New York, New York – March 21, 2013 — In a strong affirmation of the core technology and market potential of Brevity, a digital technology start-up serving the media and entertainment markets, the company has entered into a strategic partnership with The Kraft Group that includes a significant infusion of capital. The Kraft Group’s investment, for which specific terms were not disclosed, follows previous angel rounds raised by Brevity totaling $7.7 million.
Founded in 2009, Brevity’s breakthrough solution was designed to highly accelerate the transport of digital video files while enabling the simultaneous delivery in multiple formats to multiple locations at the push of a button. Integrating web-based collaboration and workflow automation tools, Brevity provides an unparalleled user experience for managing and distributing digital media assets, and an increased efficiency in workflows for unmatched return on investment.
The technology has been adopted by leading broadcasters, NBC Sports and CBS Sports, and successfully deployed in critical applications for broadcasts of major events, including the 2012 Olympic Games and the NFL Super Bowl. Brevity is currently expanding sales with many other leading broadcast, cable and content companies and expects to make sales announcements in the coming quarter. Brevity’s technology has the capacity to significantly speed up the transport of media assets and has applications in a wide array of markets beyond media and entertainment.
The Kraft Group’s interests in sports and entertainment include ownership of the New England Patriots NFL franchise, the New England Revolution MLS franchise and Gillette Stadium. The holding company’s other interests include paper/packaging manufacturing and forest products distribution, real estate development and a portfolio of private equity investments.
According to Kevin Norris, Brevity President and CEO, the addition of a strong strategic partner like The Kraft Group underscores the strong market potential of Brevity in the media and entertainment sectors and positions the company for growth going forward.
“Brevity has proven its technology with some of the highest profile, most demanding media brands and now with an experienced, well-connected partner like The Kraft Group, we’re optimally positioned to take our technology to new customers and markets.”
Tested by a veritable who’s who of North American broadcasters, Brevity V3 moves securely encrypted files over Internet, fiber, or data satellite up to 30X faster than otherwise possible, while preserving image quality and high resolution, with support for leading industry codecs and formats such as Avid® DNxHD®, EVS MXF, Final Cut Pro, Sony Cameras and others. Brevity has been tested successfully on uncompressed, high bit-rate video, 2k and 4k DPX files, as well as compressed HD and SD files.
Two core algorithms, Data Warp, which is bit for bit lossless, and Image Warp, an optimized algorithm for video that is visually lossless power the Brevity solution. Image Warp has been tested successfully against ProRes 4444 and Avid DNxHD 220; in a recent Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) test, it cored at or above 60 decibels, which is an objective industry measure of quality. Both Data Warp and Image Warp create “transport” mezzanine files that reduce storage requirements while supporting industry standard formats at ingest and at output. The Brevity solution also includes Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) based video routers to provide teraflops of computing power to handle its powerful algorithms.
Brevity V3 is based on a powerful project paradigm that allows for approved users from one or more organizations to access project files virtualized across storage arrays, private, public, or hybrid clouds. When a file is ingested, a set of rules associated with the video sends it to multiple destinations automatically via accelerated transport, while simultaneously transcoding to the needed formats. The video files move with speed to all locations, arriving at the destination already in one or more requested formats based on pre-set profiles. Brevity V3 also has open web-services interfaces that enable integration and connections with a wide range of existing applications and tools.
Brevity’s main security measures consist of 256-bit AES encryption of the transport file during transmission and storage, and asset encryption keys transmitted using 4096-bit RSA encryption.
Brevity’s industry partners include Avid, with support for all Avid DNxHD formats and EVS, with support for the proprietary legacy EVS MXF format as well as the EVS MXF OP1a and QuickTime wrappers. Brevity also offers complete support for Apple® ProRes including the much in demand ProRes-DNxHD conversions.
ABOUT BREVITY
Brevity provides breakthrough technology that offers for the first time the ability to simultaneous transcode while transporting video at incredibly fast speeds over any network. Founded in 2009, Brevity transforms media production and distribution workflows and redefines the time, cost, and efficiency required to support M&E operations. Brevity is working with leading networks, studios, content providers, sports teams, and production houses to redefine media production and distribution around the world. For more information please visit us at www.brevityv.com or follow us @BrevityV.
Avid, and Avid DNxHD, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avid Technology, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners
