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Freude am Erfolg: Businesstipps für Hörakustiker mit Veronika Vehr
In dieser Folge geht es um einen Fehler, der wirklich Geld und Energie kostet. Lasse dich inspirieren von Veronikas Erfahrungen im Verkauf über viele Jahre. Es geht darum, was du verkaufst und warum einige Blockaden dich und dein Team aufhalten können und dies am Ende nicht nur Geld und Energie kostet, sondern du auch deiner Rolle und Verantwortung als Hörakustiker nicht gerecht werden kannst. Veronika zeigt auf welche bedeutende Aufgabe Hörakustiker auch für die Gesellschaft haben und wie du dieses immer wieder unterstreichen kannst. Sie gibt dir top Impulse und damit Orientierung und Stärkung für deine Tätigkeit und dein Verhalten jeden Tag. Darüberhinaus liefert sie auch wertvolle Impulse aus der Wissenschaft und aktuellen Studien. Hör aufmerksam zu und lies zusätzlich mein Buch "Verliebt in beide Ohren" https://buch.veronikavehr.com/ Weiterführende Infos und Überblick zum Leistungsspektrum von VVC hier https://www.veronikavehr.com/
VVC is second to BV in vaginitis type, here in the USA. data indicate that 75% of women have experienced at least one episode of genital candida throughout their lives . VVC is currently classified as uncomplicated (sporadic infection with mild-to-moderate clinical symptoms in non-immunocompromised women) or complicated (recurrent or clinically severe infection that eventually affects immunocompromised women or is caused by non-Albican species). What is the best course of action for these patients? Topical therapy or oral? Single or multiple dosages? In this episode, we will highlight a new publication from the AJOG which was just released ahead of print that looks at this issue. PLUS, we will revisit a 2001 multicenter study on single Diflucan vs sequential dosing every 3 days. As a little bonus, as the AJOG new publication is Italian, we will have sporadic interludes from ITALIA's best! Listen in for details.
Zero Candida Co-Founder and CEO Eli Ben-Haroosh joined Steve Darling from Proactive to announce that the company's common shares are now trading on the OTCQB Venture Market under the ticker "ZCTFF", alongside its existing listings on the TSX Venture Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Ben-Haroosh emphasized that this milestone expands Zero Candida's market presence, enhances strategic partnerships, and broadens the company's investor base to support its AI-driven medical technology innovations. Zero Candida is pioneering a novel, non-drug treatment for Vulvo-Vaginal Candidiasis (VVC)—a condition affecting approximately 75% of women globally, with rising resistance to conventional antifungal treatments. The company is developing a tampon-like medical device that utilizes artificial intelligence and therapeutic blue light at a precise wavelength and intensity to eradicate Candida fungus. Early proof-of-concept (POC) studies have demonstrated an impressive 99.999% success rate in treating infections. With drug-resistant cases of recurrent VVC on the rise, Zero Candida's innovative approach offers a groundbreaking alternative to existing treatments. Zero Candida has completed its preclinical trials with what Haroosh said was “100% safety,” and is preparing for clinical trials by the end of 2025, with market entry targeted after 2026 following FDA approval. #proactiveinvestors #zerocandida #tsxv #zct #WomensHealth #CandidaTreatment #MedicalDevice #Telemedicine #AIinHealthcare #NonDrugTherapy #OTCQB #HealthcareInnovation #FungalInfection
Zero Candida Co-Founder and CEO Eli Ben-Haroosh joined Steve Darling from Proactive to mark a significant milestone as the company opened the market in celebration of its listing on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol ZCT. The listing highlights the company's mission to revolutionize women's health with its groundbreaking technology. Zero Candida's patented innovation leverages controlled “Blue Light” technology to effectively destroy fungal infections at unprecedented speed and without side effects. Delivered via a tampon-like medical device, this novel treatment offers a comprehensive solution for eliminating vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) and preventing its recurrence. VVC, commonly known as yeast infection, affects approximately 75% of women during their reproductive years. For 8-10% of women, these infections are recurrent, with four or more episodes annually. Globally, 138 million women face recurrent infections every year, a number expected to rise to 158 million by 2030. Key factors contributing to recurrent VVC include antibiotic use, hormonal changes, and sexual activity. Zero Candida's innovative approach seeks to meet the unmet needs of this growing demographic, offering a safer and more effective alternative to current treatments. According to Ben-Haroosh, Zero Candida's technology represents a major advancement in the FemTech sector, providing a transformative solution for women's health challenges. With its public listing, the company is well-positioned to accelerate its mission of improving outcomes for millions of women globally. #proactiveinvestors #zerocandida #tsxv #zct #invest #investing #investment #investor #stockmarket #stocks #stock #stockmarketnews
Send us a Text Message.In today's episode, I'm talking to Chloe Redmond, the visionary behind Vino Vaquera Consulting – the mindful digital marketing agency where she wears many hats - influencer, social media manager, luxury event designer, and intuitive consultant. After the amazing opportunity to work for Deepak Chopra's global wellness company in 2020 as a marketing coordinator, Chloe realized mindfulness and marketing can co-exist. Now at VVC, she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs reach their pure potential through intentional and intuitive marketing practices that she also calls Conscious Entrepreneurship. Chloe is also an intuitive healer, meditation instructor, and Ayurvedic practitioner certified by Chopra. Her mission is to teach others how to put their authentic self into play while targeting their niche and discovering creative partnerships and collaborations. Chloe's energy and enthusiasm are contagious! In our conversation, she shares her story and how her intuition has guided her life and helped her better serve her business. As one of her former clients, I'm grateful for all her help and guidance in finding different collaborations that gave more visibility to Mamma Terra's mission and my work. I also have the honor to call her my friend! Take a listen!CONNECT WITH CHLOE:Instagram - @vinovaqueraconsulting e-mail - thevinovaquera@yahoo.comEverything else is on her link tree!Good is What Makes You Feel Well is Mamma Terra's PodcastCONNECT WITH MAMMA TERRA HEALTH COACHING:Sign up for our free weekly newsletter: HEREWebsite: www.mammaterrahc.comInstagram: @mammaterrahcFacebook: MammaTerra.HCLinkedIn: Anna ResendeIf you have an experience or a story you think might inspire or help people listening to this podcast, use the link below to schedule an interview with me.Schedule your interview here!Music credits to Ricardo Ulpiano, Thiago Peixoto, Marcelo Luciano Menino, and Anderson Rodrigo de Oliveira.Podcast art credits to Caroline Kohls - Instagram @carol.kohls.fotography Thanks for tuning in!
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is known as a normal vaginal microbiota resulting in low lactobacilli; it affects one-quarter to one-third of reproductive-age women. The BV treatment landscape has not appreciably changed in decades: in the US, metronidazole and clindamycin are recommended as first-line treatments for symptomatic BV, and secnidazole and tinidazole are used as alternatives. Although these treatments are effective in the short term, up to 60% of women experience BV recurrence within 1 year of treatment. Some have more frequent recurrences. Suppressive vaginal metronidazole fails for 25% of patients and leads to secondary vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) in up to 40%, and many patients have BV recurrence after stopping suppressive therapy. But now a “new” therapeutic option has been in print and is attracting a lot of attention. DQC has been available in other parts of the world for decades, and recently published results from a new European clinical investigation (May 2024) adds more reassuring date. This has led many in the United States to call for trials in this country to begin FDA approval. Listen in for details.
Varmvattencirkulation är standard. Men det finns alternativ till VVC. Vi reder ut.
Recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVCC) is a highly burdensome, long-lasting medical condition that heavily compromises the activities of women and their quality of life. Recently, the prevalence of RVVC has increased, partly due to a rise in VVC caused by non-albicans species. Here's a real-world clinical dilemma (from a real case): What would you offer a patient who is allergic to fluconazole and terconazole, has taken 3 doses of Brexafemme, has used boric acid, and even tried vaginal probiotics? Oh- and vaginal Gent Violet is not available (in this case). In this episode, we are going to review 3 alternative vaginal therapies that could be very helpful in cases where that darn yeast will not go away.
In this podcast I cover the latest research that links imbalance in the ventral vagus nerve (innervation of the head and neck) with chronic inflammation throughout the body. We know that most disease has inflammation at its core - anxiety, depression, arthritis, heart disease, and even auto-immunity are all linked to the imbalance of this important nerve of the autonomic (vegetative) nervous system.Find out what you can do to rebalance your vagus and why this may be a vital non-drug tool in future medical treatment.Check out the original article I mention here https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/23/the-key-to-depression-obesity-alcoholism-and-more-why-the-vagus-nerve-is-so-exciting-to-scientistsCheck out the Singing athlete on youTube for more info on manual vagal toninghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6xwxfGTOhcFor more info on devices check out this article https://healthnews.com/longevity/biohacking/best-vagus-nerve-stimulation-device/Note it doesn't mention the DENAS because this isn't just a vagal stimulator but an all round medical device. See https://denas-neurodens.com/0:00 Intro and definitions02:00 Vagal tone is usually low due to stressful lives03:05 New research - mind body connection is at last proven04:00 Non-drug treatment for epilepsy works for depression too!05:50 Systemic effects because the vagus goes everywhere07:00 Dorsal vagus goes to internal organs changing neurotransmitter balance08:00 Vagal stimulation via electrical devices09:00 Nerve dysfunction may relate to past experience10:37 Manual techniques to rebalance - tapping, ear wiggling, humming, etc12:40 Dive reflex - not vagal toning *If you're suffering from Chronic pain, fatigue or anxiety, I CAN HELP*CONTACT ME: https://www.alchemytherapies.co.uk/Alchemy Therapies & Emotional MasterclassOTHER USEFUL RESOURCESGroup Healing Program: http://myemotionalaudit.comAuthor/Book site: https//patriciaworby.comPodcast: https://www.alchemytherapies.co.uk/po...121 and group therapy and training for stress related conditions like anxiety, fatigue and pain: https://alchemytherapies.co.ukSee in particular: Thrive! - an introductory mindbody connection program and The Emotional Audit for more intensive training.COMING SOON:Intensive Training Program: https://emotionalmasterclass.com
On this episode of Investor Connect, Hall welcomes Derren Burrell, Founder & Managing Partner at Veteran Ventures Capital. Located in Knoxville, TN, USA, Veteran Ventures Capital (VVC) is a veteran-owned growth-equity investment fund & firm focused on veteran businesses. VVC interacts exclusively with companies that have military veteran leadership, recognizing the value of military experience, training, and character in business operations. VVC's team is comprised of distinguished former military officers and seasoned financial experts from across the country. Their value proposition lies in their granular understanding of the military culture, significant connections within the federal government & defense industry, and working knowledge of the government procurement process. Derren is a retired Lieutenant Colonel with over 28 years as a professional financial manager in both the public and private sectors. He is the Founder & President of Veteran Ventures Capital, an investment and consulting firm focused on scaling veteran-owned businesses. In this capacity, he oversees all aspects of the company operations and fund management of the Veteran Fund, which invests in early stage/growth companies. He is a graduate of the Citadel and past recipient of several awards including the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medals, Joint Service Achievement Medal, Air Force Budget Officer of the Year twice, Air Force Financial Management Officer of the Year, Comptroller of the Year, and USAFE James E. Short Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mentorship and Career Development. Derren shares his experiences working both in the public and private sectors and his passion for helping veteran-owned businesses. Visit Veteran Ventures Capital at , , and on . Reach out to Derren at , , and on . _______________________________________________________ For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: Check out our other podcasts here: For Investors check out: For Startups check out: For eGuides check out: For upcoming Events, check out For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group Please , share, and leave a review. Music courtesy of .
