United Cloud MeetUp for streaming professionals

“The first in a series of expert meetups offered participants valuable insights into the future of streaming and the opportunity to exchange experiences directly with one of the leading authorities in the field. The regional IT development centre United Cloud will continue to organise expert meetings to leverage knowledge and expertise as the most valued technological resource, contributing to strengthening a culture of collaboration and sharing best practices in Serbia and the region's tech community. This will also provide young talents with opportunities to develop in-demand competencies, working with the latest technologies, and good reasons to remain and work in their home countries,” a press release said.

It said that Ozer was the keynote speaker, providing the audience with detailed insight into the Current State of the AV1 Codec and Its Future Applications.

“Ozer emphasised the importance of advancements in implementing the AV1 codec over the next two years, addressing critical aspects such as video quality, playback capabilities, and feature sets —essential topics for the streaming industry. He particularly drew attention to live transcoding technologies, the current applications of this technology globally, and what changes we can expect in the future. Experts from United Cloud enriched the event - Boban Kasalović, Senior Product Manager, and Nemanja Krivokapić, System Architect - who shared their experiences on encoding and technological architecture, providing insights into the innovations that United Cloud implements end-to-end. They specifically highlighted the advantages the company gains through its proprietary development and encoding system, which allows for quicker responses to new technologies and tailored methods for real-time video quality assessment developed by their team.

"It is a great pleasure to be part of this technology-expert meetup at United Cloud. The innovative solutions I’ve seen here and the commitment to video quality, including creating a proprietary player and encoding stack, enable this regional innovation hub to adapt quickly to new technologies, positioning United Cloud as a leader in the streaming industry trends. Additionally, the video quality assessment process innovations, such as implementing VMAF in live video streaming, are truly unique,” the press release quoted him as saying.

“Ozer's insights into the role of AI and machine learning in the future development of codecs also caught the attention of experts. He pointed out that "AI-based codecs" will represent a significant leap forward, enabling decoding that is not reliant on specific hardware solutions, as with HEVC and AV1. These new codecs will utilise "neural processing units (NPU)," providing greater flexibility and independence from hardware constraints. Beyond the main topic of AV1, Ozer discussed the growing significance of video communications and the expanding market for "video-for-machines" applications, predicting that this area will grow significantly as automated systems become increasingly prevalent in everyday life,” the United Cloud press release said.

The United Cloud innovation center is part of United Group, the leading provider of communication and media services in Southeast Europe.