V-NOVA
Company typePrivate limited company
IndustryData compression, video codec
Founded2011
FoundersGuido Meardi, Pierdavide Marcolongo and Others
Headquarters
London
,
UK
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
David Benello (Chairman)
Guido Meardi (CEO)
Pierdavide Marcolongo (COO)

V-NOVA is a multinational IP and Technology company headquartered in London, UK. It is best known for innovation in data compression technology for video and images.[1][2] V-Nova has partnered with large organizations including Sky, Xilinx, Nvidia, Eutelsat, and Amazon Web Services to provide its video compression technology.[1][3]

History

V-NOVA was founded in 2011 by Guido Meardi, Pierdavide Marcolongo and others.[4] In 2012, Mr Federico Faggin[5] was among V-NOVA’s investors and founding members.

In 2016, Sky acquired a minority stake in V-NOVA for £4.5 million [8], and Eutelsat subsequently acquired a minority stake for an undisclosed amount.[6] In the same year, Eutelsat deployed V-NOVA's technology for the 4K contribution feeds of the UEFA Euro Championship 2016 and, subsequently, acquired a minority stake for an undisclosed amount.[7] Also in 2016, V-NOVA became a member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.[8]

In 2017, V-NOVA acquired the entire Faroudja patent portfolio to improve its Perseus codec.[9]

In April 2019, V-NOVA technology was selected by MPEG for the working draft of the MPEG-5 codec enhancement standard.[10] In the same year V-Nova became a member of the Advanced Television Systems Committee.[11]

In 2020, V-NOVA and Amazon Web Services collaborated.[12]

In May 2021, V-NOVA announced its partnership with SOUTHWORKS for LCEVC Integration Services.[13][14]

In June 2021, V-NOVA partnerred with D-Orbit and Unibap to demonstrate VC-6 for on-orbit satellite imagery acceleration. The satellite was launched in Summer 2021.[15] In July, multiple professional investors, including Intesa's Venture Capital arm Neva SGR, invested €33m into V-NOVA.[16][17]

In November 2021, V-NOVA and PresenZ released a Six Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) movie on the Steam Store. The movie uses V-NOVA’s point-cloud compression technology combined with 6DoF volumetric movie format from PresenZ.[18]

In January 2022, SBTVD Forum approved a selection of technologies for SBTVD 3.0 which include MPEG-5 LCEVC, V-NOVA & Harmonic Inc.’s submission.[19][20]

Technology

In 2015, the company announced a new digital data-encoding technology based on multi-layer coding, parallel processing and deep learning called Perseus for efficient video streaming with a focus on enabling UHD/4K services at lower bandwidths. It was claimed that it could be streamed to TVs and other devices using only around 50% of the bandwidth required by existing streaming technologies.[21][22]

V-NOVA’s technology was later selected to provide the essential IP for the ISO/IEC 23094-2 standard MPEG-5 Part 2 Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding (LCEVC), a codec-agnostic enhancement codec that can be combined with other video codecs to improve their coding and processing efficiency. It also maintains compatibility with the device ecosystem of the enhanced codec.[23]

V-NOVA also developed another international standard codec, SMPTE VC-6 ST 2117, aimed at professional video and Artificial Intelligence applications.[24]

In April 2021, MPEG Video validated the Verification Test of LCEVC (Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding) standard ((ISO/IEC 23094-2). Test results tended to indicate an overall benefit also when using LCEVC to enhance AVC, HEVC, EVC and VVC.[25][26]

Awards

The CSI Awards recognized V-NOVA as Best Digital Video Processing Technology in 2015 and 2017.[27][28] V-NOVA was named Best of Show by the TV Technology Awards for four consecutive years in 2015, 2016, 2017, & 2018.[29][30][31][32] It was also named Best of Show for its PERSEUS-powered Universal Media Player by TVB Europe in 2015, 2016, and 2017.[33][34]

In 2016, the Diplomatic Council Awards named V-NOVA as Global Media Innovator.[35][36] V-NOVA was recognized for its point cloud compression scheme by the Advanced Image Society at the 12th annual Entertainment Technology Lumiere Awards in 2022.[37]