Summary In this episode, Dr. Peter reviews the limitations of current Catholic resources on anger, and then reviews secular resources, including interpersonal neurobiology and the structural theory of dissociation. We examine the role of the body in anger responses, and discuss more wholistic ways of working constructive with parts that experience anger, rather than trying to dismiss anger, suppress it or distract from it. Lead-in William Blake, A Poison Tree: I was angry with my friends; I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow. We've all experienced anger and we've all experienced angry people We know it's a problem. And global data suggest that it's getting worse. Gallup world poll from 2021: 140 countries Did you experience the following feelings during a lot of the day yesterday? How about anger? 17% of US respondents agreed 26% of women worldwide up from 20% from 10 years ago 20% of men -- flat from 10 years ago. Harm can come from anger Mark Twain “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” CCC 2302 By recalling the commandment, "You shall not kill," our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral. Anger is a desire for revenge. "To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit," but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution "to correct vices and maintain justice." If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, "Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment." "Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment." And who hasn't been angry -- including Jesus himself?. We have got to unpack this There is so much misunderstanding about anger in the Catholic world, so much of the way that Catholics have approached anger has been limited, misinformed, and misguided When I think about why the Catholic Church in the US, in Canada, in Europe and Australia, in the entire Western World, there are many factors. Brandon Vogt New Stats on Why Young People Leave the Church based on his book Return: How to Draw Your Child Back to the Church One critical factor is that cradle Catholics, especially young Catholics do not believe that the Church can help them with their problems. Diocese of Springfield Exit Surveys (2014) 68% – Spiritual needs not met67% – Lost interest over time Only 7% of Millennials raised Catholic still actively practice their faith today (weekly Mass, pray a few times each week, say their faith is “extremely” or “very” important) 6.5 people leave the Catholic Church for every one that joins 66% of “nones” agree that “religion causes more problems than it solves” That's why so many fall away from the Faith. The Church doesn't seem relevant to them because she doesn't seem like she has the answers to the real issues they face. 10% of American adults are former Catholics Nearly half of those who fall away from the Church become "nones" And another quarter become Evangelical Christians. 79% of former Catholics leave the Church before age 23. 50% of Millennials raised Catholic no longer identify as Catholic today And it's about topics like anger -- we are not doing a good job meeting the needs that Catholics have today, human formation needs. Intro I am Dr. Peter Malinoski, a.k.a. Dr. Peter, clinical psychologist, trauma therapist, podcaster, blogger, cofounder and president of Souls and Hearts -- but most of all I am a beloved little son of God, a passionate Catholic who wants to help you to taste and see the height and depth and breadth and warmth and the light of the love of God, especially God the Father and Mary our Mother, our spiritual parents, our primary parents. To really absorb your identity as a little child of God and Mary. I want you to enter much more deeply into an intimate, personal, loving relationship with the three Persons of the Trinity and with our Lady. That is what this Interior Integration for Catholics podcast is all about, that is what Souls and Hearts is all about – all about shoring up the natural foundation for the spiritual life of intimacy with God, all about overcoming the natural human formation deficits and obstacles to contemplative union with God our Father and our Lady, our Mother We are on an adventure of love together. And one thing, one major, big, huge thing that gets in the way of being loved by God and Mary and loving in return is anger. Anger. This is Episode 103 of Interior Integration for Catholics. Interior Integration for Catholics is part of Souls and Hearts, our online outreach, check us out at soulsandhearts.com. Anger: one of the seven deadly sins, one the lethal vices that can kill your soul. Anger. So much confusion about anger. The Burden of Anger: June 10, 2021 Catholic-daily-reflections.com The first level of sin is simply to be “angry” interiorly. The sin of anger is an interior attitude of disgust toward another. Jesus says that the consequence of having anger toward another is that you will be “liable to judgment.” Humility. I could be wrong. The offerings from Five Catholic writers on anger are a case in point. The most popular book Fr. T.G. Morrow, Overcoming Sinful Anger 303 Amazon Review, mostly positive, #16 on the list of bestsellers in Catholic Theology, put out by Sophia Press in 2015 And it's not very good. I can't recommend it. First off, Fr. Morrow admits that he doesn't understand why people get angry We've all encountered people who explode when they feel angry. It baffles me how often the sort of anger rears its ugly head in marriages – even in allegedly Christian marriages. (p. 9). I am often surprised to discover Christians who pray ardently, receive the sacraments regularly, we've and attend Mass daily, and yet have an anger problem. (p. 10) Presumes a homogeneous, single personality. Easy to explain with part. Why do people explode in anger? There are many reasons, but I think the top three are power and control, a refusal to take responsibility, and habit. (p. 13). Very simplistic view of psychology, and no consideration of neurology, traumatology, Confusion about the causal chain in anger. Where anger fits in a sequence of events Little genuine interest in anger. Anger is something to essentially get rid of. Not much consideration of the unconscious and unconscious anger. Acknowledges that suppressing anger is problematic, but there still is an assumption that if I'm not feeling anger, it's not there. Disconnect. "Irrational anger" Very focused on the will and will training -- naïve assumptions about sympathetic arousal. Nike Spirituality -- Just do it. Romans 7:15: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Spiritual Bypassing Definitions John Welwood: American clinical psychologist, psychotherapist, teacher, and author, known for integrating psychological and spiritual concepts Using “spiritual ideas, words and practices to sidestep or avoid personal, emotional ‘unfinished business,' to shore up a shaky sense of self, or to belittle basic needs, feelings, psychological wounds and developmental tasks.” Blogger Rose Hahn: Spiritual Bypassing: What It Is & How To Avoid It Bypassing occurs when spiritual ideals get elevated to the realm of absolute truth in such a way that our real, lived experience is somehow denied. Rather than doing the work of healing deep wounds, we may use these ideals to deny, devalue, or avoid meeting our more human needs – such as emotional bonding, love, and esteem. In other words, rather than risk opening ourselves to real human connection, and possibly get hurt, we adopt a more enlightened, spiritual way of relating to the world that doesn't rely on human relationship. Not a lot from a specifically Catholic perspective, but this is from Katharina, who styles herself "The Bohemian Catholic" We are supposed to uplift each other, and treat each other with love and respect - like icons of Christ, as God's creation… BUT if you find yourself trying to tell someone that their faith should keep them "happy" all the time, then you aren't helping them. Using spiritual words, spiritual means, spiritual concepts -- all to whitewash or put a Band-Aid on significant psychological or emotional problems in the natural realm Bypassing the natural realm and going to the spiritual realm. Essentially saying -- You should not feel this way. Which is what Fr. Morrow is saying. He promises to "I will offer some ideas, which I consider quite novel, on how to avoid angry explosions." (p.4) Tips So, as a first step in overcoming passive-aggressive anger keep reminding yourself that you want to be a Christian, and therefore you can't take revenge anymore. (p. 9). First, take the time to calm down and figure out why you're angry…. One of the tactics often recommended is to count to ten before deciding what to do. (p. 20). Better still, say a short prayer before acting. The next step is to ask yourself if your angry feeling is been caused by something significant. Most angry fights in marriage are caused by trifling things. (p. 20). Or perhaps use humor to make your point.(p. 20). Offering your angry feeling as a sacrifice is not suppressing it but doing something with it. It is making a bad situation into a beneficial one. That is what it means to embrace the cross. (p. 23-24). If we can forgive others, we can pull the rug out from beneath our anger most of the time. Unforgiveness is the main culprit behind anger. (p. 25). … Refocus your thoughts away from the things that made you angry to some very positive thoughts. For example, thank God for the beautiful weather for the ability to read or buy things you need. (p. 30). I often encourage people with an anger problem to daily for humility. It works. (p. 36). Chapter 7: Thanking God, praising God Consider your future. One key way to change her behaviors to work on in your mind just what your life will be like if you don't change your angry behavior. (pp. 72-73) If you struggle with an anger problem write on an index card all the negatives of continuing your anger and read that list several times a day. (p. 74). Fr. Joseph Esper, Saintly Solutions to Life's Common Problems 99 reviews on amazon. #138 in Roman Catholicism. 2001 Book -- First Chapter is on anger. St. Thomas of Villanova: "Dismiss all anger and look into yourself a little." (p. 7) "St. Francis de Sales advises that, to avoid the sin of anger, you must quickly ask God to give peace to your heart when you're angered and then turn your thoughts to something else. Don't discuss the matter at hand or make decisions or correct other person while you're angry. When a person angers you, St. Francis advises, consider the person's good qualities rather than the words or actions you find objectionable." (p. 7) When we have to speak to someone with whom we are angry, we should first pray for the Lord's guidance and help. It's often more effective to speak in terms of asking favors, rather than making demands or giving orders…" (p. 5-6) ...rehearse possible responses and evaluate which ones which might help you. (p. 7) Tommy Tighe St. Dymphna's Playbook: A Catholic Guide to Finding Mental and Emotional Well-Being 2021 book, #57 in Christian Pastoral Counseling, 66 reviews, mostly positive. Doesn't discuss anger. Discusses irritability as a symptom of depression and resentment as a problem in relationships "However, the more I have experienced depression in my own life and in my work as a clinician, the more I have seen the symptoms of irritability and anger is predominant features of depression." (p. 13). That's one way, not the only way. So often depression results from Recommendations "…go for a walk, take some time to meditate, watch or read something that lightens our mood. (p. 13) "Keeping a diary of our emotions and reactions to those emotions is a great place to start… Look back on a situation, slow it down, and examine what exactly happened….We might ask ourselves: What is it that has led to my irritability? Is it because I'm depressed and trying to stuff that feeling down rather than address it? What am I thinking in that situation? (p. 15). "We draw this all out on paper, examine what was really behind our emotional response, and then explore ways of thinking that will restructure our reactions and response. And we write these down! Simply thinking about these things isn't going to help. The whole point is to get them out of our head and onto paper so that we can work them out. Consider it an emotional "show your work" kind of exercise." (p. 15). Then, after a really brief introspective process, we can catch that the real reason for our irritability is our depressed mood, and we can interject coping skills for depression to stave off our irritability. (p. 16). Changing the focus of our thinking is key when we try to battle against depression and irritability that inevitably rears its ugly head. You've probably heard people suggest keeping a gratitude list to help you feel more positive, much along the same lines as St. Paul's advice. It works. (p. 18). Steps in the process Visualize yourself from the perspective of compassionate observer. Notice from the outside whole feelings xare upsetting you and how they are reflected in your appearance. Try to let the warm feeling of compassion and desire to help arise within you. Say to yourself: "It is understandable that you feel that way. You are experiencing a natural response to depressing thoughts. But I'm going to help you." Visualize putting your hand on your shoulder or hugging yourself to soothe and comfort yourself. Give yourself a friendly smile. Think about if there are other things you want to tell yourself that would energize and encourage you to cheer up. Taking time to say those things. When you feel it is appropriate, begin saying goodbye to yourself and remind yourself that you come back anytime you want. (p. 16-17). For resentment: Active listening Tommy Tighe: to fend off resentment, we have to communicate with things are important to us and why. We can't expect our partner to read her mind. We have to tell them the things we value, what things we have grown to expect in relationships because of our past experiences and we have to tell them why. (p 113) Rhonda Chevrin Taming the Lion Within: 5 Steps from Anger to Peace 2017 16 ratings is a Catholic author, international speaker and Professor of Philosophy. She is the author of over 60 books concerning the matters of Catholic thought, practice and spirituality, Take a secure thought -- use your imagination to think of ways out of annoying or enraging situations Avoid exceptionality. Accept the averageMove your musclesHumor is your best friendF.I.S.T. Feelings, Impulses, Sensations, Thoughts: What it signifies is that we can control our immediate impulses and sensations when hurt or frustrated, but if we control our thoughts we can control her impulses.Put your mental health firstPeace over power: Many times you can't win, and it doesn't matter if you lose. It's not worth the effort to put up a fight. They are not doing it to you; they're just doing it! – Much is not done on purposeNot a 911 Not everything is an emergency,.Be Group minded Anger at GodForgiveness Fr. Spitzer Angry with God? Here's Fr. Spitzer's Advice on How to Overcome Anger God understands your anger. Don't dwell on it. Don't go there. Choose instead to: Three step process in the YouTube clip Angry with God: Stop comparing to the way you once were. Stop comparing yourself to others. Stop having expectations for your suffering. Offer it up. Stop the questioning. Saints' behaviors Meg Hunter-Kilmer - published on 09/28/17Aleteia September 28, 2017, What We Probably Don't Know about St. Jerome Is Just What We Need to Know St. Jerome was known to carry around a stone that he would hit himself with every time he lost his temper. If these are helpful to you, great. I don't want to put up roadblocks. Might be helpful to many people. As a Catholic psychologist, I am not comfortable recommending any of these Catholic sources Very simplistic view of psychology, and no consideration of neurology, traumatology, Confusion about the causal chain in anger. Where anger fits in a sequence of events Little genuine interest in anger. Anger is something to essentially get rid of. Very focused on the will and will training -- naïve assumptions about sympathetic arousal. And they don't get that anger has a protective function -- to protect us against shame. Not one of those sources connects anger to shame. And that's the primary connection we need to understand if we want to resolve anger, not just try to shoo it away. What are we talking about when we discuss anger -- let's get into definitions of Anger Focused on vengeance secondary to a desire -- more than an emotion. Written discussions of anger in the western canon go back as far as fourth-century BC in Greece when the philosopher Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) argued that anger is a rational and natural reaction to being offended and thus is closely associated with reason. In the Rhetoric (1991, p. 1380) he defined anger as “a belief that we, or our friends, have been unfairly slighted, which causes in us both painful feelings and a desire or impulse for revenge.” 