Beamr services the world's top Pay TV and streaming video distributors as the leading developer of content-adaptive encoding and video optimization solutions that enable superior video quality, excellent CPU performance, and excellent bitrate efficiency for managed services, OTT content distributors, broadcasters and OVPs. Backed by forty-four International patents, Beamr's perceptual optimization technology extends into our HEVC and H.264 software video encoders. CABR (Content-Adaptive Bitrate) is a innovative rate-control mode that enables the full original quality to be delivered with bitrate savings as high as 50%. Founded in 2009, Beamr investors include Verizon Ventures, Eric Schmidt backed Innovation Endeavors, and Disruptive.
The advanced imaging technology Beamr developed for our codecs are covered by 11 granted patents that are a part of the 44 total patents the company holds that cover our breakthrough video optimization developments. Though video quality and bitrate continues to be a core focus of development, Beamr recognized the prevailing trend to increase compute performance and density of software-based video encoding and transcoding infrastructure as a key to securing a competitive advantage for MSOs, streaming video platforms, and content distribution networks. With compute efficiency being an essential goal, video architects must be prepared for advanced entertainment content, by embracing new technologies, capabilities, and standards such as HEVC, HDR, and 4K.
Beamr's perceptual quality measure is based on a proprietary, low complexity, highly reliable, perceptually aligned quality metric that is covered by 33 International patents. The existence of this proprietary quality measure enables controlling a video encoder to obtain an output clip with the maximum compression possible while maintaining the original video resolution, format and visual quality. The way that this is achieved is by adjusting the compression level of each frame in the video sequence so that it is compressed to the maximum while producing a visual result that is the same as the quality that was originally specified.
The Beamr quality measure has been in development since 2009. After years of refinement, and subjecting it to the strict requirements and testing of ITU BT.500 which is an International standard for verifying and testing image quality, we were able to confirm that there is a sufficiently high correlation of our quality measure with subjective results. The Beamr quality measure takes into account temporal artifacts. Since it is not sufficient to ensure only at the frame level that degradation has not been introduced - it is also necessary to preserve the quality of the video's temporal flow. When viewing a video Beamr encoded using the VBR rate-control and a video encoded with the CABR rate-control side-by-side, they will be perceptually identical to the human eye under normal viewing conditions. This is a secret to how the process is able to guarantee image quality.
At the NAB show in April 2019, Beamr showed the results of an Intel silicon accelerated CABR solution, where for the first time, streaming video distributors and 5G telco services will be able to use multi-access edge computing to deliver the density, cost, and bitrate efficiency required by high-volume applications like cloud gaming, 5G connected autonomous cars, real-time live sports streaming, VR, or any use case where high video quality at the lowest bitrate is needed. For platform developers, silicon accelerated CABR enables new product frontiers for demanding applications like video editing and publishing on the newest generation of mobile devices, tablets, and desktop computers.