Quasar® — Cloud native file based QC

 

Introduction

Quasar® is the first file QC service built natively for the cloud architecture. Encompassing all the latest features of Pulsar; industry’s most efficient audio and video quality control software, Quasar video quality checker promises the fastest rate of QC in the cloud.

Quasar not only ensures your content security through IAM cross-account roles, whitelisting and pre-authenticated URL, it is the most advanced cloud video QC software with support for advanced features such as HDR, IMF/DCP analysis, Adaptive bitrate QC, Harding PSE etc. Quasar File QC can be used to verify the content before submitting to key VOD services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, iTunes and HBO.

Features & Benefits

1. Dynamic scaling

Performing QC on a large content volume can be time consuming. Quasar auto scales to support varying content volumes and can process thousands of files simultaneously and quickly.

2. Security & Latency

With IAM cross-roles, pre-authenticated URL, whitelisting for REST API and other security features, you need not worry about your content security. Further, auto provisioning of virtual machine in content region ensures faster content QC.

3. Reliability

Advanced monitoring for early detection of potential problems, detailed system logging to trace back any rare issues, and failover mechanisms allowing workflow continuity even with infrastructure failures make Quasar a reliable service.

4. SaaS service

Quasar is available as a fully managed SaaS service. This eliminates the need of any staff for system management, thus, reducing your time and cost. You can also deploy it in your own Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

5. Reference-based analysis

Quasar allows for a side-by-side comparison of a media file with its master/reference file using SSIM, PSNR and Ref-Q™, providing an efficient and cost-effective means of getting a frame-by-frame report of all such differences. This reduces manual inspection costs and increases the accuracy of the results.

6. VOD QC

Quasar supports formats like MPEG-DASH, Apple HLS, Microsoft Smooth Streaming, and fragmented MP4 in addition to support for broadcast formats. You can auto-assign different QC templates to different encoding files.

7. Harding PSE

Harding FPA engine is integrated into Quasar allowing users to perform Photosensitive Epilepsy Validation using the industry defacto standard Harding PSE and receive a valid Harding certificate for HDR and SDR content.

Technical specifications

Quasar Native Cloud File QC service supports a wide range of broadcast, archiving and VOD formats. It also allows a wide range of audio, video checks on media content.

1. Formats

Container: MXF, GXF, LXF, MOV, MP4, 3GPP, MPEG-2 TS, MPEG-2 PS, FLV, WMV, AVI, WAV, BWF, AIFF, Smooth Streaming, HLS, MPEG-DASH, IMF, DCP, Elementary

Video: H.265, H.264 (incl. AVC-Intra 50/100 and SONY XAVC), MPEG-2 (incl. D10, XDCAM, HDCAM, IMX-30/50), VC-1, DV (incl. DVCPro25, DVCPro50, DVCPro100/HD), Avid DNxHD (VC-3), Apple ProRes, JPEG-2000, Canopus HQ/HQX

Audio: LPCM, AES3, SMPTE 302M, MPEG-1/2, AAC, HE-AAC, WMA (Standard & Professional)

HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR-10, HDR-10+

Our Learners Also Read:- CapMate® — Cloud native caption/subtitle QC

2. Verification Checks

General: Compliance, Factory templates — Netflix, DPP, ARD-ZDF, Loudness (R128, CALM, OP-59, ARIB), iTunes & CableLabs

IMF/DCP: CPL based analysis, Package validation, CPL cross-checks, CPL checks, PKL cross-checks, OPL checks, Assetmap check, IMSC checks, Sidecar checks DNxHD (VC-3), Apple ProRes, JPEG-2000, Canopus HQ/HQX

ABR: Playlist cross checks. Segment cross checks, Profile cross checks, Encrypted Packages

Video Parameters: Codec, Video Format, Color space, Chroma Format, Color Matrix, Scan Mode, Duration, Frame Rate, Resolution, Display/Pixel Aspect Ratio, GOP Length, GOP Type, Field Order, Frame Sizes, Buffer Size, Bitrate (CBR/VBR), Profile/Level, Entropy Coding, Reference Pictures, MBAFF, Timecode Discontinuity, Timecode frame drop, 2020 Color Space

Video Quality: Black Frames, Blockiness, Brightness, Cadence, Chroma Hits, Chroma Line, Clipping, Colored Frames, Color Bars, Color Gamut, Combing, Credit Roll, Camera Dead Pixels, Dead Pixels, Digital Hits, Field Dominance, Flash Frames, Freeze Frames, Luma/Chroma levels, Half/Full lines, Bar Artefacts, Letter/Pillar Box, Active Region, Photosensitive epilepsy (Harding) (SDR and HDR), Media offline, Slate, Postal Stamp