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia: Anger: The desire of vengeance. Its ethical rating depends upon the quality of the vengeance and the quantity of the passion. When these are in conformity with the prescriptions of balanced reason, anger is not a sin. It is rather a praiseworthy thing and justifiable with a proper zeal. It becomes sinful when it is sought to wreak vengeance upon one who has not deserved it, or to a greater extent than it has been deserved, or in conflict with the dispositions of law, or from an improper motive. The sin is then in a general sense mortal as being opposed to justice and charity. It may, however, be venial because the punishment aimed at is but a trifling one or because of lack of full deliberation. Likewise, anger is sinful when there is an undue vehemence in the passion itself, whether inwardly or outwardly. Ordinarily it is then accounted a venial sin unless the excess be so great as to go counter seriously to the love of God or of one's neighbor. CCC 2302 By recalling the commandment, "You shall not kill," our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral. Anger is a desire for revenge. "To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit," but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution "to correct vices and maintain justice." If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, "Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment." Contradiction that aggression (or vengeance) and anger have to go together Lot of research to tease about anger and aggression: Ephesians 4:26: Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger APA Dictionary of Psychology: an emotion characterized by tension and hostility arising from frustration, real or imagined injury by another, or perceived injustice. It can manifest itself in behaviors designed to remove the object of the anger (e.g., determined action) or behaviors designed merely to express the emotion (e.g., swearing). Anger is distinct from, but a significant activator of, aggression, which is behavior intended to harm someone or something. Despite their mutually influential relationship, anger is neither necessary nor sufficient for aggression to occur. Psychologist Paul Ekman. (1999). Basic emotions. In T. Dalgleish & M. J. Power (Eds.), Handbook of cognition and emotion (pp. 45–60). John Wiley & Sons Ltd Due to its distinct and widely recognizable pattern of face expression, anger has always been included in the repertoire of basic emotions. Benefits of Anger Farzaneh Pahlavan Multiple Facets of Anger: Getting Mad or Restoring Justice? Chapter 3: The Neurobiology of RAGE and Anger & Psychiatric Implications with a Focus on Depression Daniel J. Guerra1, Valentina Colonnello and Jaak Panksepp As a basic emotion, anger emerges early in life and has a unique adaptive function in motivating, organizing, and regulating behavior. No other emotion can match the consistency and vigor of anger in mobilizing high-level energy and sustaining goal-directed activity. Anger serves a variety of regulatory functions in physiological and psychological processes related to self-defense as well as to interpersonal and societal behaviors. Through socialization processes, it plays an important role in the development of personality and individual differences in responding to environmental challenges, which can be more or less adaptive. (p. v). Aristotle: Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics: It is easy to fly into a passion – anybody can do that – but to be angry with the right person into the right extent and at the right time and with the right object in the right way – that is not easy, and it is not everyone who can do it In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They are morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and will….It belongs to the perfection of the moral or human good that the passions be governed by reason. CCC 1767 CCMMP: Catholic-Christian Meta-Model of the Person DMU Paul Vitz, William Nordling, Paul Craig Titus. p. (294) to remain in the virtuous middle ground requires being disposed to a righteous anger that will stand up to injustice, and use a good measure of anger in ways that are corrective of the evil, preventive of further injustice, and indicative of a balance to mean between extremes. Emotions are good when, as reactions antecedent to reasoning, they make us conscious of reality and prepare us for a more complete reaction and moral action. Emotion and choice then serve moral flourishing (e.g., when we have an appropriate spontaneous reaction of anger at injustice). Second, emotions are good as felt reactions that also follow the intellectual evaluation of the situation. Emotions can be expressive of rational decisions. Emotions can thus participate in our life of reason and will (Gondreau, 2013). For example, when we choose to rectify and injustice, a balanced expression of anger can help us to act decisively will being restrained enough that we do not overreact. Through a righteous or just expression of anger, we entered rectify injustice, will finding a just and rational mean between excessively weak or exceedingly strong emotional displays. (p. 650). Emotions are viewed as informing people about their cares and concerns. To prepare the body for action, directing our thoughts to ways that will appropriately address the issues at hand. They can signal and manipulate other people in ways that suit the person's emotional needs (Parrott, 2001). Being disconnected from emotional experience, therefore, means being cut off from adaptive information (Pos et al., 2003). (pp. 650-651). Digression into justification of secular sources Question may arise, "OK, Dr. Peter, as you already noted, anger has been recognized for a long time, going all the way back to Aristotle and way before that in Sacred Scripture. You emphasize that you are a Catholic psychologist, so why are you even looking at these secular sources like the American Psychological Association? There is a lot about anger in Scripture, in the Church Fathers and the saints about anger in the spiritual life. Discalced Carmelite Abbott Marc Foley in his excellent book The Context of Holiness: Psychological and Spiritual Reflections on the Life of St. Therese of Lisieux "One…misconception is that the spiritual life is an encapsulated sphere, cloistered from the realities of daily living….we have only one life composed of various dimensions. Our emotional life, intellectual life, social life, work life, sex life, spiritual life are simple ways of speaking of the different facets of our one life. (p. 1). We have one life. One life. We don't have a spiritual life that is separate from our emotional life. We have one life. If we are angry, that affects our whole life. The Church herself encourages us to look to all branches of knowledge and glean what is best from them in order to live our one life better. From the CCC, paragraph 159 "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth." "Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are." And from the Vatican II document, the Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, paragraph 62 reads: In pastoral care, sufficient use must be made not only of theological principles, but also of the findings of the secular sciences, especially of psychology and sociology, so that the faithful may be brought to a more adequate and mature life of faith. Remember that we are embodied beings -- we are composites of a soul and a body. The 17th Century Philosopher Rene Descartes' popularized what is called mind-body dualism. Mind-body dualism is the idea that the body and the mind operate in separate spheres, and neither can be assimilated into the other. And that is false. Demonstrably false in a lot of ways, be we so often assume it to be true. We have one life. In the last several years we are realizing just how much of our mental life and our psychological well-being is linked in various ways to our neurobiology -- the ways that our nervous systems function. And the relationship between our embodied brain and our minds is reciprocal -- each affects the other in complex ways that we are just beginning to understand. In other words, brain chemistry affects our emotional states. And our emotional states and our behaviors affect brain chemistry. It's not just our minds and it's not just our bodies and it's not just our souls -- it's all of those, all of what makes me who I am, body, mind, soul, spirit, all of it. And since Scripture, the Early Church Fathers, the Catechism and so on are silent on neurobiology, neurochemistry, neurophysiology and so many other areas that impact our minds and our well-being, as a Catholic psychologist I am going to look elsewhere, I'm going to look into secular sources. I just don't think it's reasonable to expect the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican to be experts in these areas -- it's not their calling, it's not their expertise. St. John of the Cross in his Prologue of Ascent of Mt. Carmel: "I will not rely on experience or science…[but] I will not neglect whatever possible use I can make of them. Fr. Marc Foley, OCD : The Context of Holiness: As St. Thomas wrote of St. Augustine's use of Platonic philosophy in the Summa: "whenever Augustine, who was imbued with the doctrines of the Platonists, found in their teaching anything consistent with the faith, he adopted it and those things which he found contrary to the faith he amended." (ST I, q. 84,a. 5) p.4 And St. Thomas himself drew on so much of Aristotle's thought in his writings, bringing it into his body of work. Abbot Marc Foley. In short, we should never swallow the school of thought whole; we should sift the wheat from the chaff, separate truth from falsehood. p.4 We want the best from all sources. Emphasis on biological processes: From Heidi Crockett Anger Management with Interpersonal Neurobiology Discussed Interpersonal Neurobiology at length in Episode 92 of this podcast Understanding and Healing your Mind through IPNB In interpersonal neurobiology, anger as an emotion is viewed from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience. And cognitive neuroscience states that cognition and emotion are dynamically combined with physical arousal. When anger is induced as an emotion in humans, it can unconsciously affect physiological and neural resources. Affective states of anger are subsequently expressed in the brain as well as the body, and these neural and physiological changes can influence the cognitive processes. Many studies and resources have been expended on studying the emotions of happiness, sadness, and fear, which align with psychopathological states of hypomania, depression, and anxiety. Kathy Steele, Suzette Boon, Onno van der Hart: Treating Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Practical, Integrative Approach: Anger is an affect to derived from activation of the sympathetic nervous system, geared to energize the body for maximum effort to fend off perceived danger. Psychologically, it protects from awareness of vulnerability and lack of control, and therefore from shame. And fight mode, we are all primed to perceive cues of danger rather than cues of safety and relational connection. In such a heightened state of arousal, it is easy to misunderstand the intentions of others. (p.332). Polyvagal theory and anger A critical period for experience-dependent development of the feelings of safety during early infancy: A polyvagal perspective on anger and psychometric tools to assess perceived safety Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience July 2022 article Andrea Poli, Angelo Gemignani, Carlo Chiorri and Mario Miccoli Brief primer here on some neurology. Don't worry. I will keep it simple. Neurons are specialized cells that receive and send signals to other cells through fragile and thin cellular extensions called axons. Myelination: a membrane or a sheath around the axons on neurons. Myelinated axons often have a larger diameter Myelinated axons are insulated Myelination allows for much faster transmission of electric impulses Presence of safety during the critical period (first year of life). Decreased unmyelinated/myelinated cardioinhibitory fibers ratio in adulthood Ventral Vagal complex is able to have a greater impact on reducing the Sympathetic Nervous System arousal -- decreasing anger VVC is able to have a greater impact on reducing Dorsal Vagal Complex fear and shutdown responses -- the freeze response. Greater capacity for self-regulation. Absence of safety during the critical period Increased unmyelinated/myelinated cardioinhibitory fibers ratio in adulthood Ventral Vagal complex has a lesser impact on reducing the Sympathetic Nervous System arousal -- less able to decrease sympathetic arousal, including anger VVC has a lesser impact on reducing Dorsal Vagal Complex fear and shutdown responses -- less able to reduce the freeze response. Less capacity for self-regulation. Dampened VVC activity reduces the capacity of adaptive inhibition of SNS and DVC (Dorsal Vagal Complex), and emotional self-regulation. Hence, environmental detection of unsafety cues may preferentially trigger SNS-mediated anger in order to avoid DVC-mediated immobilization with fear. Young children exposed to five or more significant adverse experiences in the first three years of childhood face a 76% likelihood of having one or more delays in their language, emotional or brain development. (6) As the number of traumatic events experienced during childhood increases, the risk for the following health problems in adulthood increases: depression; alcoholism; drug abuse; suicide attempts; heart and liver diseases; pregnancy problems; high stress; uncontrollable anger; and family, financial, and job problems. (6) 7 ways childhood adversity changes a child's brain Donna Jackson Nakazawa Acestoohigh.com website September 8, 2016 Epigenetic Shifts gene methylation, in which small chemical markers, or methyl groups, adhere to the genes involved in regulating our stress response, and prevent these genes from doing their jobs. Size and Shape of the Brain stress releases a hormone that actually shrinks the size of the hippocampus, an area of our brain responsible for processing emotion and memory and managing stress. Chronic neuroinflammation can lead to changes that reset the tone of the brain for life Brain connectivity: Dr. Ryan Herringa, neuropsychiatrist and assistant professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin, found that children and teens who'd experienced chronic childhood adversity showed weaker neural connections between the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus. Girls also displayed weaker connections between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. The prefrontal-cortex-amygdala relationship plays an essential role in determining how emotionally reactive we're likely to be to the things that happen to us in our day-to-day life, and how likely we are to perceive these events as stressful or dangerous. Including anger. Wiring of the brain and nervous system matter -- they matter a lot Brain activation in anger Distinct Brain Areas involved in Anger versus Punishment during Social Interactions Olga M. Klimecki, David Sander & Patrik Vuilleumier Scientific Reports 2018. 