NAVER Selects Intel® Technology for Real-Time Video Transcoding

Case Study

Service Providers Data Center NAVER Selects Intel® Technology for Real-Time Video Transcoding

Intel® Xeon® E3 Processors and Intel® Quick Sync Video optimized with Intel® Media Server Studio provide excellent image quality and processing performance for a low TCO

At a Glance: Competition among Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) is fierce. The ability to • Allows NAVER to deliver high- continually innovate and launch differentiated services is crucial for survival. quality video that meets customer This is why Korean service provider NAVER turned to Intel for support developing expectations its real-time live video streaming service. With Intel’s assistance, NAVER optimized the performance of its in-house transcoding application to run on the Intel® • Supports launch of differentiated, Xeon® processor E3-1285L v4, exceeding its expectations for image quality and real-time video streaming service performance, for a low total cost of ownership (TCO). • Enables NAVER to fend off competition from local and global CSPs Challenge • Launch a real-time video streaming service transcoded in real-time to deliver a high-quality and seamless viewing experience in line with customer expectations • Select a technology platform with sufficient graphics and compute power to support this new service • Fully optimize its in-house transcoding software to take maximum advantage of the processing capabilities of this new platform

Solution • Intel worked closely with NAVER to compare the image quality, performance and TCO of the Intel Xeon processor E3-1285L v4 Transcoding • Intel and NAVER collaborated to fine tune the performance of NAVER’s in-house H.264 1080p transcoding software using Intel® Media Server Studio at 60fps Results • The Intel Xeon processor E3-1285L v4 with built-in Iris® Pro graphics P6300 graphics acceleration provided high video quality that meets NAVER’s expectations and requirements • NAVER was able to deliver H.264 1080p transcoding performance at 60 frames per second (fps) using Intel® Quick Sync Video optimized by Intel Media Server Studio, allowing it to process a high number of channels per server for a low TCO Processing a high number • NAVER launched a compelling and differentiated real-time video streaming service for the local market segment1,2, fending off competition from CSP giants of channels at a low TCO and local specialist providers Case Study | NAVER Selects Intel® Technology for Real-Time Video Transcoding 2

Business Challenge: Launching Differentiated must be transcoded and transported in real time to an Services ever-growing number of devices and codecs, and in a cost- effective manner. This requires a technology platform with NAVER is an Internet content service provider headquartered huge amounts of graphics and compute power, as well as in Seongnam, South Korea. It is Korea’s premier Internet transcoding software that is fully optimized to take maximum 3 company and top search portal , and has the largest Internet advantage of these processing capabilities. Portal Data Center (IPDC) in the country4. NAVER operates in an intensely competitive market segment Working with Intel to Optimize Performance and faces continual threat from large, multinational CSPs, Ensuring the highest image quality was NAVER’s number one as well as specialist local providers. Key to NAVER’s success priority for its real-time video streaming platform, followed is the ability to develop and launch differentiated services. closely by performance and a low TCO. With Intel’s support, Video, in particular, offers huge revenue-generating NAVER compared the Intel Xeon processor E3-1285L v4 with potential. other solutions in the market against each of these three IHS Markit predicts the South Korean paid-for online video criteria. market will more than triple to USD 433 million in 2021. It is In preparation, Intel Software and Services Group (Intel one of the biggest market segments in Asia, with an annual SSG) worked with NAVER’s developers to optimize the average revenue per user of USD 97 for subscription services, performance of its in-house transcoding application running 5 compared to USD 103 in Japan and just USD 31 in China . To on the Intel Xeon processor E3-1285L v4-based platform. seize its share of this market segment, NAVER must ensure Intel SSG technical experts delivered training, Q&A sessions its video services are compelling and tailored to the local and ongoing support to NAVER’s in-house team to ensure requirements. they were fully confident in using the Intel Media Server Studio development kit. Real-Time Video Streaming Requires High- Performance Processing Intel Media Server Studio is a key software technology used to access hardware-accelerated codecs and programmable Being a Korean provider puts NAVER at an advantage over graphics on Intel Xeon E3 processors, speed transition to large multinational providers. It has experience working with higher frame rates and resolutions, and reduce infrastructure local broadcasting stations and content providers; as well and development costs. as personal broadcasting stars, with whom it can partner Using Intel Media Server Studio, the NAVER team was able to launch new services. From its existing customer base, it to develop its software to take full advantage of Intel Quick also knows which content appeals most to consumers and Sync Video hardware-based transcoding. Intel Quick Sync develops new services according to these needs. Video uses the dedicated media processing capabilities of Based on this insight, NAVER wanted to launch a real-time Intel® Graphics Technology (GPU) for fast decode and encode, video streaming service6 on its NAVERTV* platform but this enabling the processor to balance its CPU/ GPU workload to presented a huge technical challenge. Live video streams complete other tasks and improve system responsiveness.

