Video management

censhare provides for previews and automatic conversion of videos.

Introduction

censhare allows you to

Import videos and convert them into a uniform format automatically
Create preview and stills automatically
Create videos in different formats and resolutions for different clients and bandwidth automatically
Create and distribute clips automatically

Various use cases can be covered:

Manage product videos together with all other information, provide and publish
Manage Videos from users or customers (user generated content) and convert into a uniform format
Deliver video automatically in the main formats for web browsers and mobile clients

Therefore, it is possible to ensure that all videos are stored in a uniform format. This is useful if the videos are delivered in various formats, such as user-generated content. In addition to the original format, censhare can produce more videos with different resolutions. These can be selected depending on the available bandwidth of each client for playback. In addition, censhare generates preview and stills. Stills can be used as preview image for the chapter selection of videos.

With the help of transformation via XSLT (XSL Transformations) censhare can cut certain areas from the videos or reduce them automatically.

censhare integrates the conversion solutions FFmpeg and Amazon Elastic Transcoder.

FFmpeg is an open source solution. It runs either on the censhare Server itself or can be outsourced to another machine with the help of the Service-Client. FFmpeg is open source and can be downloaded from relevant websites.

Amazon Elastic Transcoder is a pure cloud solution. Using Amazon Elastic Transcoder there are own license costs.

Additional patent costs may apply for the use of codecs within the respective conversion software. A codec is a piece of software to convert audio or video data into a specific format. Whether costs occur will depend on the license conditions of the respective collective organization. Costs should be clarified in advance. For example, the MPEGLA exploits the use of the patent for the AVC/H.264 video codec.

Formats

MP4 and WebM are so called container formats. These take video and audio data, still images, subtitles and other data into one file. MP4 uses H.264 as video codec and AAC as audio codec. For WebM, these are VP8 or Vorbis.

Video conversion

So-called presets define the parameters that are used for converting videos. For example, they tell the conversion software which codecs to use for audio and video. For FFmpeg, censhare already supplies presets, which must then be selected only in the configuration.

A company can use the different conversion solutions in parallel. Using different filters and events, censhare controls which solution is responsible for a specific task. For example, FFmpeg generates the still images. With the Amazon Elastic Transcoder multiple pipelines can also be used in parallel. A pipeline is a conversion unit for videos. The assignment of the pipelines to different tasks can also be controlled via filters and events.

censhare stores all videos as storage items on the associated video asset. If users want to access the additional storage items, they must either export the corresponding asset or create the required storage items as separate assets. When exporting an asset, censhare offers the user a list with all storage items to choose from. Or the user drags the appropriate storage item from the info panel by drag-and-drop into the main window of the client in order to create a separate asset.