25 men fMRI study anger induced in an in inequality game designed to be unfair. In the present study, we found that the intensity of experienced anger when seeing the face of the unfair other was parametrically related to activations in amygdala, STS (superior temporal sulcus), and fusiform gyrus (related to facial recognition). The STS has been shown to produce strong responses when subjects perceive stimuli in research areas that facial recognition Farzaneh Pahlavan Multiple Facets of Anger: Getting Mad or Restoring Justice? Chapter 3: The Neurobiology of RAGE and Anger & Psychiatric Implications with a Focus on Depression Daniel J. Guerra1, Valentina Colonnello and Jaak Panksepp Rage emerges when specific environmental stimuli arouse the neural circuitry of the RAGE system. Even if the anger-thoughts and the related expression are modulated and regulated by higher cortico-cognitive areas, the human basic circuitry of anger is still subcortical. Since the early description of rage in decorticated cats (Dusser De Barenne, 1920) and dogs (Rothmann, 1923) and their responses to inoffensive stimuli, it was clear that the rage expression is i) dependent on subcortical areas, i.e. the ancient regions play a crucial role more than the higher neocortical regions; ii) independent of an intact cortex. p. 11 Among the higher limbic regions of this network, the medial nucleus, the basal complex, and central and lateral nuclei of the amygdala play a key role in the modulation of RAGE. p. 1 All this happens far away from the frontal cortex in the limbic system of your brain. Kathy Steele, Suzette Boon, Onno van der Hart: Treating Trauma-Related Dissociation: A Practical, Integrative Approach Why of Chronic anger. Anger is the primary emotion of the "fight" defense. When (parts of) the patient become stuck in this defense, anger becomes chronic. Thus, the first intervention is safety. 332 As long as a fight reaction remains unresolved, anger will remain chronic. (p.332). Almost no one seems to understands that anger is a defense against fear and shame. It's a way of trying to protect oneself. There are several reasons that anger and hostility become chronic in dissociative patients. First, patients typically have been severely invalidated, ignored, heard, betrayed, and sometimes even tortured over extended periods of time, while helpless to stop it. In itself, this is enough to generate enormous rage in anyone as part of the naturally occurring fight defense. Second, as children, patients often had little to no help in learning how to regulate and appropriately express normal anger, much less how to cope with it. Often it was unacceptable for many patients to express any kind of anger as children, while the adults around them were uncontained and highly destructive with their anger. Others had no limit set on their angry behaviors. (p. 330). Angry dissociative parts are feared and avoided internally by most other parts, particularly those that function in daily life. After all, angry behaviors toward self and others may interfere with functioning in a variety of personal and social ways. An ongoing vicious cycle of rage and shame ensues internally: the more patients avoid their angry and destructive dissociative parts, the angry these parts become, and the more they shame other parts and are shamed by them. (p. 331). … Angry parts have a deep shame and are highly defended against the strong belief that they are very bad. Their defense is reinforced by the shame of patients that such parts of themselves even exist. These parts of the patient are terrified of attachment to the therapist and you the relationship is dangerous, mainly because they are afraid that the therapist will never accept them. (p. 331-332). Whether the anger is part of a fight response or not, it is often a secondary emotion that protects the patient from feelings of sadness, extreme powerlessness, shame, guilt, and loss. (p. 333). (add grief) Parts of the patient that developed controlling-punitive strategies will be angry with others to get what they need, while those that have controlling-caregiving strategies will punish themselves for being angry or having needs. (p. 333). This is often the case in hostile parts such as those of self-injure or encourage other parts to self-harm, prostitute themselves, abuse drugs or alcohol, or engage in other self-destructive behaviors. They are often stuck in destructive and harmful behaviors that are an "attack self" defense against shame. (p.333). Finally, the rage of the perpetrator is often an embodied experience from which patients cannot yet escape without sufficient realization and further integration. Some dissociative parts imitate perpetrators internally, repeating the family dynamics from the past with other parts in a rather literal way. (p.333). "Getting the anger out" is not really useful, as the problem is that the patient needs to learn how to effectively express anger verbally rather than physically, and in socially appropriate and contained ways, so the patient can be heard by others. It is less the fact that patients express anger, but how they do so and whether that expression allows him to remain grounded in the present, to retain important relationships, and to avoid being self-destructive. (p. 334). Expression of anger is not necessarily therapeutic in itself. It is how (parts of) the patient experience and express it that is important; whether it is within a window of tolerancex in a socially appropriate and safe. Therapist must learn when expression of anger is therapeutic and when containment of anger is more helpful. (p. 334). Working with anger an angry parts (p.335). Take the time to educate the patient as a whole about the functions of anger and angry parts. Although they may seem like "troublemakers," they can be understood as attempting to solve problems with ineffective or insufficient tools. Encourage all parts of the patient understand, accept, and listen to angry parts, instead of avoiding them. Make efforts to understand what provokes angry parts. There are many potential triggers. Not direct quotes Do all parts feel the same way as the angry part? If not, can those parts listen to and accept angry parts perspective? Would the angry part be willing to listen to the other internal perspectives? Invite other parts to watch and listen if possible. Can set limits with the angry part the angry part and all parts need to learn that healthy relationships do not include punishment, humiliation, or force Use titration, helping the person experienced as a small amount of anger will remain grounded in the present Parts and imitate a perpetrator often literally experience themselves in our experienced by other parts as the actual perpetrator. Thus they understandably induce fear and shame within a patient as a whole, and sometimes fearing the therapist. (p. 345). The functions of perpetrator-imitating parts are (1) protect the patient against threats of the perpetrator, which continue to be experienced as real in the present; (2) defend the patient against unbearable realizations of being helpless and powerless as a child, (3) re-enact traumatic memories from the perspective of the perpetrator, as mentalize by the child; (4) serve as a defense against shame through attacking the patient and avoiding inner experiences of shame; (5) provide an outlet for the patient's disowned sadistic and punitive tendencies; and (6) hold unbearable traumatic memories. (p. 346). Suzette Boon, Kathy Steele, Onno van der Hart 2011 book Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists Destructive expressions of anger include persistent revenge fantasies or actions, hurting self or others, "taking it out" on innocent people (or animals), or destruction of property. (p. 265). Dissociative parts of a person that are stuck in anger may experience this feeling as vehement and overwhelming, often without words. They may have irresistible urges to act aggressively and have great difficulty thinking and reflecting on their feelings before acting. Angry parts have not learned how to experience or express anger and helpful ways. There are two types of anger dissociative parts. The first are parts that are stuck in a defensive fight mode, ready to protect you. Their anger at original injustices may be legitimate and naturally accompanies a tendency to strike out and fight, which is an essential survival strategy. However, such parts have become stuck in anger, unable to experience much else. They rigidly perceived threat and ill-will everywhere and they react with anger and aggression as their only option of response. Although these parts of you may not yet realize it, anger is often a protection against vulnerable feelings of shame, fear, hurt, despair, powerlessness, and loss. The second type of angry part may seem very much like the original perpetrator. They imitate those who hurt them in the past, and they can be experienced internally as the actual perpetrator. This experience can be particularly frightening, disorienting, and shameful. But be assured this is a very common way of dealing with being traumatized. In fact, although these parts may have some similarities to those who hurt you, they also significant differences: they are parts of you as a whole person, who is trying to cope with unresolved traumatic experiences. (p. 267) Tips for coping with anger (p, 269 to 271) recognize how to make distinctions among the many gradations of anger, from mild irritation to rage, so that you can intervene more rapidly. Understand your tells around anger, which may include a tight or tense feeling in your body, clenched jaw's or fists, feeling flushed or shaky, breathing heavily, heart racing, a feeling of heat, a surge of energy. Empathize with her angry parts, recognizing they have very limited coping skills, and very limited vision. They've been shunned by other parts, left alone with their hurt, fear, shame, in isolation. This does not mean you have to accept their impulses toward inappropriate behavior Once you start feeling some compassion toward these parts you can begin to communicate with them, listening with an intention, with curiosity to understand what lies underneath the anger Angry parts have a strength, that they could transferred to use and more positive ways Become more curious about why anger is happening. Try creative and healthy nonverbal ways of expressing your anger, such as writing, drawing, painting, making a collage Physical exercise may help as an outlet for the physical energy generated by the physiology of anger Work on understanding your anger, by reflecting on it, rather than just experiencing it, being immersed in it. You might imagine observing yourself from a distance, and getting curious about why you feel the way you do. Give yourself a time-out, that is, walk away from the situation if you're getting too angry. Counseling to 10, or even 200 before you say or do something you might regret later. Calm breathing may help Listen to each part of you, about what might help that part with anger. You can have in her conversations with parts of yourself about anger and how to express it. Small and safe ways to express anger can be negotiated that are agreeable to all parts of you Watch safe people in your life and seal they handle their own anger. Do they accept being angry? Are they are respectful and appropriate with her anger? Are there particular strategies that they use that you could practice for yourself? Healthy anger can get positive strength and energy. It can help you be appropriately assertive, set clear boundaries, and confront wrongs in the world. Anger can pave the way to other emotions, leading to the resolution relational conflicts. We learn the most common triggers of your anger. Once you learn these triggers, you can be more aware when they occur and more able to prevent an automatic reaction of anger. Establish intercommunication among parts of yourself to recognize triggers and negotiate possible helpful strategies to cope with them rather than just reacting. You can try allowing yourself to experience just a small amount of anger from another part of yourself: a drop, a teaspoon, 1% or 2%. In exchange you can share with angry parts feelings of calm and safety. Inner safe spaces can be very helpful for childlike parts that feel terrified My parts Feisty Part-- defends against shame -- Melancholio. Good Boy Challenger Creative-distracting me. Closing Mark your calendars. Next Live Experience of the IIC podcast will be on Friday, January 13, 2023 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM Eastern time on Zoom (repeat) -- All about Anger -- dealing with your anger. Going beyond what books can do. Experiential exercise. Links to register have gone out in our emailed Wednesday Reflections. Can get the link on the IIC landing page as well, SoulsandHearts.com/iic December 28, 2022 Reflection at soulsandhearts.com/blog From Rejecting to Embracing Aging Reach out to me Crisis@soulsandhearts.com Conversation hours: cell is 317.567.9594 conversation hours 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern Time Every Tuesday and Thursday. Resilient Catholic Community -- you do not have to be alone. Why a deep intimate personal relationship with God our Father, Mary our Mother -- spiritual parents By claiming our identity as beloved daughters and sons of God the Father and Mary our Mother. Identity is freely given. How By dealing with the natural level issues we have, the human formation issues we have that have spiritual consequences. Grace perfects nature So many spiritual problems have their roots in the natural realm, in human formation. If this kind of exercise is helpful to you, we have nearly 100 of them in the Resilient Catholics Community. 120 Catholics like you already on board, already on the pilgrimage -- just had 47 apply for the December 2022 cohort, excited to get to know our new applicants. Closed December 31 -- wait list should be up soon for the June 2023 Cohort. Get to know your own parts Get to love your own parts If interested, contact me. Crisis@soulsandhearts.com 317.567.9594 conversation hours 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM Eastern Time Every Tuesday and Thursday.
