Company
About MainConcept
Live Encoder
Powerful, real-time MPEG-2/AVC/HEVC/VVC video encoding in up to 8K 10-bit plus MPEG-H Audio
Real-time video encoding for every screen size
Live streaming at a professional level doesn’t need to be complicated. MainConcept® Live Encoder is a powerful all-in-one encoding engine designed to simplify common broadcast and OTT video workflows. With renowned MainConcept VVC, HEVC and AVC codecs plus enhanced LCEVC (MPEG-5 Part 2) built in, the intuitive user interface allows you to package content for multiscreen delivery, using common input sources, in real-time.
The power of MainConcept Live Encoder:
- Multi-codec support in up to 8K with MPEG-2, VVC, HEVC and AVC
- MPEG-5 LCEVC (Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding), is an enhancement codec that works with MainConcept AVC, HEVC and VVC encoders as base layers, simultaneously increasing resolution while reducing bitrates for the same quality by up to 40%.
- Set up a live workflow to ingest (incl. source real-time preview), prepare, and stream audio-visual content that is compatible with every type of consumer device, whether delivering video directly to a CDN, to an online video platform via RTMP or with low-latency protocols Zixi and SRT.
- Comes with MPEG-H 3D Audio creation featuring output for Zixi, SRT, TS over UDP/HTTP, HLS, MPEG-DASH and MP4 archiving files and support for live SDI and NDI ingest for up to 16 PCM channels
System Requirements
Processor: Intel or AMD CPUsOperating Systems: Microsoft Windows Server 2019, Microsoft Windows 10, Rocky Linux 8, Amazon Linux 2023
Live Encoder 4.1.1
Hardware acceleration for HEVC & AVC codecs
Parallel live HEVC/H.265 and AVC/H.264 encoding on a single, cost-efficient desktop CPU, using Intel GPU technology for enhanced performance with Intel Core and Xeon E3 processors with a dedicated graphics unit as well as with Intel ARC GPUs. MainConcept HEVC Hybrid GPU acceleration is built in, giving you the best of both hardware and software encoding—even using AWS EC2 instances. And, if you use dedicated NVIDIA RTX boards, you get up to 2.5x better performance.
Live adaptive bitrate encoding to DASH & HLS
Live encoding to Apple HLS (both AVC and HEVC), DASH-264 (8-bit) and DASH-265 (8-bit/10-bit) in up to 8K resolution. Includes packaging as well as manifest and hybrid playlist generation. HLS creation is fully compliant with the latest updates to iOS and macOS, directly from Apple for enhanced resolution at lower bitrates. Encoding different quality layers and resolutions can be packaged in parallel for both DASH and HLS in a single job.
Flexible deployment via Web application & REST API
The intuitive web-based interface offers easy configuration and management of MainConcept Live Encoder, with full access to all available presets and output formats. The XML-based public REST API provides quick and simple integration into existing workflow systems for external control.
The MainConcept Live Encoder: A Gold Medal Candidate for the Paris Olympics
Brazil’s SBTVD Forum is the first to adopt VVC/H.266 as the future codec for TV broadcast. Their TV 3.0 profile which includes VVC is expected to launch in 2025. Until then, there are various showcases hosted by the Brazilian broadcaster Globo.
MainConcept, a frequent Globo collaborator, joins the Paris Olympics 2024 showcase for both TV 2.5 and TV 3.0. Partnering with V-Nova on MPEG-5 Part 2 LCEVC and InterDigital on Advanced HDR by Technicolor for TV 2.5, the MainConcept Live Encoder demonstrates the advantages of the transition standard with regards to quality and bandwidth savings. It paves the way for TV 3.0, the next generation standard in Brazil.
The MainConcept Live Encoder is future-ready today, already able to supports VVC/H.266 real-time video processing for TV 3.0. Fraunhofer IIS adds object-based MPEG-H Audio to the TV 2.5 and TV 3.0 standards, making the Olympics 2024 in Paris an unprecedented immersive experience for the audience.
This Globo showcase across different technologies, different companies and different countries demonstrates that the VVC codec remains on track to become the successor of AVC/H.264, not the least of which because it excels in high resolution 8K and beyond under limited bandwidth conditions while offering the best possible quality. The SBTVD Forum in Brazil was only the starting point, other standardization groups like DVB in Europe, ATSC 3.0 in the US and ARIB in Japan have already started evaluating VVC as their future format for TV broadcasting.
