Quasar® – Native Cloud File QC

QC made easy for Cloud workflows

  • Dynamic Scaling
  • Multi Cloud Support – AWS & Azure
  • Pay-Per-Use Service
  • SaaS or Private edition option

Ref-Q: Reference based Comparison

Automated comparison between master & derivative

  • HDR/SDR comparison
  • Transcoded file comparison
  • Texted/Textless comparison
  • Difference Segment reporting

Quasar® – SaaS

  • Software hosted by Venera
  • Use QC with simple REST API
  • Seamless service for AWS & Azure
  • Monthly, Annual or longer-term plans

Quasar® – Private

QC within your own VPC

  • Advanced features such as Dynamic Scaling
  • Use QC with simple REST API
  • Available for AWS & Azure
  • Monthly, Annual or longer-term plans

Quasar is AWS Qualified Software

Quasar Cloud Video QC Software – Overview

Quasar® is the first file QC service built natively for the cloud architecture. Encompassing all the latest features of Pulsar; industry’s most efficient audio and video quality control software, Quasar® video quality checker promises the fastest rate of QC in the cloud.

Quasar® not only ensures your content security through IAM cross-account roles, whitelisting and pre-authenticated URL, it is the most advanced cloud video QC software with support for advanced features such as HDR, IMF/DCP analysis, Adaptive bitrate QC, Harding PSE etc. Quasar® File QC can be used to verify the content before submitting to key VOD services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, iTunes and HBO.

Features & Benefits

Dynamic scaling

Quasar® is an elastic system that can be auto scaled to any size without needing users’ intervention allowing hundreds of files being processed simultaneously. Performing QC on large content library or a content burst can be very time-consuming. With Quasar®, you never have to worry about varying content volumes. Just post them to Quasar® and it will be processed quickly. The QC jobs that would take months to process can be done in just a few days.

Security & Latency

One of the biggest concerns for content QC on Cloud is the content security. Along with that, the content latency is also an important consideration. Following capabilities are available in Quasar® to address these issues:

  • IAM cross-roles support
  • Pre-authenticated URL
  • Temporary security credentials
  • No storage of user’s credentials anywhere in the Quasar® system
  • No access to user’s content and the processing VMs
  • Whitelisting for REST API access
  • Auto provisioning of virtual machine in the content region. This has the following benefits
    1. No inter-region latency allowing faster cloud video content QC
    2. No egress charges
    3. Compliance with local laws that may prohibit the content movement outside the country/region

Service reliability

Quasar® is a highly reliable service that has implemented a large number of service recommendations in terms of service reliability and security.

  • Advanced monitoring for early detection of any potential problems in the service performance
  • Detailed system logging allowing us to trace back any rare issues
  • Failover mechanisms allowing the workflow continuity in case of infrastructure failures

SaaS

Quasar® service is available as fully managed SaaS service as well as a Private edition that users can deploy in their own virtual private cloud (VPC).
Following are the key benefits of using SaaS service:

  • Users don’t need to engage any of their staff for system mgmt. This alone can save significant time & cost for users, while focusing on their core business.
  • Users can immediately start using the Quasar® system – either manually or via REST API.
  • Committed SLAs for service upkeep.

Ref-Q

Ref-Q™ is a reference-based technology, allowing the ability for an automated side-by-side comparison of a file with its master/reference file, reporting back any discrepancies. For example, by comparing a media file with its master file, Ref-Q™ can automatically detect artifacts introduced in the file due to transcoding or other processes. Similarly it can also report any frame that includes signs or text in primary language which is replaced with a similar frame in the local language.

Ref-Q™ automates this previously manual (and error prone) comparison process, providing an efficient and cost effective automated means of getting a frame by frame report of all such differences, reducing manual inspection costs, and increasing the accuracy of the results.

VOD QC

In addition to support for broadcast formats, Quasar® supports VOD formats such as adaptive bitrate formats and fragmented MP4. Key capabilities include:

  • Formats. MPEG-DASH, Apple HLS and Microsoft Smooth Streaming
  • Encrypted packages support
  • Auto-assignment of different QC templates to different encoding profiles
  • Adaptive bitrate package specific checks to help validate the integrity of ABR packages

Harding PSE

We have integrated Harding FPA engine within Quasar®. This allows users to perform Photosensitive Epilepsy validation using the industry defacto standard Harding PSE. Users will also receive a valid Harding certificate for every file processed via Quasar®.