CME credits: 0.50 Valid until: 12-12-2023 Claim your CME credit at https://reachmd.com/programs/cme/spanning-the-spectrum-of-vvc-diagnosing-and-managing-acute-and-recurrent-disease/14660/ For affected women, acute vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) brings with it a significant health burden, and the substantial morbidity and poor quality of life associated with recurrent disease (RVVC) requires improved diagnosis, management, and quality of care. Join Dr. Michael Krychman as he dissects the barriers to managing VVC and RVVC and provides insights on diagnosis and management based on guidelines, plus an overview of innovative therapeutic agents. The unique qualities of the current and emerging therapeutic interventions may well represent a significant step forward in how you manage these challenging infections.
The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der KolkVan der Kolk's interview on the Ezra Klein podcast.
https://youtu.be/pvE24YBbbXQRon Wheeler guest for the Paycheck course. Ron can promote the webcast for 4:30 PM as he touches on what the course is all about. www.vectorvest.com/opregister Market OverviewThis week has a nice rebound in the market, but is it time to get ready to buy? Keep in mind the market news: High Inflation, Hawkish Fed, Higher Oil prices, War in Ukraine. Nothing goes down or up forever but you have to stay focused! VVC, SPY Special GuestDo you want to book a monthly income? How about 3% per month or 36% a year? If the answer is yes, join us today with a special guest who will show you how to do it! Rising IndustriesThere is a difference between high-flying industries and industries which are not only moving but shaking their way up the list. If you want to find out how we do it, join us today and invite your friends! I promise you won't want to miss this!!!
Ramzi Khsib LinkedIn profileAWS Elemental website---------------------------------------------------Join our LinkedIn Group so that you can get the latest video insider news and participate in the discussion.Email thevideoinsiders@beamr.com to be a guest on the show.Learn more about Beamr
https://youtu.be/n3DyJQmRnq4Trending Thursday is all about stocks making news! Does the news make them worthy to buy or are you just getting caught up in the Hype? The VectorVest software can easily put things into perspective and help you make better decisions about what to do!Market OverviewSaying that the market is experiencing volatility, is an understatement! “Blood in the streets” is also an understatement! The power of the VectorVest System has never been needed as much as it is needed now! VVC, SPYRetail Stocks BustRetail got hit hard this week and weighed heavy on the market. Are these stocks still worth buying? Should we just walk away? Let us help you answer that question! LOW, HD, WMT, TGTNuclear EnergyGas prices are the highest they have ever been! People are making decisions in regards to what to do next. Electric Vehicles, Hydrogen Motors, Nuclear Energy? Let's take a look! UUUU, LTBR, BHP, DNNContra ETFsBesides energy (which I still like) Contrarian ETFs may be a play to keep your money. FAZ, SDOW, DXD, DOGUse this link for a FREE Stock Analysis Report ➥➥➥ http://bit.ly/2KsZlqzVectorVest mobile app ➥➥➥ http://bit.ly/2UjF6y6 ➥➥➥ SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOSNever miss a daily video about making money online⇢ https://www.youtube.com/user/VectorVestMB/?sub_confirmation=1
Review of Veterans Health Administration's Virtual Primary Care Response to the COVID-19 PandemicThe VA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted a review to assess Veterans Health Administration's (VHA) virtual primary care response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the use of virtual care by primary care providers and their perceptions of VA Video Connect (VVC) between February 7 and June 16, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to health care delivery worldwide. One strategy initiated by VHA, in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation to social distance, included expanding the delivery of primary care via virtual care. In VHA, virtual care has had a long-standing presence as a modality of care. Virtual care options during the pandemic included video conferencing through VVC and third-party applications, such as Skype and FaceTime, as well as telephone appointments. The OIG found face-to-face primary care encounters decreased by 75 percent and virtual encounters increased, with contact by telephone representing 81 percent of all primary care encounters during the review period. Additionally, primary care providers reported via questionnaire that VVC training and support were lacking for veterans, as was technology equipment and internet connectivity. Providers also identified challenging scheduling processes related to virtual appointment scheduling as a concern. The OIG made two recommendations to the Under Secretary for Health related to access, equipment, and VVC application training and support.
In this episode, Ayesha discussed the FDA approval of Mycovia Pharmaceuticals' Vivjoa (oteseconazole) as the first approved treatment for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) or chronic yeast infection. The drug is indicated for women who permanently lack reproductive potential or are postmenopausal. The editorial team discussed the significant unmet need for this condition and how although many women's health issues are now given greater spotlight, there still need to be more conversations around them. The episode marked World Maternal Mental Health Day and was sponsored by Elligo Health Research.The editorial team also talked about the latest results of Eli Lilly's investigational obesity drug tirzepatide, which demonstrated it could reduce body weight by an average of 20 percent in individuals without diabetes. Tirzepatide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist, a class of drugs designed to treat diabetes but at higher doses, can help with weight loss. Hear more about the drug and the obesity drug market, which is projected to grow to $5.42 billion in 2025.Read the full articles here: Oteseconazole (Vivjoa) Becomes First FDA-Approved Drug for Recurrent Yeast InfectionTirzepatide Obesity Drug Shown to Reduce Body Weight by 20 Percent in Eli Lilly TrialFor more life science and medical device content, visit the Xtalks Vitals homepage.Follow Us on Social MediaTwitter: @Xtalks Instagram: @Xtalks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Xtalks.Webinars/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/xtalks-webconferences YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/XtalksWebinars/featured
M&E Industry Getting Serious About Sustainability M&E Industry Getting Serious About Sustainability M&E Industry Getting Serious About . OTTAWA—Tech companies in the media and entertainment (M&E) industry are making their business and production practices more sustainable by reducing their impact on the environment and contributions to climate change. “The video industry is taking the ‘green initiative' seriously,” said Thierry Fautier, vice president of strategy for Harmonic. “It has set a target and is now working toward achieving its goals. We have seen operators targeting zero carbon emission by 2040. There is also a new industry forum called ‘Greening of Streaming' that is addressing greener video delivery.” This last sustainability effort is particularly important, as “video traffic represented an estimated 84% of all consumer IP traffic in 2021 (up from 79% in 2016) according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index,” said Alain Nochimowski, CTO at the OTT/TV platform solutions company Viaccess-Orca. “Fortunately, the industry is starting to understand that it will need to take proactive steps toward being greener.” Real Companies, Tangible Actions Across the M&E industry, specific companies and organizations are taking tangible steps to make themselves and the industry as a whole more sustainable. They include video delivery provider Ateme, live video contribution tech provider Aviwest, SDVI and IBC, among many others. Given the billions of daily viewers of streaming services, reducing its environmental impact is a gigantic task. “The largest source of power consumption for video services is the device, followed by the network and then the data center,” Fautier said. “Some work has already been done on the device side with smart power management schemes deployed and regulations looking at limiting the display consumption. On the network side, the move to 5G is aimed at drastically reducing the watt-per-bit cost; reports show that cloud infrastructure is more power-efficient than a classical on-premises infrastructure approach.” Harmonic is enhancing its video compression algorithms to reduce traffic levels on IP networks, thus cutting the amount of electricity needed to deliver video content. “We are doing this by using AI-based encoding techniques such as content-aware encoding [CAE], dynamic frame-rate encoding [DFE] and dynamic resolution encoding [DRE] to improve legacy codecs; also AVC mostly but also HEVC,” said Fautier. The company is also promoting new, more efficient codecs such as AV1 and VVC, plus the LCEVC (low complexity enhancement video encoding) “intermediate solution” that combines legacy equipment and new approaches “to enable a significant savings in bandwidth and processing power,” he said. Use of the cloud is critical to meeting such goals. “Harmonic is 100% committed to cloud,” added Fautier. The company is also asking OTT content providers to consider using power-efficient multicasting in place of unicasting, bearing in mind that doing so would reduce delivery flexibility for consumers. One Stream for a Million Requests Content delivery solutions provider Broadpeak says its multicast adaptive bitrate (MABR) distribution product is a practical way to address unicasting's (one-to-one) high network usage. “Without multicast ABR, if a million people are streaming the same content at the same time, there are one million active connections requiring ad-hoc capacity throughout the network and consuming power accordingly,” said Yann Begassat, Broadpeak's business development manager. “With multicast ABR, there is only one stream to address the million requests, dramatically reducing capacity needs and energy consumption.” SDVI's Rally media supply chain management platform is helping users such as A&E Networks, Comcast, Discovery, Sky, ViacomCBS, and WarnerMedia manage their end-to-end video assets in a more efficient (and thus more sustainable) manner. “For our part, we have committed to a new sustaina...
Paul is Senior Vice President at Access Advance LLC where he is responsible for business development. He has been involved in multiple patent pools and licensing program during his 25+ years as an intellectual property attorney, including for MPEG 2, MPEG 4 Part 2, AVC, HDDVD, BluRay, HEAAC, HEVC and now VVC. Paul started his career to work for General Electric's licensing department. He went on to work for General Instrument, first as the IP Portfolio Law Director, and then as the Broadband Sector IP Law Director (for Motorola after it purchased GI) managing the IP law department and IP related matters. After that Paul worked for Microsoft as a Business Division Patent Counsel to then work for Acacia Research Group identifying, valuing, and purchasing patent portfolios. Since 2015, Paul has worked for Access Advance, first as Senior VP of Licensing building their HEVC Advance licensing program, and now as Senior VP of Business Development developing, launching and now building their VVC Advance licensing program. Paul believes that patent pools are important to facilitate standardized technologies such as HEVC or VVC. Paten pools reduce the transaction costs for all implementers. Havening more than just one patent pool (HEVC is subject to 3 patent pools, VVC currently has 2 patent pools set up), also will in his view not hamper standards adoption. Also, two or three patent pools still reduce the number of licensors. There has been criticism that HEVC was not as successful as AVC, where Paul argues that there is a lot of data tell a different story and that provides evidence of the success and wide adoption of HEVC. In his view the HEVC patent pool situation supported that success. Also, the recent litigation between Access Advance and Vestel was no setback for Access Advance, Paul argues. Here media did not tell the whole story. What is true due to a substantial number of overlapping patents in the HEVC Advance Patent Pool and MPEG LA's HEVC patent pool to which Vestel was licensed to, the German court In Düsseldorf found the Access Advanced HEVC license not FRAND. Access Advanced in March 2022 therefore revised its policy responding to the Düsseldorf District Court's December 21, 2021 ruling. Importantly, the court once again did not express concerns with any other facet of the HEVC Advance Patent Pool, including its royalty rates.One reason why more than just one patent pool was formed for VVC is that not only the licensing rates and licensing models differ across the pool programs, but also the internal revenue sharing policies can be very different. At Access Advance Paul states that the pool considers the internal royalty sharing counting patents on a patent family basis so that there are no incentives for patent pool licensors to file e.g. multiple divisional patent applications that cover very minor inventions just to increase their share in the patent pool. The different rules and licensing rates therefore attract different SEP licensors to either join Access Advance or MPEG LA's VVC patent pool.
