According to Moscow State University (MSU), AV1 is the highest quality codec available, besting both HEVC and VP9—when considering quality only, and not encoding speed,. More interesting is that in normal operating modes, VP9 produced higher quality than HEVC. These are just two of several compelling findings from the recently completed MSU 2017 Codec Comparison Report. As you’ll read below, …

Wowza ClearCaster is a $6,000 encoder from Wowza, that at first glance may cause you to repeat the company’s name loudly, as in, “Wowza, that’s a high price for a single channel streaming appliance.” Perhaps so, but it’s the only encoder that can stream 1080p to Facebook Live, and as I learned when I reviewed the product, it has great …

The creativity behind immersive VR filmmaking is only matched by the software engineering creativity that makes this type of video possible. I just started a consulting project relating to 360° VR video, and have some introductory conclusions. I am only an egg, as Robert Heinlein might say, but I thought I would share them. First, done right, VR can be …