Our Customers

Wide range of checks

Quasar – file based QC on Cloud supports a wide range of checks. Small selection of checks are displayed here. Click here for the detailed list.
 Color Gamut

Color Gamut

Flash Frames

Flash Frames

Audio Loudness (Audio Waveform)

Audio Loudness

EAS

EAS

Active Region

Active Region

 Photosensitive Epilepsy

Photosensitive Epilepsy

Audio Peaks

Audio Peaks

Audio Test Tone

Audio Test Tone

Cadence

Cadence

Language ID

Language ID

Audio Clipping

Audio Clipping

Audio Drops

Audio Drops

 Color Gamut

Color Gamut

Active Region

Active Region

Cadence

Cadence

Flash Frames

Flash Frames

 Photosensitive Epilepsy

Photosensitive Epilepsy

Language ID

Language ID

Audio Loudness (Audio Waveform)

Audio Loudness

Audio Peaks

Audio Peaks

Audio Clipping

Audio Clipping

EAS

EAS

Audio Test Tone

Audio Test Tone

Audio Drops

Audio Drops

Technical specs

Quasar® Native Cloud File QC service supports a wide range of broadcast, archiving and VOD formats. It also allows a wide range of audio, video checks on media content.

Formats

Container: MXF, GXF, LXF, MOV, MP4, 3GPP, MPEG-2 TS, MPEG-2 PS, FLV, WMV, AVI, WAV, BWF, AIFF, Smooth Streaming, HLS, MPEG-DASH, IMF, DCP, Elementary

Video: H.265, H.264 (incl. AVC-Intra 50/100 and SONY XAVC), MPEG-2 (incl. D10, XDCAM, HDCAM, IMX-30/50), VC-1, DV (incl. DVCPro25, DVCPro50, DVCPro100/HD), Avid DNxHD (VC-3), Apple ProRes, JPEG-2000, Canopus HQ/HQX

Audio: LPCM, AES3, SMPTE 302M, MPEG-1/2, AAC, HE-AAC, WMA (Standard & Professional)

HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR-10, HDR-10+

Verification Checks

General: Compliance, Factory templates – Netflix, DPP, ARD-ZDF, Loudness (R128, CALM, OP-59, ARIB), iTunes & CableLabs

IMF/DCP: CPL based analysis, Package validation, CPL cross-checks, CPL checks, PKL cross-checks, OPL checks, Assetmap check, IMSC checks, Sidecar checks DNxHD (VC-3), Apple ProRes, JPEG-2000, Canopus HQ/HQX

ABR: Playlist cross checks. Segment cross checks, Profile cross checks, Encrypted Packages

Video Parameters: Codec, Video Format, Color space, Chroma Format, Color Matrix, Scan Mode, Duration, Frame Rate, Resolution, Display/Pixel Aspect Ratio, GOP Length, GOP Type, Field Order, Frame Sizes, Buffer Size, Bitrate (CBR/VBR), Profile/Level, Entropy Coding, Reference Pictures, MBAFF, Timecode Discontinuity, Timecode frame drop, 2020 Color Space

Video Quality: Black Frames, Blockiness, Brightness, Cadence, Chroma Hits, Chroma Line, Clipping, Colored Frames, Color Bars, Color Gamut, Combing, Credit Roll, Camera Dead Pixels, Dead Pixels, Digital Hits, Field Dominance, Flash Frames, Freeze Frames, Luma/Chroma levels, Half/Full lines, Bar Artefacts, Letter/Pillar Box, Active Region, Photosensitive epilepsy (Harding) (SDR and HDR), Media offline, Slate, Postal Stamp

HDR Parameters:HDR Formats, Reporting of HDR10, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision metadata

Static Metadata: Verify (display Color primaries, mastering display luminance, content light level)

Dynamic Metadata: Compliance, Validate HDR10+ metadata (MaxSCL, Average Max RGB, Distribution values, Tone-mapping information, Targeted system display maximum luminance), Validate Dolby Vision metadata (Metadata version, shot must not contain <0,0,0> in level 1 metadata, Detect duplicate dynamic metadata, Crosscheck canvas aspect ratio, Crosscheck Video track information, Crosscheck (Calculated/metadata) Image aspect ratio

Audio: Codec, Sampling Frequency, Quantization Bits, Channels, Bitrate (CBR/VBR), Drops, Silence, Mute, Test Tones, Loudness (R128, CALM, AGCOM, ARIB, Speech Gated), Loudness Range, Dialnorm, Sample Peak (DBFS, PPM), True Peak, Dual Mono, Clipping, EAS tone, Phase Mismatch, Language ID