https://youtu.be/aF_r0SfM1HoTrending Thursday is all about stocks making news! Does the news make them worthy to buy or are you just getting caught up in the Hype? The VectorVest software can easily put things into perspective and help you make better decisions in what to do!Market OverviewSo, it has finally happened, the Fed has raised interest rates for the first time since 2018! Gas prices and Inflation are still big issues. Well, it was needed. I think the market took the raise right In stride! The fed raised interest rates by a ¼ basis point and their goal is to have inflation down to 2% by the end of the year! That is quite a big undertaking! VVC, SPYEnergy Clean StocksThis Industry is up over 16% in the last two weeks but is the 41st Industry out of 221, and EVs have played a big role in the move, but there are other stocks besides EVs that make up this space and they should be considerations for your portfolio! BLNK, PLUG, REGI, ORADrug StocksThe big uptick of issues in China has these companies on the rise again! This sector is up over 16% in the last 2 weeks. PFE, MRNA, EIGR, TCBPElectronic StocksA lot of different companies make up this sector and it is definitely on the move. This sector is up over 13% in the last 2 weeks. Could this be the time to buy low in these companies? ACLS, AOSL, HIMX, AEHRChemical StocksFertilizer is also on the rise right now and some of these stocks are poised to make big runs in the market! This sector is up over 12% in the last 2 weeks but is garnering some attention! MOS, CF, ADES, CRKNStocks of InterestThis week I have a few stocks that have made some great upside moves and need your attention! WBX, LEN, STLD, RMBLInflation, Gas Prices, FED and... -Trending Thursday LIVE Stock Analysis! | VectorVestUse this link for a FREE Stock Analysis Report ➥➥➥ http://bit.ly/2KsZlqzTry VectorVest Risk-Free for 30 Days ➥➥➥ https://www.vectorvest.com/YTVectorVest mobile app ➥➥➥ http://bit.ly/2UjF6y6 ➥➥➥ SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOSNever miss a daily video about making money online⇢ https://www.youtube.com/user/VectorVestMB/?sub_confirmation=1
https://youtu.be/aYDVOFUwcWUMarket OverviewWow!!!!! You need to have a strong stomach to handle this market right now! Up nicely one day, down big the next day, war, oil, inflation fears, and interest rates! It's enough to make any investor lose their mind! Slow down and focus! Focus on the information you need to help you make money. Don't let the news keep your head on a swivel! VVC, SPYMining StocksThis sector is up over 23% over the last 2 weeks! These companies are just not gold and precious metals, these companies mine for all kinds of ore that are needed in many products that are short in supply. These companies are doing more and finding more materials that are needed! VALE, AMR, MAG, CLF, RIOPollution Control StocksIn a time where we are looking at greener energy and protecting the planet, Pollution control makes sense that it is currently on the rise! People are becoming more environmentally cognizant. This sector is up over 20% over the last 2 weeks! HDSN, WM, FTEK, WCNSteel StocksSteel on the rise again? Steel is and will be needed to build more things. Steel has been a hot industry and is up over 14% in the last 2 weeks. We have talked about steel stocks many times on our channel. NUE, STLD, TMST, TXPetroleum StocksThe interesting thing about this sector, it's on fire and does not look like it will slow down, but is it? The sector is overbought with what is going on in Ukraine at this time. There is an embargo of oil coming out of Russia and the EU is doing the same. That will cause oil to run higher and we are seeing it at the gas pump right now! It is hard to fight the move of the sector. It is up over 10% over the last 2 weeks but looks like it is slowing down, for right now! If prices increase, so will this sector! OXY, HAL, HUSA, INDOStocks of InterestI always have my eyes on stocks you need to keep your eyes on! GME, AMZN, ZIM, JCI, PLTR
https://youtu.be/7JXILngq3qYTrending Thursday is all about stocks making news! Does the news make them worthy to buy or are you just getting caught up in the Hype? The VectorVest software can easily put things into perspective and help you make better decisions in what to do!Market OverviewThis has definitely been a wild ride in the market. The market got beaten up, looked for a bottom, found one, rebounded, and now…….. We are rising again, the Fed takes the stage and we are waiting to see if they will become more hawkish and how they will handle the inflation issue. Jobs are in the picture as well. Let us help you focus on what will be your best path to help you make money in the market! VVC, SPYSoftware stocksSo, as the market has begun to move, several sectors are on fire! The software sector has moved over 50% in the last 2 weeks alone!!! Wow! Where can you place your trades to increase your portfolio? MSFT, ATVI, APPS, FTNTInternet StocksThis sector has moved over 50% over the last 2 weeks as well! Big names in this space have been making big news and big moves! Lets talk about which stocks you should stay away from and which may be surprisingly interesting! FB, GOOGL, AMZN, SOHU, TRIP, TRVGHealth Care StocksDifferent variants are still affecting society in an adverse way! We are working our way through all of this and many companies may be a good place to place your trades! This sector is up over 47% over the last 2 weeks! LLY, ABBV, VRTX, HZNP, PFEEnergy StocksWow have you seen the price of oil lately? Looks like these prices will stay around for a while! Sigh! The energy sector is up over 42% over the last 2 weeks! Oil is not the only play in this space! Lets take a look at other plays for you to make money in! ASRCH, DQ, IEA, ALTOStocks of InterestEvery week I have some stocks that hit my radar that I want you to be aware of! AAPLE, Metaverse, ATXS, PYPL, BCRX, TLRY, CGCUse this link for a FREE Stock Analysis Report ➥➥➥ http://bit.ly/2KsZlqzTry VectorVest Risk-Free for 30 Days ➥➥➥ https://www.vectorvest.com/YTVectorVest mobile app ➥➥➥ http://bit.ly/2UjF6y6 ➥➥➥ SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE VIDEOSNever miss a daily video about making money online⇢ https://www.youtube.com/user/VectorVestMB/?sub_confirmation=1
Derren Burrell is the Founder & President of VVC, and also serves as Managing Partner. Before this role he served as the Chief Operating Officer for TAG Resources, LLC, a fiduciary outsourcing company with over $2 billion in assets under management. He is an Accredited Investment Fiduciary, Certified Defense Financial Manager, and Level 3 Certified in the Secretary of Defense Financial Management Program. Prior to his retirement from the Air Force, Derren was the Resource Director of the White House Communication Agency. He worked directly with senior White House staff, Congressional, comptroller, United States Secret Service, Department of State, and Defense Information Systems Agency staff in all aspects of financial and contract management in support of the President, managing nearly $350 million. While in this position he was selected for the rank of Colonel but decided to retire and move to Knoxville and into the private sector. Highlights of his 21-year military career include being deployed to Iraq as the Deputy Comptroller, United States Forces and in Afghanistan as the Resource Director, NATO Air Training Command. In this joint capacity he managed over $20 billion in U.S. appropriated funding in support of U.S. operations within the Iraq and Afghanistan Joint Operations Areas. He also served at the Pentagon as the flying operations analyst for the Air Force, where he was responsible for the largest Operations & Maintenance budget account in the Air Force, over $15 billion. He has been a squadron commander for both finance and wing staff agencies, and was a deployed Comptroller on the front line in Operations SEA SIGNAL, SOUTHERN WATCH, ALLIED FORCE, NEW DAWN, and ENDURING FREEDOM. Derren graduated from The Citadel with a BS in Business Administration, holds a MS in Cost Analysis from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and a 2nd MS in Human Resources from Central Michigan University. Connect w/ Derren: Web: www.veteranventures.us/ LI: www.linkedin.com/in/derrenburrell Connect w/ Jovica Djurdjevic: Web: www.workwithjov.com Email: info@workwithjov.com LI: http://linkedin.com/in/jdjurdjevic
NESTED 5G project brings together innovative French companies Orange, Viaccess-Orca, ENENSYS Technologies and IETR to develop solution for greener . NESTED 5G project brings together innovative French companies Orange, Viaccess-Orca, ENENSYS Technologies and IETR to develop solution for greener delivery PARIS, 23 NOVEMBER, 2021 – ATEME, the leader in video delivery solutions for broadcast, cable TV, DTH, IPTV and OTT, today announced that it is leading NESTED (New vidEo STandards for Enhanced Delivery), a consortium aimed at developing a high quality-of-experience (QoE) and sustainable video-streaming solution over 5G. The innovative NESTED 5G project is headed by ATEME in collaboration with Orange, which tests the efficiency and sustainability of the NESTED streaming solution in real use cases over 5G. The project brings together leading French companies Viaccess-Orca, contributing its secure video player, QoE analytics enabler suite and targeted advertising solution, and ENENSYS Technologies with its MediaCast Mobile and its CubeAgent Mobile. Renowned French institution IETR (Institut d'Electronique et des Technologies du numéRique), the research unit at French engineering school INSA Rennes, also participates by providing a VVC decoder. In addition to leading the project, ATEME plays a vital role in bringing the new solution to life with its latest compression technology, its Just-in-time packager and its CDN. The consortium will leverage the latest advances in video compression and delivery technologies, and their expected benefits in terms of reduced environmental impacts, among which: CMAF chunk sharing to reduce the traffic burden on the CDN The latest VVC video encoding with its promise of halving bitrates Multicast/unicast convergence enabling peak audience reach In addition, this collaboration will highlight the benefits of an e2e pre-integrated, best of breed multicast ABR solution, notably in terms of QoE and personalized viewing experience. Ultimately, it will therefore enable multicast for 5G, allowing operators to take a greener approach to streaming. Driven by Orange's goal to distribute video and manage bandwidth efficiency and delivery over 5G, the solution looks to increase the sustainability of streaming over 5G and to reduce broadcasting infrastructure costs for service providers while delivering the best quality of experience to viewers. The two-year project, supported by France's Brittany region (Région Bretagne), is due to end in 2023, by which time the consortium is confident it will be able to demonstrate the benefits of its solution when it comes to offering sustainable streaming over 5G and reducing the environmental impact of delivering video. Mickaël Raulet, Chief Technology Officer, commented: “We are proud that Orange has turned to us to help them achieve their sustainability goals. There is an ongoing debate about the environmental impact of streaming over 5G and this project will help to lessen that. It also highlights the innovation taking place within the French market and once completed, we look forward to helping other organizations around the world leverage that innovation through our new streaming solution.” Julien Lemotheux, TV&Video Senior Standardization Manager, Orange, said: “The impact our actions have on the environment is front of mind for everyone within our organization. By working with the NESTED 5G taskforce, we hope to make streaming more sustainable, reducing our energy footprint and allowing our customers to enjoy high-quality content.” “The reduction in environmental impact, together with the management of QoE and the provision of more personalized viewing experiences, are the determining factors for a sustainable future in video streaming; as an innovation leader, Viaccess-Orca is glad to contribute its unique expertise and technology enablers to help Orange and the other consortium partners explore innovative routes for video streaming.” said Alain Nochimowski, CTO a...
CME credits: 0.50 Valid until: 02-11-2022 Claim your CME credit at https://reachmd.com/programs/cme/managing-vulvovaginal-candidiasisriding-wave-therapeutic-change/13040/ The global burden of acute vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) and the substantial morbidity and poor quality of life associated with recurrent disease (RVVC) requires improved solutions and quality of care for affected women. Join Dr. Paul Nyirjesy as he dissects the barriers to managing VVC and RVVC in your clinical practice and provides both diagnostic and therapeutic guidance inclusive of newly emerging and novel agents. These agents have unique qualities that may well represent a significant step forward in how you manage this challenging infection.
