Jonathan George speaks on video compression:

The earlier Media Electric can get involved in a production the better the final compressed results. That's because compression starts at both ends. If we are involved in the shooting of the video, planning for compression starts then. How a video is lit, how the camera moves, what the color palette of the set is, how the image and sound are recorded are critical.

However, since not all video compression is the same with the same rules, planning will differ depending upon the final delivery platform. Having a range of platforms is also becoming more and more commonplace as companies need to re-purpose their assets. So, having a well defined target platform and starting as early as possible allows us to work the compression problem from both ends.

Compression is technology intensive

As technology moves rapidly forward, better compression algorithms and tools, faster processors, and larger pipes, there are fewer and fewer barriers to what can be compressed and still look great. Media Electric keeps on top of the latest video technology, digital video architectures, CODECs (COmpression-DECompresion), playback platforms, tools and techniques.

Every project is a little different, requiring individual attention. Maybe down the road, the promise of "just push the button" compression tools will come true. But for now quality compression uses a suite of tools and techniques to get the best output.

At Media Electric, we often use intermediate files that are pre-processed for adjustments to gamma, color, color space, cropping, video noise reduction, edge tuning, and audio normalization, among other adjustments. The intermediate file becomes the source for final encoding. Sometimes we can skip the intermediate file. It all depends upon the project.

for more information, contact me at jonathan@mediaelectric.com