Why Video Engineers Are Switching To Quadra VPUs

by Mark Donnigan at NETINT Technologies Inc.

The growth of video streaming has created a strong demand for cost-effective and energy-efficient encoding solutions. Engineering teams are being reassigned, even as operational budgets decrease, all while subscriber numbers balloon up. Video platforms now face the challenge of doing more with fewer resources. For engineers exploring alternatives to CPU and GPU-based encoding, Quadra VPUs offer a solution that combines high performance, low operational cost (OPEX), and AV1 codec support. This article, backed by customer feedback and detailed analysis, breaks down the benefits of switching to Quadra VPUs.

Operational Cost Advantages: Lower Power, Higher Density

Energy Efficiency

NETINT’s Codensity G5 architecture provides a significant advantage in power consumption. Unlike CPUs and GPUs, which are general-purpose and consume considerable energy for video processing tasks, Codensity G5 is an ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) designed for encoding and decoding. This dedicated architecture enables Quadra VPUs to operate at a fraction of the energy cost, reducing power consumption by up to 80% compared to traditional CPU and GPU solutions. This efficiency directly translates into lower operational expenses, especially for data centers and streaming services that run encoding workloads continuously.

High-Density Encoding

The scalability of Quadra VPUs enables users to process multiple video streams simultaneously, accommodating up to 64 streams of 1080p at 30 frames per second (fps), 16 streams of 4Kp30, or 4 streams of 8Kp30 on a single Quadra VPU (T2A). This high density is challenging to achieve with CPU or GPU-based encoders without significant investments in additional hardware. By maximizing encoding density, Quadra VPUs help organizations cut back on hardware investments and associated OPEX, delivering a compelling return on investment.

Superior Performance: Real-Time, Low-Latency Processing

Real-Time Encoding with Minimal Latency

Quadra VPUs are engineered for real-time applications. NETINT’s second-generation Codensity G5’s architecture enables each Quadra VPU to achieve latency as low as 8 milliseconds, critical for live streaming, cloud gaming, and video conferencing where delays can detract from the user experience. In comparison, CPU-based encoding, which relies on software encoders, typically struggles with higher latency due to the CPU’s multitasking nature and lack of dedicated video processing pathways. Even GPU-based encoders like NVIDIA’s NVENC may experience latency fluctuations when shared with other GPU tasks, making Codensity G5 ideal for consistent, low-latency performance.

Support for Advanced Codecs and High Resolutions

NETINT Quadra VPUs provide native support for AV1, HEVC, and H.264, covering all the essential standards that drive today’s video streaming. With the emerging popularity of AV1 due to its high compression efficiency, Quadra VPUs are future-proofed to handle industry demands, ensuring users won’t need costly upgrades as AV1 adoption grows. The Codensity G5’s architecture also supports encoding up to 8K resolution, catering to high-definition streaming demands and future-proofing video infrastructures for years.

Functional Advantages: Advanced Features and AI Integration

Built-In AI Processing

Quadra VPUs stand out with their integrated Deep Neural Network (DNN) inference engines, allowing for real-time data processing on facial recognition, object detection, background removal, and scene detection. This AI processing capability enables sophisticated video features at the hardware level, which would otherwise require additional software resources on CPU or GPU systems. These AI-driven enhancements greatly benefit applications like live surveillance, content moderation, and AR/VR streaming.

Enhanced Quality Control and Compression Efficiency

The Codensity G5 architecture includes advanced encoding features like noise reduction, deblocking, and bitrate control, allowing video engineers to maintain high quality across diverse network conditions. These features ensure stable quality for adaptive bitrate (ABR) streaming, where different network environments and devices require dynamic adjustment of resolution and bitrate. By optimizing quality at the encoding level, Quadra VPUs enhance the end-user experience and reduce buffering and artifacts that commonly degrade video streams on bandwidth-constrained networks.

Technical Flexibility for Diverse Environments

Seamless Integration in Hybrid Workflows

Customer feedback reveals that Quadra VPUs integrate smoothly with various hardware and software setups, including environments that use CPUs and GPUs. Many customers run Quadra VPUs alongside other hardware units, creating hybrid processing environments that benefit from specialized encoding capabilities without sacrificing compatibility with existing systems. Codensity G5 also supports containerized environments, a growing trend in video processing due to the flexibility and scalability offered by containerization.

High Compatibility with Popular Video Software

NETINT’s Quadra VPUs are compatible with popular video software stacks such as FFmpeg and GStreamer, making them a drop-in replacement for existing encoding solutions without significant software restructuring. This compatibility reduces the time and cost required for integration and deployment, allowing video engineers to get Quadra VPUs up and running with minimal disruption.

Performance Insights and Feature Requests

Customer Satisfaction with Performance

In a recent customer survey, NETINT users reported high satisfaction with Quadra VPUs’ reliability, integration ease, and overall performance. Many rated the Quadra series as “Excellent” in real-time performance and scalability, noting that the VPUs met or exceeded throughput expectations even under intensive workloads. Such consistent performance is essential for video engineers managing high-stakes, continuous streaming.

Customer-Driven Feature Enhancements

The customer survey highlighted several areas for potential feature improvements, such as enhanced deinterlacing, improved scaling algorithms, and additional input/output flexibility. One area of support, deinterlacing, has already been addressed with the new Ampere Quadra Server. NETINT’s commitment to evolving based on customer feedback positions Quadra VPUs as an adaptive solution that grows alongside user needs.

Why Choose NETINT Quadra VPUs for Video Encoding?

Switching to NETINT’s Quadra VPUs, powered by the Codensity G5 architecture, delivers measurable benefits in operational cost savings, performance, and functionality. Video engineers looking to optimize for cost efficiency, high-density processing, and minimal latency will find Quadra VPUs a powerful alternative to CPU and GPU-based encoders. By providing dedicated, energy-efficient video processing and supporting advanced features like AI-driven scene detection and AV1 codec compatibility, Quadra VPUs offer a future-proof solution for modern video workflows.

For organizations invested in high-volume streaming or on-premises data centers, the potential to reduce OPEX by up to 80% and scale seamlessly with growing demand makes NETINT’s Quadra VPUs a strategic upgrade that enhances performance while controlling costs. Embracing NETINT’s purpose-built, high-performance VPUs could redefine video encoding capabilities for a more efficient and sustainable future in video technology.

Now, you can test drive Quadra VPUs without the hassle of installing a card into a lab server. Just click the link, upload a file, and we’ll process it across our supported codecs using common presets so that you can see firsthand why the largest platforms in the world, including NETINT Quadra, have adopted VPUs.

Mark Donnigan

is a veteran of the video ecosystem, working with disruptive innovation companies like NETINT to increase video codec standards and streaming video technology adoption. In addition to working at the forefront of building one of the world's first T-VOD services and driving early HEVC and AV1 adoption, Mark Donnigan contributed actively to the development and growth of the digital locker initiative, Ultraviolet, breaking device-based content walled gardens, allowing consumers to enjoy video on any device, any time, and in any location. As a technologist and ecosystem developer, Mark's work building cloud-deployed and hyper-scale WebRTC, live, metaverse, and cloud gaming applications gives him a unique view of the OTT and video streaming landscape.

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