- Highlights
- Input
- Encoding
- Processing
- Output
- Configuration
Highlights
- Proven performance, used for over 50,000 live events every year
- Apple HLS and MPEG-DASH compliant
- Common SDI and IP input sources
- Real-time multiscreen encoding, with packaging and playlist generation
- Live archiving to disk or Amazon S3
- Up to 8K 10-bit resolution, with HDR10 support
- Hybrid hardware & software live encoding modes for up to HEVC 8K60 using on-premise hardware or in AWS
- Live input preview in different quality modes
- Immersive, object-based MPEG-H 3D Audio encoding
- Works with any Intel or AMD CPU depending on your encoding needs
- Supported on Windows or Linux
Input
- SDI capturing
- IP streams: UDP (MPEG-2/H.264 in MPEG TS), HTTP, RTMP, authenticated RTSP (in TS), SRT, Zixi and NDI
- Hardware AVC/H.264 and HEVC/H.265 decoding for IP ingest using Intel Quick Sync Video for dedicated Intel Core Processors, Intel ARC discrete GPUs or NVIDIA NVDEC technology
- Live SDI ingest for up to 16 PCM channels with a separate Control Track for creating content with immersive, object-based MPEG-H audio
- Real-time preview of the input source
- Optimized low-latency streaming
- Video: AVC/H.264, HEVC/H.265, MPEG-2, VC-1
- Audio: AAC, MPEG Audio Layer 1/2, MP3
Encoding
- Powered by industry leading MainConcept MPEG-2, VVC/H.266, AVC/H.264 and HEVC/H.265 software encoding technology
- MPEG-H 3D, AAC and MPEG audio encoding, including audio passthrough for unsupported audio formats
- Enhanced LCEVC (MPEG-5 Part 2) encoding add-ons with AVC, HEVC and VVC base layers
- Ready-to-use presets compatible with next generation Brazilian Fórum SBTVD TV 2.5 and TV 3.0
- MPEG-2-based DVB broadcast presets for immediate usage
- NVIDIA NVENC, Intel Quick Sync Video and Intel ARC discrete GPU hardware encoding for both AVC and HEVC/li>
- Live encoding to HLS (AVC) up to 1080p (8-bit), including playlist and packaging
- Live encoding to HLS (HEVC) up to 8K (8-bit/10-bit), including playlist and packaging
- Live encoding to DASH-264 up to 1080p (8-bit), including MPD and packaging
- Live encoding to DASH-265 up to 8K (8-bit/10-bit), including MPD and packaging
- Parallel packaging of MPEG-DASH and HLS
- MPEG-H 3D Audio encoding with output for Zixi, SRT, TS over UDP/HTTP, HLS, MPEG-DASH and MP4 archiving files
Processing
- HDR-10 and Advanced HDR by Technicolor (SL-HDR1) passthrough
- Closed Caption (EIA-608 & EIA-708)
- Ad-Insertion passthrough (SCTE-35 & SCTE-104)
- SCTE-104/35 conversion for Decklink capture cards
- SCTE-35 signaling for TS over IP protocols (HTTP, UDP, SRT and Zixi)
- SCTE-35 signaling for HLS and MPEG-DASH playlists
- AMF data insertion into RTMP output via REST API
- Logo insertion
- Slate insertion for lost signals
- Loudness normalization (CALM-Act/EBU R128)
- Video/Audio Processing Tools
- Deinterlacing, framerate conversion, scaling
- Channel mapping
- Multi-audio encoding for Zixi, SRT, RTSP, RTMP, TS over UDP/HTTP and MP4 archiving output
- Input source audio can be passed unmodified through the encoder to an output stream
Output
- Archive live streams to disk as MP4, or to Amazon S3 file storage
- IP streams: HLS. MPEG-DASH, RTMP, UDP, RTP, RTSP, HTTP, SRT, Zixi
- Enhanced RTMP streaming using HEVC/H.265
- Multi-audio track output for HLS
- Delivery service support: Akamai CDN, Amazon CloudFront CDN and WebDAV server
- Apple HLS AES-128 common encryption, including custom HLS encryption key file import
- Flexible configuration of date and time placeholders for HLS and MPEG-DASH media segment file names
- Custom names for HLS media playlists using placeholder variables
- User-defined descriptions for output streams
Configuration
- User Rights Management for administration and monitoring
- REST API
- SNMP Traps API
- Redundancy Management (1+1, N+M)
- License server redundancy
- Combined scheduler for encoding and publishing
- Automatic compression of rotated log files to save disk space
Products
MainConcept Live Encoder AVC/H.264
| Encode live to AVC/H.264 up to 1080p, incl. Intel Quick Sync Video and NVIDIA NVENC support. |
MainConcept Live Encoder AVC/HEVC HD
| Encode live to AVC/H.264 and HEVC/H.265 up to 1080p, including Intel Quick Sync Video and NVIDIA NVENC support for both AVC & HEVC. |
MAINCONCEPT LIVE ENCODER AVC/HEVC 4K
| Encode live to both AVC/H.264 and HEVC/H.265 up to 4K60p. including Intel Quick Sync Video and NVIDIA NVENC support for both AVC & HEVC. |
MainConcept Live Encoder HEVC 8K
| Encode live to both AVC/H.264 and HEVC/H.265 up to 8K60p (HEVC Hybrid Encoding) including Intel Quick Sync Video and NVIDIA NVENC support for both AVC & HEVC. |
MAINCONCEPT LIVE ENCODER VVC
| Encode live to the next generation broadcast codec VVC/H.266 up to 8K60p. |
MainConcept Live Encoder MPEG-2
| Encode live to MPEG-2 video and MPEG Layer 1/2 audio for TV broadcast, incl. preconfigured DVB profiles. |
MainConcept Live Encoder LCEVC (Add-Ons)
| Encode live to enhanced LCEVC plus VVC/H.266, HEVC/H.265 or AVC/H.264 as base layer. Requires a license for the respective MainConcept Live Encoder. |
