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ELTA Cloud Video Service Creates a New Digital Lifestyle

October 21, 2011

The four-day “2011 Taiwan International Broadband Communications Exhibition” concluded successfully, and ELTA Technology, as an innovative leader in Taiwan’s new media industry, participated in this grand event, showcasing its “Multi-Screen One Cloud” video service. “Multi-Screen” refers to cross-platform, cross-screen live streaming, while “One Cloud” refers to the application of cloud technology in the audiovisual industry. With the help of cloud technology, viewers can enjoy digital audiovisual content anytime and anywhere through various mobile devices connected to the cloud.

The emergence of HD (high-definition) quality has brought a new highlight to television viewing, turning watching TV into a visual pleasure. With the rise of cloud technology, watching TV is no longer limited to television sets — computers and mobile devices now allow people to watch content anywhere, completely changing viewing habits. ELTA Technology CEO Sally Chen stated that the “Multi-Screen One Cloud” service offers users a seamless, integrated experience. By connecting through TVs, computers, smartphones, or tablets, users can enjoy unified access. When combined with a Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication system, this integration allows smooth interoperability between devices, ensuring consistent and familiar services across both small and large screens. Moreover, “Multi-Screen One Cloud” also provides differentiated and interactive services. When integrated with platforms such as healthcare, surveillance, or video conferencing, it enriches consumers’ digital lives.

Excellent services rely on advanced technology and infrastructure. ELTA Technology is Taiwan’s first media operator to invest in cloud-based video services, having independently developed a brand-new video service system that strengthens next-generation IP video streaming. From content creation to transcoding and output, this system efficiently manages multimedia streaming demands. ELTA’s CTO, Chih-Yi Cheng, explained that ELTA’s self-developed “Media Cloud” features large-scale storage, high-speed computing, and streaming capabilities. Through this unique cloud technology, ELTA aims to provide more diverse viewing services across TV, internet, and mobile markets to meet consumer needs.

ELTA’s in-house “Media Cloud” consists of three parts — Transcoding Cloud, Storage Cloud, and Management Cloud — each designed based on the specific needs of the audiovisual industry. Since ELTA uses these systems internally, continuous testing and adjustments have proven their reliability in practical applications. The three components function as follows:

Transcoding Cloud
The transcoding service of the cloud platform provides powerful technology to convert multimedia files into various formats optimized for different devices and bandwidths. The most remarkable feature of ELTA’s Transcoding Cloud is its ability to quickly and easily expand GPU capacity, tripling transcoding speed! ELTA produces over 250 hours of HD content weekly across internet TV, web, mobile, and PDA devices. Supported formats include MP4, H.263, H.264, 3GPP, and VC1.

Storage Cloud
Storing audiovisual files is a major challenge for many content producers and service providers. ELTA developed a massive storage system exceeding 1 petabyte to address this issue, providing the most cost-effective option among economical storage solutions. Since the system focuses on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) rather than peak performance, ELTA’s massive storage solution is more cost-efficient than any other disk storage system on the market. It supports complete file backups and can be easily expanded beyond 10 petabytes!

Management Cloud
Managing and storing massive amounts of video can be overwhelming without an effective tagging and indexing system. Imagine having over 500,000 hours of video in your cloud database and needing to locate a specific clip instantly. ELTA’s Media Asset Management (MAM) search engine uses tagging to locate the right video among over 10 million metadata entries in real time. The MAM system’s powerful search capabilities allow the engine to search 100,000 files per second after converting video into taggable metafiles.

Whether watching the latest drama online or streaming live MLB games on an iPhone or iPad at an outdoor café, advancements in broadband and cloud technologies have blurred the lines between computers and televisions. Cloud computing has revolutionized viewing habits — from TV, web, smartphones to tablets — offering audiences a multi-device entertainment experience. Apple, for example, has already begun offering cloud-based media services, allowing users to purchase music, books, and apps online and automatically sync them across devices without physical connections. Even TV shows can be purchased and wirelessly downloaded. Once Apple obtains movie distribution rights, similar services will be available for films as well. In the near future, people will simply connect their devices to the cloud to enjoy convenient cloud-based audiovisual entertainment.