Video Processing Perspectives

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, 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.

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.

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.

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 Twitter is already well underway.