a ptive AQ

+ 2 ref fra m es+ U ltra low la ten c y+ 4 k p30 + TM V P

+ L ook a h ea d+ M u ltip le g op s izes+ AB R

+ V a ria ble g op+ F ra m e level

F W c on trol (L eg o)

+ C on ten t a d a ptive

+ 4 K p60

7 ye a rs of d e ve lop m e n tM u ltip le ite ra tion sM u ltip le sta n d a rd sM u ltip le c u stom e rs

M u ltip le g ra n te d p a te n ts~4 0 P e op le

Encoder Simplified Block Diagram mm2c

Inter Cost

Intra Search

Select ReconMC

Recon-struct

SAO Filter CABAC

Deblock Filter c2mm

NalHu es2mm

PredCache 1*

Inter IRefine

1Inter IRefine

0

Inter SRefine

1Inter

SRefine 0

PredCache 0*

Master AXI DDR interfaces

Bitstream outReference

frame outRaw pixels in

Reference frame in

Reference frame in

All blue blocks are HLS modules

Cloud Transcoding Market

Codec Adoption Forecast by Number of bits/s

● AVC/H.264 was standardized in 2003

● Other things that were new in 2003

○ Sony Trinitron Wega KV-20FS100

○ Blackberry Quark 6210

○ Thinkpad X31

H.264 Surprising Result?

9

● It works everywhere!

● Open source ecosystem

○ x264 is a very good H.264 encoder

● Mature workflows for content creation

● Momentum in the industry

● Predictable licensing model

Why is so much content encoded in H.264?

10

Growth in Video Processing / Costs

50 % C AG R in S tream in g C ost, 10 x in 20 24 !

Streaming Cost Growing 50% CAGR

TC O for s p e c ific vid e o e n c od in gD rive rs : B itra te for s p e c ific V Q

B a n d w id th to C D N c os ts($ 0 .0 4 p e r G B yte , $ M m on th )

S tora g e c os ts($ 0 .0 2 p e r G B yte , $ M m on th )

C om p u tin g TC O e n c od in g /M L c os ts($ 1.0 0 p e r H ou r , $ M M on th )

B a n d w id th a n d s tora g e c os ts(S e rv ic e p rovid e r C D N & c on s u m e r d a ta p la n )

Q u a lity of e xp e rie n c e (S ta rtu p tim e , v is u a l q u a lity , s ta lls )

W h y V is u a l Q u a lity (V Q ) M a tte rs

HUYA 6-K 11/13/2018 (Twitch of China)

“Bandwidth costs increased by 66.8% to US$25.3 million 3Q2018 from same period of 2017, primarily due to an

increase in bandwidth usage as a result of increased user base on Huya’s

platform and enhanced live streaming video quality improvement”

Benefits of Hardware encoding

Encoding Computing Landscape

Performance & Power Efficiency

Flex

ibili

ty &

Eas

e of

Use

LibVPx

CPU (90%)

FPGA

Fixed Instruction setRigid memory hierarchy

Adjust algorithm to architecture

Flexible fully customizable architectureAdjust architecture to algorithm

ACAP

CPU are too slow for live encoding

SVT-HEVC (Intel)

Why software is too slow for live video encoding● Brute force does not work

○ Full RDO mode decision is required

○ Smart algorithms needed for uniform & balanced VQ

○ One imperfection can destroy the VQ results

○ Same performance at 4K as 1080p

Google/Twitch/NGCodec technical blog

https://blog.twitch.tv/how-does-vp9-deliver-value-for-twitchs-esports-live-streaming-35db26f6322f

http://subjectify.us

M6

Cloud Transcoding with FPGA’s

TCO & VQ Comparison Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) per 1080p60 channel per year,3 Year Amortization Servers, 10 Years Amortization Space, 24c per KWh

R e fe re n c e +4 5% -20 % -30 % -4 0 %B IT R A T E D IF F E R E N C E

F O R S A M E V Q

Conclusions● Cloud Video costs are grow at 50% CAGR

○ Majority done by Internet Hyperscalers

○ Bandwidth and compute costs

● CPU’s are too slow for live encoding

○ Have to use ‘faster’ presets

○ ‘Slower’ presets not possible for live & expensive

● Programmable hardware (FPGA) delivers best VQ

○ Available today in many public/private Clouds

○ Roadmap to ASIC

Q u e s t io n s ?