CME credits: 0.50 Valid until: 02-11-2022 Claim your CME credit at https://reachmd.com/programs/cme/managing-vulvovaginal-candidiasisriding-wave-therapeutic-change/13040/ The global burden of acute vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC) and the substantial morbidity and poor quality of life associated with recurrent disease (RVVC) requires improved solutions and quality of care for affected women. Join Dr. Paul Nyirjesy as he dissects the barriers to managing VVC and RVVC in your clinical practice and provides both diagnostic and therapeutic guidance inclusive of newly emerging and novel agents. These agents have unique qualities that may well represent a significant step forward in how you manage this challenging infection.
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After 10 months, Pastor Tim is back with the Bible Discovery Bible study at VVC. Join him as he talks about spiritual blindness with the Bible Discovery group. What is spiritual blindness? Why can some understand and others not? How can we talk with those who cannot see what we see? This podcast has been edited for personal content. Join us!Support the show (https://tithe.ly/give?c=1312124)
Market OverviewChange in administration, what is the market going to do? Well, the Fed is very accommodative due to Covid, there is a heightened enthusiasm over further stimulus, and more roll out of coronavirus vaccine. The market is still toppy so what should you do? Let us navigate you through what is happening now! VVC, SPY
If you're seeing this for the first time it means you're not a member of the Patreon Pit Crew which means you're just not doing life right. But because we're good blokes we don't want to add to the punishment you're enduring for your poor life choices so we present part two of our Captain's Folly Tour podcast. Three glorious days of motorcycle riding broken up by two hours of brilliant entertainment and insight from a couple of great blokes in the Cudlin bothers at the Black Duck Brewery in Port Macquarie was a hell of a first up effort. There will be more tours in future and they'll only get better from here so stop doing things wrong and sign up to the Patreon Pit Crew (https://www.patreon.com/MotoPG) to make sure you have a chance to be part of it. Now we might be proving ourselves gifted Tour Operators but it's not a get rich quick scheme so big thanks to our great sponsors Velocity Vehicle Care (who still want Billy Van Eerde to be Australia's next Mick Doohan) and Held Austalia. To get VVC's magic 'make bike shiny' spray, call 1300 990 074 and tell them we sent you. And remember, all proceeds from these sales go direct to Billy Van Eerde. Meanwhile, what's the point of a beautifully presented bike if the rider looks like shit? Don't be that person. Buy the best race suits and gloves going around from Held Australia and pay less then the schmucks who don't listen to us. How much less? To get the special price you have to ring or email and mention Moto PG. The phone number is 1300 916 916 or email info@mig.bike. To see the full range head to the Held Australia website (https://heldaustralia.com.au/shop/). And while you're listening to Boris Tugg and Freido, visit the MOTO PG website (https://motopgco.wordpress.com) where you can help make the team richer by buying something in the shop (https://www.motopg.theprintbar.com). Even better, make a regular contribution by signing up to the Patreon Pit Crew (https://www.patreon.com/MotoPG) and getting access to bonus content and a bunch of other great stuff. What are you waiting for? Music: https://www.purple-planet.com
"I have just returned from The Captains Folly Tour led by Boris, Tugs and eventually Freido showed up too....and let me tell you all that if you’re thinking of doing a tour with the PG crew do it ....... if you’re not, seriously think of doing the next and the next and .... you get the picture..." That's a direct and unpaid customer review of our first 'On The Road Recording' effort and Jimmy has it right, it was beaut. But like fine wine, we will only get better with age so if you thought the first ride was good just wait till the next. In the meantime enjoy the boys being joined by the Cudlin brothers and a select group of loyal listeners in Part 1 of our special two part recording at the Black Duck Brewery. Now we might have proved ourselves gifted Tour Operators but it's not a get rich quick scheme so big thanks to our geat sponsors Velocity Vehicle Care (who still want Billy Van Eerde to be Australia's next Mick Doohan) and Held Austalia. To get VVC's magic 'make bike shiny' spray, call 1300 990 074 and tell them we sent you. And remember, all proceeds from these sales go direct to Billy Van Eerde. Meanwhile, what's the point of a beautifully presented bike if the rider looks like shit? Don't be that person. Buy the best race suits and gloves going around from Held Australia and pay less then the schmucks who don't listen to us. How much less? To get the special price you have to ring or email and mention Moto PG. The phone number is 1300 916 916 or email info@mig.bike. To see the full range head to the Held Australia website (https://heldaustralia.com.au/shop/). And while you're listening to Boris Tugg and Freido, visit the MOTO PG website (https://motopgco.wordpress.com) where you can help make the team richer by buying something in the shop (https://www.motopg.theprintbar.com). Even better, make a regular contribution by signing up to the Patreon Pit Crew (https://www.patreon.com/MotoPG) and getting access to bonus content and a bunch of other great stuff. What are you waiting for? Music: https://www.purple-planet.com
CME credits: 0.50 Valid until: 01-12-2021 Claim your CME credit at https://reachmd.com/programs/cme/riding-the-wave-of-change-in-managing-vulvovaginal-candidiasisadapting-to-a-new-era/11990/ Managing complicated, recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) can be, well, complicated. Join Dr. Jack Sobel for his seminal presentation on the challenges of VVC and RVVC, the role of fluconazole, and what makes RVVC so complicated. He’ll also discuss new therapies on the horizon that may finally provide the answer to achieving greater recurrence-free rates for millions of women.
CME credits: 0.50 Valid until: 01-12-2021 Claim your CME credit at https://reachmd.com/programs/cme/riding-the-wave-of-change-in-managing-vulvovaginal-candidiasisadapting-to-a-new-era/11990/ Managing complicated, recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) can be, well, complicated. Join Dr. Jack Sobel for his seminal presentation on the challenges of VVC and RVVC, the role of fluconazole, and what makes RVVC so complicated. He’ll also discuss new therapies on the horizon that may finally provide the answer to achieving greater recurrence-free rates for millions of women.
Host: Jack David Sobel, MD Managing complicated, recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC) can be, well, complicated. Join Dr. Jack Sobel for his seminal presentation on the challenges of VVC and RVVC, the role of fluconazole, and what makes RVVC so complicated. He’ll also discuss new therapies on the horizon that may finally provide the answer to achieving greater recurrence-free rates for millions of women.
The season's over but we're not. Freido, Tugg and Boris put a bow on the craziest Moto GP year ever but don't despair - the boys aren't done for the year. In fact, in many ways they're just getting started. As Boris likes to say: "The season is over when we say it's over!" In episode 27 there's news about Velocity Vehicle Care (who still want Billy Van Eerde to be Australia's next Mick Doohan) with several shops coming on board to stock the product in individual cans. And there's news about Billy, too, so listen out for that. Remember, every dollar VVC raise goes to helping Billy chase his Moto GP dream and all you have to do is buy some of their magic bike cleaning stuff (by calling 1300 990 074) and tell them we sent you. If you can't afford a whole case of cleaner (the only way to get it at the moment) join our campaign to get it into as many shops as possible by heading to our Facebook Page and following the instructions there. Meanwhile, what's the point of a beautifully presented bike if the rider looks like shit? Don't be that person. Buy the best race suits and gloves going around from Held Australia and pay less then the schmucks who don't listen to us. How much less? To get the special price you have to ring or email and mention Moto PG. The phone number is 1300 916 916 or email info@mig.bike. To see the full range head to the Held Australia website. And while you're listening to Boris Tugg and Freido, visit the MOTO PG website where you can help make the team richer by buying something in the shop. Even better, make a regular contribution by signing up to the Patreon Pit Crew and getting access to bonus content and a bunch of other great stuff. What are you waiting for? Music: https://www.purple-planet.com
Vaginal yeast infections are very common in women. It is estimated that almost 2.5 million are affected by recurrent vaginal candidiasis and that recurrent VVC is the second most frequent fungal infection in women, as 75% of all women will have at least one in her lifetime, and 40%-45% will have multiple cases. More than 6% of women suffer recurrent episodes. UTI’s - The prevalence in women over 65 years of age is approximately 20%, compared with approximately 11% in the overall population. Between 50% and 60% of adult women will have at least one UTI in their life, and close to 10% of postmenopausal women indicate that they had a UTI in the previous year. I am joined again by CHI graduate and medicine woman Marisa Reyes, an L.A. native with Mexican roots, is a lifelong learner, teacher, and world traveler whose curiosity to experience different cultures and adventure has taken her around the globe. She has attained her B.A. in Liberal Studies and a Master's of Library and Information Science, which has allowed her to be a school, academic, and public librarian since 2010. In 2013, she traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand to study Thai massage and become a Chi Nei Tsang Abdominal Massage practitioner. To bring balance to the mind body connection, she trained to become a Kundalini Yoga Instructor at the Awareness Center in Pasadena and Hatha/Yoga Nidra instructor at the Himalayan Academy of Yoga in Rishikesh, India. In addition, she is also a California-certified massage therapist from the Massage School of Pasadena, To help support women’s health, she studied with Keli Garza in her Vaginal Steam Facilitator Training. You can even find Marisa steaming Ellen Degeneres’ producer, Lauren Pommerantz on Ellentube.com. In May of 2019, she trained with Dee Dussault, author of Ganja Yoga, to become a certified Ganja Yoga instructor. In her weekly Ganja Yoga LA ritual, you can experience the incredible blend of her training combined. Missed out on WHICH herbs should be used in your yoni steaming? Join The Warrior Cleanse TODAY for the rest of this great interview! For now, GET $150 OFF Marisa and Michael’s Empowering Menstrual Health and Womb Wisdom Program using this link. (normal price $399, get it for $249) In this Episode: How to steam your yoni to release pain, stored emotions, and anxiety RELIEVE yourself of discomfort with menstruation OR menopause The RESEARCH about yoni steaming- what works best? WHICH yoni herbs can treat your ailments- all through The Warrior Cleanse! PHYSICAL BENEFITS: Reduction in pain, bloating and exhaustion associated with menstruation Decreases heavy menstrual flow Regulation of irregular or absent menstrual cycles More rapid healing and a toning of the reproductive system after giving birth Eases discomfort of uterine fibroids, ovarian cysts, uterine weakness, uterine prolapse & endometriosis Promotes healing of vaginal tear, episiotomy, or C-section scar Helps to restore bacterial and ph balance to aid in prevention of infections, bacterial vaginosis and odors Relief for symptoms of menopause including dryness or pain Can tighten the vaginal canal Detoxification of the womb and body Emotional & Spiritual Benefits Allows modern day women the opportunity to reconnect to the ancestral wisdom of the womb Release of stored emotions & anxiety Access to the feminine energy that gives rise to our vibrant radiance and creative potential as women Relieves tension and creates a state of bliss Helps with insomnia Can help aid in healing from sexual trauma LINKS: How to Steam your Yoni! Follow Diane on Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter | YouTube Join the Cleanse, Heal, Ignite Facebook Community Watch our MasterClass & Get to the Root of Hormone, Auto-Immune and Breast Implant Illness Symptoms Join my Warrior Cleanse! Take my Neurotoxic quiz. Check out my brand new Cleanse, Heal, Ignite supplement line! QUOTES: “I had been married for three years at that point, and was having low libido and chronic infections… It was around that time where I discovered yoni steaming with my mentor, Kelly Garza, and it tied in so beautifully to what you were sharing. For me, it created a huge shift.” [09:19] “Most of the women that have come to me is because of menstrual pains: cramping, bloating, tender breasts, and acne, all from hormonal imbalance.” [22:39] “Really, this is a practice of forgiveness, just letting the steam be this nurturing, self-care practice. We get to be at peace with where we’re at in that moment.” [36:07] RESOURCES: Uterine fibroids: current perspectives An introduction to the epidemiology and burden of urinary tract infections Prevalence of vulvovaginal candidiasis in gynecological practices in Germany: A retrospective study of 954,186 patients Endometriosis: Epidemiology, Diagnosis and Clinical Management
Market OverviewThe market looks like it wants to take a breather going into the election week. Why is that? Stimulus or lack thereof is definitely taking a toll on the market. Jobless claims are going down and GDP was up 33% today. How do you trade this market? Let the market come to you! VVC, SPY Trending IndustriesThis week I want to show the power of the VectorVest system to tell you what the best industry is, no matter what the market is doing. It takes a couple of steps but weeds out all the “fluff” in the market! PYPL, SQ, JPM, RIOT CoronaVirus StocksLooks like we are quickly turning the corner on finding a vaccine but at what cost? The government is willing to pay big dollars to help motivate companies to get their vaccine out to the American people. What stock is making the news today? LLY EarningsBig week for earnings. I have picked out a few big names to take a look at. Let's see if they beat or missed earnings and how that will possibly affect the stock going forward! UPS, GE, MSFT, MMM, PINS Stocks of InterestI always have stocks that pique my interest weekly. There is a big suit going against social media stocks! These are the stocks of interest in focus for this week! BA, GOOGL, FB, TWTR
Market Overview Big swings in the market this week due to hopes of further stimulus to the American people. Knowing how to time the market is crucial. We don't predict which way the market is going, we track the trend of the market and keep our subscribers on the right side. VVC, SPY Coronavirus Stocks Coronavirus hit close to home from a governmental standpoint this week. The President contracted Coronavirus and a stock that we have highlighted a few times was a drug that he took. Other stocks in this industry are still making news, lets take a look! MRNA, REGN Real Estate Hmmmm, people are working from home and guess what, they are being productive. Think if you own a business and have an office building. How likely are you to keep that office? What's going on with real estate in major cities? Lets take a look! XLRE, DRW Travel Stocks Airlines, Cruise ships…. What's going on? Are you ready to travel yet? The government is trying to step in due to this industry being decimated. Post covid, what do you think these stocks will do? Is it time to buy yet? Lets take a look! JETS, NCLH Retail Stocks Some retail stocks have grown and many more have failed. Where can we look to find some potential winners? What companies are working with their employers to help them through this? Lets see what stocks can be profitable! DG, DPZ, LOW Hot Stock Panel Review Review of yesterdays hot stock panelFinancial Freedom Summit Promowww.vectorvest.com/SUMMIT
Abreviado a menudo como CLV, CLTV o LTV, o VVC; es una métrica que te permite encontrar un punto de equilibrio entre la rentabilidad de tu empresa y la fidelidad de tus clientes. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/en-contxto/message
Thierry Fautier LinkedIn profile Harmonic websiteBen Mesander LinkedIn profile Wowza websiteWalid Hamri LinkedIn profile SeaChange websiteWade Wan LinkedIn profile Broadcom websiteOur previous panel on extending the life of H.264 is here---------------------------------------------------Join our LinkedIn Group so that you can get the latest video insider news and participate in the discussion.Email thevideoinsiders@beamr.com to be a guest on the show.Learn more about Beamr
Masks are now available in select vending machines on the University of Alberta's North Campus, including HUB, CAB, DICE, VVC, ECHA, and Peter Lougheed Hall; The North Campus Bookstore is now open for in-person and or online purchases. Produced by Sophia Yang.
