Adaptive bitrate (ABR) transcoding converts an H.264 file or live stream into fragments or chunks, varying between 2-10 seconds in length depending on the delivery protocol and device to which content is being served.

Unlike legacy multiple-bitrate (MBR) solutions, which encoded a variety of bitrate levels within a single file or stream, ABR saves significant bandwidth by creating discrete streams at various bitrates and then dynamically delivering the optimal bitrate for any given segment of time.

ABR delivers the corresponding stream to an end user’s player, and continues doing so until network conditions change–for better or worse–at which time ABR chooses the most appropriate bitrate to begin serving until network conditions change again This means the delivered video can change bandwidths within a 2-10 second period of time, furthering the likelihood that a viewer can watch the entire video free of interruptions, since the video seamlessly switches from bitrate to bitrate – without rebuffering – at any given chunk point.

Multiple ABR solutions in the marketplace today, including one each from the Big Three – Adobe, Apple, Microsoft – as well as several proprietary solutions, such as Move Networks. All act in a fairly similar manner, and some even allow delivery via HTTP, either HTTP streaming or progressive download.

Until an ABR standard—de facto or otherwise—emerges, a robust ABR delivery strategy must support as many of the ABR technologies as possible. The Media Excel n-Screen solution does just that, supporting all popular ABR solutions—whether live, file-based or on-demand—with a single appliance.