References

  1. ^ a b "Big leap in 4K video streaming tech". BBC News.
  2. ^ "Video compression inspired by nature". Financial Times.
  3. ^ "APN Partner Profile". Amazon Web Services, Inc.
  4. ^ "V-Nova". 100 Stories.
  5. ^ "V-Nova". 100 Stories.
  6. ^ "Sky buys stake in V-Nova". Broadcast.
  7. ^ "Eutelsat Takes a Stake, Partners with V-Nova for Compression Technologies". Via Satellite. 2016-09-14. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  8. ^ "V-Nova Joins SMPTE". Advanced Television. 2016-12-19. Retrieved 2020-01-21.
  9. ^ "Il ritorno di Faroudja per migliorare la qualità di Rai e Sky". DDay.it (in Italian).
  10. ^ "V-Nova recruited by MPEG-5 for codec enhancement". Rethink.
  11. ^ "Members". ATSC. Retrieved 2019-09-13.
  12. ^ "V-Nova, AWS collaborate on more efficient on-demand online services | Infrastructure | News | Rapid TV News". Rapidtvnews.com.
  13. ^ "V-Nova introduces LCEVC SDK licensing terms". Digital TV Europe. 20 May 2021.
  14. ^ "V-Nova LCEVC Royalty Structure Announced". Streaming Media Magazine. 20 May 2021.
  15. ^ "V-Nova teams with D-Orbit and Unibap to demonstrate VC-6 for on-orbit satellite imagery acceleration". Geospatial World. 10 June 2021.
  16. ^ "V-Nova closes €33m series C funding". advanced-television.com.
  17. ^ "V-Nova Receives Investment from Neva First". FinSMEs. 26 July 2021.
  18. ^ "V-Nova delights with real-life VR demo, marketing skepticism sticks". Rethink.
  19. ^ "Brazilian goldrush for V-Nova as LCEVC etched into SBTVD 3.0". Rethink.
  20. ^ "Fórum SBTVD | TV 3.0 Project". Forumsbtvd.org.br (in Brazilian Portuguese).
  21. ^ Grant, August E.; Meadows, Jennifer H. (2016). Communication Technology Update and Fundamentals: 15th Edition. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-134-98765-8.
  22. ^ "Perseus, lo streaming 4K diventa leggero e possibile". Wired (in Italian). 10 April 2015.
  23. ^ "Inside MPEG's Ambitious Plan to Launch 3 Video Codecs in 2020". Streaming Media Magazine. 15 October 2019.
  24. ^ Jachetta, Jim (15 February 2020). "New Codec - SMPTE VC-6 ST 2117 P.Pro - a More Efficient Alternative to Uncompressed, JPEG XS and JPEG 2000 from V-Nova". VidOvation Corporation.
  25. ^ "MPEG 134 – MPEG". MPEG Standards.
  26. ^ "MPEG validates LCEVC performance as royalties about to be made public". CSI.
  27. ^ "CSI Awards". csimagazine.com.
  28. ^ "CSI Awards". csimagazine.com.
  29. ^ April 2018, Tom Butts 16. "TV Technology Announces Recipients of Best of Show Awards for the 2018 NAB Show". TVTechnology.((cite web)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  30. ^ April 2017, Claudia Kienzle 10. "V-Nova Next-Gen Video Compression On Tap for 2017 NAB Show". TVTechnology.((cite news)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  31. ^ April 2016, TV Technology Staff 25. "TV Technology Announces 2016 NAB Best of Show Award Winners". TVTechnology.((cite news)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  32. ^ April 2015, Staff 17. "TV Technology Announces 2015 NAB Best of Show Award Winners". TVTechnology.((cite news)): CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  33. ^ "Best of Show 2017 winners announced". TVBEurope. 19 September 2017.
  34. ^ "Best of Show winners announced". TVBEurope. 14 September 2016.
  35. ^ "Global Media Innovator | Diplomatic Council". diplomatic-council.org.
  36. ^ "Dieter Brockmeyer – 'DC Global Media Innovator' is going to the second round". Broadband TV News. 3 November 2016.
  37. ^ Carolyn Giardina (April 23, 2022). "Weta FX, Cinionic, AMD Among Advanced Imaging Society Award Honorees". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
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