Video Processing Perspectives

Today, Elemental welcomes Sujal Patel to its board of directors and Elemental leadership team. Sujal is the founder of Isilon Systems, a leader in scale-out storage, where he variously led as president, CEO and chief technology officer since its inception in 2001. Sujal knows rapid business growth in the midst of technological transformation. His vision of network-attached storage (NAS) became the seed of Isilon, which he grew from an innovative startup to a public company and eventually sold to EMC for $2.25 billion. 

Prior to founding Isilon, Sujal acted in various engineering roles at RealNetworks. In addition to serving on the Elemental board, he serves on the board of ExtraHop Networks, a Seattle-based startup that supplies network-based application performance management solutions. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Maryland at College Park. He also knows the value of intellectual property and holds a number of patents and pending patents, including those for the Isilon OneFS™ distributed file system. 

When he is not building start-ups into billion dollar enterprises, Sujal spends his time mentoring other entrepreneurs, speaking about startup experiences, and devoting time to his growing family. Elemental is thrilled to have an individual with Sujal's knowledge and passion taking a seat on our board. 

As we welcome Sujal, it is with deep gratitude that we thank Bob Greenberg for his five years of service on the Elemental board of directors. Elemental’s founding team first got to know Bob in 1999 at Pixelworks, where he was a co-founder. After leaving Pixelworks, Bob led the Oregon Angel Fund’s investment in Elemental, representing the company’s first external investor. From there he played a key role in driving Elemental’s Series A financing with Voyager Capital and General Catalyst Partners, and has provided many thoughtful technical insights as a company Director.  We wish him the very best. 

While Portland is no stranger to clouds or high tech, the cloud computing field is vast and decentralized; the best way to learn about what’s going on in a rapidly evolving field is to ask the experts. Right now, technical knowledge is spread across more than 90 user groups in the greater Portland area. To build community and connect key learnings, next week we kick off PDXCloud, a monthly meet-up of programmers interested in all aspects of working with cloud-based services. The group helps networking and knowledge transfer in the growing tech community, welcomes developers at all skill levels, and reflects the growing presence of companies in the region that are developing software services for the cloud. Join us at Elemental on November 14 for two great talks: 

• Jesse Rosenzweig, CTO and Co-founder of Elemental, will talk about leveraging graphics processing units (GPUs) in Amazon Web Services 
• Jeremy Wagner-Kaiser, Engineering Lead at Cloudability, will give an overview of different cloud service offerings

Future PDXCloud meeting topics include working with vendors such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Rackspace, etc., working with open-source implementations such as OpenStack, and developing cloud-based services, sites, and tools in both vendor-specific and vendor-agnostic ways. Come help shape the conversation; we look forward to seeing you.

Each year, Streaming Media magazine identifies the one hundred companies that matter most in online video. Last week, Elemental was named to the 2012 Streaming Media 100 for the second consecutive year. Streaming Media’s panel of judges separated the stalwarts from the upstarts, identifying the companies "that continue to innovate and grow not just their customer base but the industry as a whole." To be certain, it’s an honor to be included, but what does that mean – to matter?

To the readers, it is a reminder: vote. The power to rank and recommend these companies lies in the Streaming Media Reader’s Choice Awards. Vote before October 15, and remember to confirm your vote when Streaming Media sends an email verification. Elemental is nominated for four awards including:

• Encoding Software (Enterprise Class)
• Hardware Encoder (On Demand)
• Hardware Encoder (Live)
• Multi-Screen/OTT Solution for Content Publishers

To the editors, it is a map. These broadcasters, content publishers, and related service providers build the world of sports, news and entertainment media. All roam the streaming video landscape. 

To the nominee, it is a cheer. Elemental wins with each customer we connect to next. With that, we hope to see you next at Streaming Media West, October 30-31, in Los Angeles, where we will be speaking about Best Practices for Migrating to a Cloud-Based Encoding Platform (like Elemental Cloud). If you can’t make it to the show, perhaps we can meet at another industry event coming up soon.

Finally, to this blog, your attention makes it matter. Thank you.

Elemental is visiting four continents in the next thirty days, so the world has a great chance to see us this fall. Connect with Elemental at an upcoming industry event if you missed IBC last month or haven’t visited with us lately. In the next few months, the Elemental team brings hands-on demonstrations of its solutions to cities all over the world, including our newest products, Elemental Stream and Elemental Cloud. Elemental executives are also speaking on panels to the latest in multiscreen video streaming in Hong Kong, Los Angeles, New York and London. Have you made an appointment to see us?

Shows are worth the trip. Since most video workflows have at least one unique feature, attendees can save time by asking Elemental representatives questions about streaming media to smart phones, tablets and PCs and get fast answers. At a trade show, our team can talk through your specific challenges and demonstrate the advantages of video processing solutions from Elemental. We have deep experience helping companies like HBO, Comcast and the BBC deploy video infrastructure to deliver premium content and live events to new media platforms quickly and reliably. Visit us at one the shows listed below to see how we can support your application.

Check out our events page for booth numbers and more detailed information about our upcoming shows. If you don't have the opportunity to visit Elemental this fall, learn more online about our recent product rollouts, customer announcements and how we helped broadcasters stream the Olympics.

Thank you, gracias, merci, 谢谢 and ありがとう. We look forward to seeing you on the road!

Every year Inc. magazine ranks America’s 500 fastest growing private companies. In 2012, Elemental secured the #1 spot in Oregon, the #2 position in the software segment nationally, and the #52 overall rank on Inc.'s comprehensive and prestigious list. From 2008 - 2011, Elemental grew revenue 4,518%, and supplied clients including HBO, Disney and Comcast with the tools to stream video to smart phones, tablets, and computers. In the most demanding application yet, Elemental products medaled in video performance by delivering up to 24 live streams to 55 million online viewers for the BBC during the London 2012 Olympics this summer. Eurosport, Terra, and CTV also used Elemental products to stream live and on-demand Olympic video to more than 70 countries.

“We are extremely honored to be named one of America’s fastest growing private companies on the Inc. 500 list,” said Sam Blackman, CEO and co-founder of Elemental. “From 2008 to 2011, Elemental was fortunate to grow significantly in a challenging economy, thanks to an extremely talented, dedicated team and a rapidly growing market. Along with positive feedback from our customers, this ranking validates the team’s hard work and we are more excited than ever about the future of Elemental and the IP video industry.”

In a related Inc. article, Anthony Wood, founder of Roku, stated that “There’s more innovation happening in TV right now than probably any time in history.” Elemental is at the forefront of this change. Wood predicts that in 2016, most people will watch television through the Internet instead of cable, satellite or over-the-air. To get there, service providers, content programmers, and broadcasters need solutions like Elemental Live and Elemental Server to process and encode video for IP networks.

Customer applications highlight the multiscreen video revolution that propels Elemental. Analyzing audience behavior, the BBC noted viewers watching Olympics events throughout the day on devices targeted by Elemental. News providers such as ESPN and ABC News deliver video to mobile phones that captures eyes during mass-transit morning commutes. Sports, television programming and live events stream over the Internet to avid viewers at computers throughout the day. Original content available through HBO GO and Comcast Xfinity make for compelling bedtime stories on tablets at night. In a non-stop entertainment environment streamed across the world’s time zones and languages, Elemental products lay the foundation for the new vision of television service in video on demand, IPTV, and live mobile video.