Elemental Technologies has released a GPU-based transcoding appliance Elemental Server, which it claims to enable faster than real time encoding of video files targeting the specifications required for the three-screen experience of TV, PC and mobile.

The company claims the new appliance to deliver high-speed encoding and video output using GPUs (graphics processing units). Its multi-GPU system can simultaneously process and encode video to multiple resolutions and bitrates and provides support for adaptive bit rate standards.

According to Elemental Technologies, the new appliance is designed to fit into existing workflows with video processing features including: simultaneous processing of up to four 1080p or 24 standard definition video transcodes in real time; and concurrent processing of multiple resolutions and bitrates on a single system, simplifying the requirements for creating Adaptive Bit Rate content and streamlining the overall content production process.

In addition, the new appliance also performs dense transcoding that replaces multiple CPU-only hardware and software systems, allowing a single Elemental Server to replace up to seven dual quad-core CPU-only systems; and output support for codecs including MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264. It also offers support for output containers including F4V, ASF, WMV, 3GP, and MP4.

Sam Blackman, CEO and chairman of Elemental Technologies, said: Content distributors are experiencing rising demand for all types of video and Elemental Server is ideally suited to address this trend.

The shift towards massively parallel computing opens new frontiers in the video processing landscape, and we are proud to introduce Elemental Server as the first of many enterprise-class, GPU-accelerated video processing solutions we are bringing to market.