Case Study | NAVER Selects Intel® Technology for Real-Time Video Transcoding 3

Live Streaming Farm

Source L4 Publishing Encoder Server Storage Farm Proxy Server L4 Edge Server Point Server Pool Pool Pool

Figure 1: Workflow for NAVER’s real-time video streaming service User

High Image Quality and Performance for a By collaborating with Intel, NAVER can launch innovative Low TCO and compelling real-time video streaming services tailored to the local market segment. Services like this allow NAVER NAVER found that the Intel Xeon processor E3-1285L v4 with to differentiate itself and fend off competition from large built-in Iris Pro Graphics P6300 graphics acceleration offered multinational CSPs, as well as specialist local providers. high video quality that meets NAVER’s expectations and requirements. The Intel platform supports NAVER’s new real-time personal and news broadcasting channels, in addition to its existing Intel Quick Sync Video optimized with Intel Media Server baseball broadcasting service. The company plans to add Studio running on the Intel Xeon processor E3-1258L v4 around 100 additional channels over the coming months met NAVER’s requirements with H.264 1080p real-time including some in partnership with Korea’s best-known transcoding at 60 fps. However, if possible, NAVER wanted to content creators. run more channels per server at various different resolutions. To achieve this, Intel worked with NAVER to further optimize Visual Cloud is one of the fastest-growing workloads and its in-house transcoding application using Intel® VTune™ offers huge revenue-generating potential. Intel offers CSPs Amplifier – a performance profiler. Through using the tool’s a workload-optimized solution that offers superior image analyzer capabilities, engineers discovered bottlenecks in the quality, high performance and a low TCO to support the software that were causing a slowdown in performance. They rollout of innovative and differentiated video services. were able to quickly eliminate them, so that NAVER could achieve its ultimate performance goals. Spotlight on NAVER Intel continued to offer NAVER support throughout the NAVER Corporation is an Internet content service company development and testing phases. For example, Intel was which operates Korea’s number one search engine NAVER*. on hand to help the NAVER team install Intel Media Server It is headquartered in Seongnam, South Korea. NAVER is the Studio onto their new operating system (OS). With Intel’s fifth most used search engine in the world following Google support, NAVER was able to meet its launch schedule for Search*, Yahoo! Search*, Baidu Search* and Microsoft Bing*. the real-time video streaming service. NAVER also showcases innovative mobile services such as the mobile messenger LINE*, video messenger Snow*, and Figure 1 illustrates the workflow for NAVER’s real-time video group communication service BAND*. It has over 2,500 streaming service with the encoder server pool powered by employees and an operating income of USD 1bn. the Intel Xeon processor E3-1285L v4.

Business-Enabling Benefits of Intel® Technology Technical Components of Solution The Intel Xeon processor E3-1285L v4 with Iris Pro Graphics This solution brief is part of an entire solution kit of P6300 built-in graphics acceleration offers NAVER the content that is full of key insights and learnings: high-video quality it needs to ensure its real-time live • Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1285L v4 with built-in video streaming service is in line with its customers’ high Iris® Pro Graphics P6300 for superior image quality expectations. NAVER was able to deliver H.264 1080p • Intel® Quick Sync Video optimized with Intel® Media transcoding performance at 60 fps, and process a high Server Studio provides h.264 1080p transcoding at number of channels per server. This high-density processing 60 fps across eight channels keeps hardware and maintenance requirements to a minimum, resulting in a low TCO. Case Study | NAVER Selects Intel® Technology for Real-Time Video Transcoding 4

Lessons Learned The key lessons that CSPs can learn from NAVER’s experience are: Learn More • Intel Xeon E3 processors with built-in graphics offer great This solution brief is part of an entire solution kit of image quality and performance tailored to meet CSPs’ most content that is full of key insights and learnings: pressing media requirements • Visual Cloud Computing - https://www.intel.com/ • CSPs who run media workloads on other platforms should content/www/us/en/cloud-computing/visual-cloud. consider migrating to the Intel Xeon E3 processor-based html solution for improved performance, scalability and video quality. Together with Intel software optimization, they • Intel® Xeon® E3 Processors - https://www.intel.com/ could experience increased performance gains and server content/www/us/en/products/processors/xeon/e3- density, leading to a low TCO processors.html • Intel Media Server Studio is a crucial software value-add • Intel® Quick Sync Video - https://www.intel.co.uk/ that allows CSPs to maximize the performance of the Intel content/www/uk/en/architecture-and-technology/ Xeon E3 processors and deliver fast, high-density and quick-sync-video/quick-sync-video-general.html efficient transcoding • Intel® Media Server Studio - https://software.intel. com/intel-media-server-studio • Intel® Cloud Insider Program - www.intel.com/ Find the solution that is right for your organization. cloudinsider Contact your Intel representative or visit intel.com/CSP.

1 http://www.fnnews.com/news/201706121444285727 2 http://www.techforkorea.com/2017/03/21/naver-invests-88-million-in-yg-entertainment-to-develop-global-entertainment-content/ 3 https://www.infocubic.co.jp/en/blog/archives/107 4 http://datacenter.navercorp.com/en/index.html 5 https://tva.onscreenasia.com/2017/09/south-korean-paid-online-video-market-triple-2021/ 6 http://tv.naver.com/l/livehome

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