Container: Conformance, Format, File Size, File Name Validation, No of streams, Incorrect extension MXF: Version, Operational pattern, Timecode presence/track count/mode/start value/source, Index table presence/location/completeness/correctness, Origin parameters, KLV alignment grid/fill elements, Partitions validity/Status/Completeness/Instance count/Index table presence/Essence presence/Max length, Essence wrapping/external check/referencing/partition strategy, Audio track numbers/element size/channel count/configurations, Descriptive metadata presence/scheme, Run-in sequence, Random index pack, Segmentation track, File package count, Index edit rate, Index duration, Audio/Video sample rate, Audio/Video stream type, Audio/Video edit rate, Video line map, System item presence, Block Align, Channel status mode, Fixed channel status data, Stored F2 offset, Display F2 offset, Sampled X/Y offset, Display X/Y offset, Identical GOP indicator, Edit unit byte count, Slice count, Dark metadata, Timecode frame drop, Audio locked/unlocked status, Audio ref level, Index start position, Single index location, Single essence location, Forward index direction, Image start/end offset, Colour siting, Padding bits, Black ref level, White ref level, Colour range, Constant B picture flag, Single sequence, Low delay, AS-02 Support Transport Streams: SCTE35, Program count, PCR Jitter, Packet Length, PID Usage, PIDs, PID Bitrate, Packet Intervals, PAT checks, PMT checks, Stream checks, PES checks, Language Metadata Verification

QuickTime: Checks and correction for PASP, FIEL, GAMA, CLAP, COLR. Channel Configuration, Track properties, Movie properties, Language Metadata Verification, Check disabled tracks, Check multiple codec entries, Check Timecode properties

Cross Checks: Video-Container: Width, Height, Frame rate, Aspect ratio, Bitrate, Profile/Level, Scan mode, Field order, Chroma format, GOP type, GOP length, B-pictures, Low delay, Duration, Component depth Audio-Container: Sampling frequency, Bit depth, Channels, Bitrate, Duration Audio-Video: Duration in meta-data, Actual duration

Meta-data: Closed Captions (608/708) presence/conformance/format/location, AFD, Bar, V-Chip, Teletext

Reference-Based Analysis: Ref-Q, SSIM, PSNR

Cloud platforms
Quasar® Native Cloud File QC service supports QC on AWS and Azure cloud platforms. Azure
AWS
Storage formats

Quasar® Native Cloud File QC service supports QC of content stored on AWS S3, Azure Blob storage, BackBlaze storage and Google Cloud storage.

  • AWS S3
  • Azure Blob
  • Google Cloud Storage
  • Backblaze Storage

Workflow Integration

Quasar® exposes REST APIs for integration. It is straightforward to integrate Quasar® with your cloud-based workflows. Following are some of the key integrations.

Other Quality Control Solutions

We additionally offer the following QC solutions for Audio, Video, Captions & Subtitles for Cloud & On-premise applications:

Capmate

CapMate™ is an advanced Native Cloud platform for Automated verification and correction of Subtitle and Caption files. It can help you efficiently deal with issues like Captions/Audio sync, Burnt-in text overlap, Compliance, Profanity and timing issues.

Pulsar

Pulsar™ is the fastest, most comprehensive and versatile on-premise file-based Automated QC system. It supports wide range of QC checks with support for HDR, Harding PSE, IMF, Image sequences and Adaptive bitrate formats.

Pulsar PPU

Pulsar PPU is a usage based on-premise File QC system and provides the same QC capabilities as Pulsar. Users can pay on adhoc basis purely according to the content volume processed or they can sign-up for a monthly subscription.

QCaaS

QCaaS is a content QC service wherein Venera performs the QC for the content sent by customers. This is especially suitable for content providers who need to QC their content but do not want to deal with the installation & mgmt. of QC system.

Customer Testimonials

Quasar® Editions

SaaS Private Description
Pricing model Subscription Subscription Monthly, Annual & Longer-term plans
Infrastructure cost Venera User Includes the costs for running various Quasar® components such as Quasar® Controller, Verification Units, Database etc.
Infrastructure management Venera User Staff required to manage the Quasar® QC infrastructure. In case of SaaS, the entire management is done by Venera. For Private edition, user will designate their own staff to manage the Quasar® systems and related infra
QC Engine hosting Venera’s cloud infrastructure User’s cloud infrastructure The location where Quasar® systems will be hosted
Web portal hosting Venera Venera Hosted and managed by Venera in all cases
Content storage location Owned by user Owned by user The location where user’s content will be stored
SaaS
  • Infrastructure managed by Venera
  • Software and upgrades managed by Venera
  • Storage bucket owner by user
  • Subscription & adhoc plans available
Private
  • Infrastructure managed by the user
  • Software and upgrades managed by the user in their VPC
  • Storage bucket owner by user
  • Subscription plans availables
  • Adhoc plan not available

Recent Blog Post

Caption/Subtitle QC vs. Authoring

What is the difference between a Caption Authoring system and a Caption/Subtitle QC system? Do you need both of them as a content creator?

Video Resources

Interview with Jan Klier

MetalToad interview: Cloud QC

Pulsar file-based QC overview

Pulsar/Quasar at SMPTE 2016