Video compression solutions specialist V-Nova has announced licensing terms for V-Nova LCEVC, a software development kit and a wide range of reference integrations that add MPEG-5 Part 2 LCEVC (Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding) ISO/IEC 23094-2 encoding and decoding to any existing video delivery workflow, device or application.
The licensing terms have been designed together with customers and key industry players. They reflect the enhancement nature of LCEVC as well as a modern approach to licensing, akin to that of software services where operators pay as they benefit from a given technology. The result is license fees that are either free or low-cost.
V-Nova LCEVC – including both IP Rights and software products – is available for Entertainment Video Services with two types of licensing:
The Integration License is free and enables device or chipset manufacturers, operating systems, browsers, in-house development and encoder/player vendors to rapidly integrate V-Nova LCEVC encoding and decoding libraries.
The Usage License is priced based on service size, measured via the total number of users. Above a lower free threshold, the cost per user is calculated according to volume and capped at $3.7mn per year.
V-Nova LCEVC is the industry’s first highly optimised implementation of MPEG-5 Part 2 LCEVC, the codec-agnostic ISO/IEC enhancement standard capable of providing higher quality at up to 40% lower bitrates than codecs used natively. Its unique low-complexity design immediately accelerates encoding by up to 4x via a simple software upgrade, producing significant transcoding cost efficiencies. Importantly, it offers a corresponding reduction of carbon emissions per hour of video, providing relevant environmental sustainability benefits to video workflows.
As a result, LCEVC enables service providers to improve the quality of their services and customer reach, as well as minimise their operating costs.
“The rapid release of the LCEVC product, followed in quick succession by our low-complexity licensing terms comes in response to the strong interest we have seen for LCEVC. We are actively supporting multiple major customer projects and we are working hard to ensure that LCEVC market adoption is as rapid and seamless as possible” said Guido Meardi, CEO and co-founder, V-Nova.
“We all know that for coding standards simple and fair licensing terms are at least as important as compelling technical benefits. Following extensive consultation with customers and key industry players, we chose not to charge any fees to hardware manufacturers, operating systems, browsers and other ecosystem enablers, so as to facilitate rapid adoption at scale, also via software upgrades of existing devices. We charge a fair and low-cost capped fee only to those service operators who benefit directly from the standard, producing measurable quality and profitability benefits.”