Cloud Encoding with Bitmovin and Google
Bitmovin is utilizing Google infrastructure to provide cloud video encoding 100x faster than any other encoding service. Our distributed software based encoding approach is not bound to any specific cloud provider but Google Compute Engine (GCE) provides great performance. This enables faster encoder provisioning and in the end decreased queuing delay for our users. Additionally, Google’s virtual machines are very well connected with each other, which increases the encoding performance of our encoding clusters. Sometimes the network interconnection between individual virtual machines is becoming a bottleneck for our encoders, but this problem does not affect us greatly on GCE compared to other cloud infrastructure providers.
Bitmovin Immediate Preview
As our users know, we provide immediate preview of the encoded video during the encoding process. This is perfectly possible as Google’s virtual machines are pretty well connected with the Google Cloud Storage (GCS). We use GCS to store your encoded videos in a secure way. The encoded output format used for the preview is segmented MPEG-DASH and Apple HLS, similarly used by Netflix and YouTube. Therefore, we can write data to GCS on a per segment basis which allows us to use the already available content for the preview. We do not need to encode another format for the preview. We just reuse parts of the final encoded video for the preview. To enable smooth playback of our preview, we need to encode faster than the actual playback speed of the video; but this is fortunately not really a problem for us.
Conclusions on Cloud Encoding in Google’s Cloud
Overall, we are very impressed by the performance of the Google infrastructure, which helps us provide a great cloud video encoding service for our users. For more information on how Bitmovin partners with Google to deliver cloud encoding services, check out their article explaining how we operate on top of their infrastructure. You can find the details at the official Goolge Cloud Platform Webpage: Bitmovin turns hours into minutes by encoding video fast using Google Compute Engine.
