Beamr Unveils Breakthrough Video Delivery Technology With Unprecedented 75 Percent Bitrate Reduction

TEL AVIV, Israel, Feb. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Beamr, the renowned team of media compression and delivery experts behind the widely-acclaimed JPEGmini photo compression technology, today unveiled Beamr Video, enabling the delivery of high quality video at low bitrates using standard H.264 video streaming. Capable of supporting any resolution up to 4K UltraHD, Beamr Video's patent-pending optimization technology automatically reduces the bitrate of H.264 video streams by up to 75 percent (4x) without affecting perceptual quality.  The optimized streams retain the full resolution, quality and standard H.264 format of the original streams.  As such, Beamr Video technology can cut costs for content providers and vastly improve the viewing experience for customers.

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Because Beamr Video streams are fully industry standard H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC) streams, they can be played by any media player, browser or consumer device without installing special software, enabling the seamless delivery of higher quality video with a fast start and continuous streaming experience over low bandwidth channels to fixed and mobile destinations.

The technology is automatic, always safe and ensures that video content is packaged at maximum quality with the minimum number of bits. Beamr Video supports any video resolution up to 4K UltraHD and accepts any standard video file as input.  While the upcoming HEVC (H.265) standard promises up to 50 percent bitrate reduction compared to H.264, Beamr Video is capable of higher reduction ratios of H.264 streams today, without requiring the installation of new clients.

"Beamr Video's ability to package the maximum quality in the minimum amount of bits has the potential to fundamentally alter the streaming video industry, allowing it to support the insatiable demand for global video delivery without sacrificing quality on TVs, PCs and ultimately, the next frontier – smartphones and tablets," said Sharon Carmel, CEO of Beamr. 

Online streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon and iTunes typically encode full HD (1080p) streams at 5-6 Megabits per second (Mbps).  Utilizing Beamr Video optimization can reduce the required bitrate for full HD streaming to around 3-4 Mbps, enabling smoother playback, support for customers with lower broadband connectivity, and significant delivery cost savings to the streaming service providers.

The table below summarizes the typical bitrate reduction ratios achieved by Beamr Video for various types of content:

About Beamr
Beamr (formerly ICVT), is an innovative private company comprised of the world's leading imaging scientists, veterans of the Israeli technology industry who are also successful entrepreneurs. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, Beamr is focused on improving the quality, speed and user experience of photo and video sharing.

Beamr's patented-pending photo and video media optimization technology also powers JPEGmini™ for Mac and beamr™ for iPhone, two ground-breaking apps that optimize photo files to free up valuable storage space and share them at lightning speed.

For more information about Beamr Video, please visit www.beamrvideo.com

SOURCE Beamr