HDR Parameters:HDR Formats, Reporting of HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision metadata

Static Metadata: Verify (display Color primaries, mastering display luminance, content light level)

Dynamic Metadata: Compliance, Validate HDR10+ metadata (MaxSCL, Average Max RGB, Distribution values, Tone-mapping information, Targeted system display maximum luminance), Validate Dolby Vision metadata (Metadata version, shot must not contain <0,0,0> in level 1 metadata, Detect duplicate dynamic metadata, Crosscheck canvas aspect ratio, Crosscheck Video track information, Crosscheck (Calculated/metadata) Image aspect ratio

Audio: Codec, Sampling Frequency, Quantization Bits, Channels, Bitrate (CBR/VBR), Drops, Silence, Mute, Test Tones, Loudness (R128, CALM, AGCOM, ARIB, Speech Gated), Loudness Range, Dialnorm, Sample Peak (DBFS, PPM), True Peak, Dual Mono, Clipping, EAS tone, Phase Mismatch, Language ID

Container: Conformance, Format, File Size, File Name Validation, No of streams, Incorrect extension MXF: Version, Operational pattern, Timecode presence/track count/mode/start value/source, Index table presence/location/completeness/correctness, Origin parameters, KLV alignment grid/fill elements, Partitions validity/Status/Completeness/Instance count/Index table presence/Essence presence/Max length, Essence wrapping/external check/referencing/partition strategy, Audio track numbers/element size/channel count/configurations, Descriptive metadata presence/scheme, Run-in sequence, Random index pack, Segmentation track, File package count, Index edit rate, Index duration, Audio/Video sample rate, Audio/Video stream type, Audio/Video edit rate, Video line map, System item presence, Block Align, Channel status mode, Fixed channel status data, Stored F2 offset, Display F2 offset, Sampled X/Y offset, Display X/Y offset, Identical GOP indicator, Edit unit byte count, Slice count, Dark metadata, Timecode frame drop, Audio locked/unlocked status, Audio ref level, Index start position, Single index location, Single essence location, Forward index direction, Image start/end offset, Colour siting, Padding bits, Black ref level, White ref level, Colour range, Constant B picture flag, Single sequence, Low delay, AS-02 Support Transport Streams: SCTE35, Program count, PCR Jitter, Packet Length, PID Usage, PIDs, PID Bitrate, Packet Intervals, PAT checks, PMT checks, Stream checks, PES checks, Language Metadata Verification

QuickTime: Checks and correction for PASP, FIEL, GAMA, CLAP, COLR. Channel Configuration, Track properties, Movie properties, Language Metadata Verification, Check disabled tracks, Check multiple codec entries, Check Timecode properties

Cross Checks: Video-Container: Width, Height, Frame rate, Aspect ratio, Bitrate, Profile/Level, Scan mode, Field order, Chroma format, GOP type, GOP length, B-pictures, Low delay, Duration, Component depth Audio-Container: Sampling frequency, Bit depth, Channels, Bitrate, Duration Audio-Video: Duration in meta-data, Actual duration

Meta-data: Closed Captions (608/708) presence/conformance/format/location, AFD, Bar, V-Chip, Teletext

Reference-Based Analysis: Ref-Q, SSIM, PSNR

3. Cloud Platforms

4. Storage Formats

Quasar Native Cloud File QC service supports QC of content stored on AWS S3, Azure Blob storage, BackBlaze storage and Google Cloud storage.

• AWS S3
• Azure Blob
• Google Cloud Storage
• Backblaze Storage

Quasar editions

Quasar is available two deployment models — SaaS & Private. SaaS is the most popular edition wherein the entire infrastructure is managed by Venera. Private edition is available for users who strictly need to run their workflow within their own VPC. Variety of plans are available for different content volume and budgets in both the editions. Contact us to discuss the most suitable plan for your workflow.

Workflow Integrations

We actively integrate with the prominent solutions in digital media industry to provide an integrated offering for your workflows that are easy & efficient to use.

Factory templates

We provide ready-to-use templates of technical specifications required by these prominent content platforms, which can be used by you for the specific channel you want to display your content.

Originally published at:-https://www.veneratech.com/quasar-file-based-qc-on-cloud/