Based on more than 30 patents developed in conjunction with British Telecom, MediaMelon QBR is not a new codec, but rather is an enhancement of existing adaptive bitrate (ABR) technology. It uses rapid scene analysis, content characterization, perceptual quality mapping, and advanced buffer management techniques to pre-analyze where video quality is likely to suffer. With this data, QBR allocates higher bitrates to video scenes where a lower bitrate would have caused artifacts. This increases perceptual video quality by more than 200%, MediaMelon says.
Offered as a managed service, MediaMelon holds that QBR results in a better quality of experience (QoE) for the end-user and cost reductions for streaming video service providers. The company says the technology, which has been integrated with solutions such as the Deluxe OnDemand OneWorkflow, and with multiple encoders, can be adopted without changes to current workflow or existing vendors. QBR also works with multiple Android, iOS, HTML5/JavaScript and Flash-based players. Additionally, MediaMelon says QBR adds value across the video ecosystem - OTT streaming companies, encoders, video players, online video platforms and CDNs - without need to re-encode or re-compress content.