Elemental Drifts Into Cloud Video Encoding

Elemental Technologies has developed a version of its video-encoding platform that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS), pitching the forthcoming solution as a high-scale, flexible option for media companies delivering multiscreen video.

The company said it will debut the Elemental Cloud at IBC2012, Sept. 7-11 in Amsterdam. Elemental also announced the market release of Elemental Server Cloud Edition, a file-based solution for high-speed, multiformat video conversion in the cloud.

"The rapid growth of online and mobile video along with the dynamic evolution of formats, standards and distribution make cloud computing a natural complement to on-premise processing for large-scale video encoding applications," Elemental CEO and co-founder Sam Blackman said in a statement. "This gives our customers maximum speed, flexibility and price-performance in creating video content targeted to multiple screens and devices."

Amazon's AWS, first introduced in 2006, provides information-technology infrastructure services to businesses with pay-as-you-go pricing with no up-front expenses or long-term commitments.

Portland, Ore.-based Elemental's customers include BBC, Comcast, ESPN, Eurosport, HBO, Avail-TVN and Terra.

Founded in 2006, Elemental has raised about $30 million in funding from Norwest Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Voyager Capital and Walt Disney Co.'s Steamboat Ventures.