VC-5 Video Compression for Mezzanine Compression Workflows

The new SMPTE video compression standard ST 2073 “VC-5 Mezzanine Level Compression” is a variable-bit-rate codec originally developed for video acquisition and post-production, applicable to a diverse range of image and video formats. The term “Mezzanine Level Compression” refers to a lightly compressed video format, usually compressed from one half to one twentieth the uncompressed format. Mezzanine compression is used for workflows where the image sequence will need to be decompressed and recompressed multiple times, while still minimizing the accumulated compression artifacts. There are several different video compression standards used for mezzanine-compressed workflows. Each one offers a specific set of trade-offs (compression ratio, fidelity, speed, power consumption, image formats, etc.) that makes it suitable for specific situations. This paper introduces the new VC-5 standard and describes its advantages for certain acquisition and post-production workflows.

Published

2013-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

VC-5, video compression, image compression, file-based workflows, CineForm, wavelet transform

DOI

10.5594/M001524

ISBN

978-1-61482-953-9