Market OverViewMarket direction is the single most important thing when investing in the market. The market direction affects about 80% of the stocks. Well the market is hitting all time highs. Why do we keep talking about caution? Well, we have indicators for market timing that no one else has. Let me show you how to really stay up on what is really happening in the market! VVC, SPYCoronaVirus StocksThe race continues and stocks keep moving. Some days higher, some days lower, this is quite a volatile industry! This week will be a different spin on this industry. Many doctors and hospitals don't want to have a personal meeting with you during the pandemic. What stock could be a great investment during this time? Lets take a look. TDOCClean Energy EV'sI have been really big on clean energy stocks because the industry has been rocketing! A great play in this industry happens to be electric vehicles and Tesla is a big player there. What other stocks could give this stock a run for the money? Lets talk about it! NIO, TSLA, WKHS, IDEXStocks of InterestThis is a hot, hot, hot segment that everyone seems to love. This week we have some doozies to pay attention to. Airlines and Cruise ships caught my attention, why? Oil caught my attention, is demand showing up? Zoom made a huge move this week, should you buy now? These and other stocks are my stocks of interest this week! JETS, AAPL, CRM, WMT, NCLH, CGC, WTIThis week we have a special guest! Susan Hayes Culleton from Fantastic Female Fridays will join us and you don't want to miss this!!!
Listen as we talk to Dr. Taglietti about SCYNEXIS and their drug Ibrexafungerp The press release below talks about their successful meeting with the NDA- https://ir.scynexis.com/press-releases/detail/216/scynexis-reports-successful-completion-of-pre-nda-meetings recently for Ibrexafungerp for the treatment of VVC, the common fungal infection affecting millions of women each year in the U.S. To view a presentation go here
Click to watch SPIE Future Video Codec Panel DiscussionRelated episode with Gary Sullivan at Microsoft: VVC, HEVC & other MPEG codec standardsInterview with MPEG Chairman Leonardo Charliogne: MPEG Through the Eyes of it's ChairmanLearn about FastDVO herePankaj Topiwala LinkedIn profile--------------------------------------The Video Insiders LinkedIn Group is where thousands of your peers are discussing the latest video technology news and sharing best practices. Click here to joinWould you like to be a guest on the show? Email: thevideoinsiders@beamr.comLearn more about Beamr--------------------------------------TRANSCRIPT:Pankaj Topiwala: 00:00 With H.264 H.265 HEVC in 2013, we were now able to do up to 300 to one to up to 500 to one compression on a, let's say a 4K video. And with VVC we have truly entered a new realm where we can do up to 1000 to one compression, which is three full orders of magnitude reduction of the original size. If the original size is say 10 gigabits, we can bring that down to 10 megabits. And that's unbelievable. And so video compression truly is a remarkable technology and you know, it's a, it's a marval to look at Announcer: 00:39 The Video Insiders is the show that makes sense of all that is happening in the world of online video as seen through the eyes of a second generation codec nerd and a marketing guy who knows what I-frames and macro blocks are. And here are your hosts, Mark Donnigan and Dror Gill. Speaker 3: 00:39 Dror Gill: 01:11 Today we're going to talk with one of the key figures in the development of a video codecs and a true video insider Pankaj Topiwala. Hello Pankaj and welcome to The Video Insiders podcast. Pankaj Topiwala: 01:24 Gentlemen. hello, and thank you very much for this invite. It looks like it's going to be a lot of fun. Mark Donnigan: 01:31 It is. Thank you for joining Pankaj. Dror Gill: 01:33 Yeah, it sure will be a lot of fun. So can you start by telling us a little bit about your experience in codec development? Pankaj Topiwala: 01:41 Sure, so, I should say that unlike a number of the other people that you have interviewed or may interview my background is fair bit different. I really came into this field really by a back door and almost by chance my degree PhD degree is actually in mathematical physics from 1985. And I actually have no engineering, computer science or even management experience. So naturally I run a small research company working in video compression and analytics, and that makes sense, but that's just the way things go in the modern world. But that the effect for me was a, and the entry point was that even though I was working in very, very abstract mathematics I decided to leave. I worked in academia for a few years and then I decided to join industry. And at that point they were putting me into applied mathematical research. Pankaj Topiwala: 02:44 And the topic at that time that was really hot in applied mathematics was a topic of wavelets. And I ended up writing and edited a book called wavelet image and video compression in 1998. Which was a lot of fun along with quite a few other co authors on that book. But, wavelets had its biggest contribution in the compression of image and video. And so that led me finally to enter into, and I noticed that video compression was a far larger field than image compression. I mean, by many orders, by orders of magnitude. It is probably a hundred times bigger in terms of market size than, than image compression. And as a result I said, okay, if the sexiest application of this new fangled mathematics could be in video compression I entered that field roughly with the the book that I mentioned in 1998. Mark Donnigan: 03:47 So one thing that I noticed Pankaj cause it's really interesting is your, your initial writing and you know, research was around wavelet compression and yet you have been very active in ISO MPEG, all block-based codecs. So, so tell us about that? Pankaj Topiwala: 04:08 Okay. Well obviously you know when you make the transition from working on the wavelets and our initial starting point was in doing wavelet based video compression. When I started first founded my company fastVDO in 1998, 1999 period we were working on wavelet based video compression and we, we pushed that about as much as we could. And at that, at one point we had what we felt was the world's best a video compression using wavelets in fact, but best overall. And it had the feature that you know, one thing that we should, we should tell your view or reader listeners is that the, the value of wavelets in particular in image coding is that not only can you do state of the art image coding, but you can make the bitstream what is called embedded, meaning you can chop it off at anywhere you like, and it's still a decodable stream. Pankaj Topiwala: 05:11 And in fact it is the best quality you can get for that bit rate. And that is a powerful, powerful thing you can do in image coding. Now in video, there is actually no way to do that. Video is just so much more complicated, but we did the best we could to make it not embedded, but at least scalable. And we, we built a scalable wavelet based video codec, which at that time was beating at the current implementations of MPEG4. So we were very excited that we could launch a company based on a proprietary codec that was based on this new fangled mathematics called wavelets. And lead us to a state of the art codec. The facts of the ground though is that just within the first couple of years of running our company, we found that in fact the block-based transformed codecs that everybody else was using, including the implementers of MPEG4. Pankaj Topiwala: 06:17 And then later AVC, those quickly surpassed anything we could build with with wavelets in terms of both quality and stability. The wavelet based codecs were not as powerful or as stable. And I can say quite a bit more about why that's true. If you want? Dror Gill: 06:38 So when you talk about stability, what exactly are you referring to in, in a video codec? Pankaj Topiwala: 06:42 Right. So let's let's take our listeners back a bit to compare image coding and video coding. Image coding is basically, you're given a set of pixels in a rectangular array and we normally divide that into blocks of sub blocks of that image. And then do transforms and then quantization and than entropy coding, that's how we typically do image coding. With the wavelet transform, we have a global transform. It's a, it's ideally done on the entire image. Pankaj Topiwala: 07:17 And then you could do it multiple times, what are called multiple scales of the wavelet transform. So you could take various sub sub blocks that you create by doing the wavelet transfer and the low pass high pass. Ancs do that again to the low low pass for multiple scales, typically about four or five scales that are used in popular image codecs that use wavelets. But now in video, the novelty is that you don't have one frame. You have many, many frames, hundreds or thousands or more. And you have motion. Now, motion is something where you have pieces of the image that float around from one frame to another and they float randomly. That is, it's not as if all of the motion is in one direction. Some things move one way, some things move other ways, some things actually change orientations. Pankaj Topiwala: 08:12 And they really move, of course, in three dimensional space, not in our two dimensional space that we capture. That complicates video compression enormously over image compression. And it particularly complicates all the wavelet methods to do video compression. So, wavelet methods that try to deal with motion were not very successful. The best we tried to do was using motion compensated video you know, transformed. So doing wavelet transforms in the time domain as well as the spatial domain along the paths of motion vectors. But that was not very successful. And what I mean by stability is that as soon as you increase the motion, the codec breaks, whereas in video coding using block-based transforms and block-based motion estimation and compensation it doesn't break. It just degrades much more gracefully. Wavelet based codecs do not degrade gracefully in that regard. Pankaj Topiwala: 09:16 And so we of course, as a company we decided, well, if those are the facts on the ground. We're going to go with whichever way video coding is going and drop our initial entry point, namely wavelets, and go with the DCT. Now one important thing we found was that even in the DCT- ideas we learned in wavelets can be applied right to the DCT. And I don't know if you're familiar with this part of the story, but a wavelet transform can be decomposed using bits shifts and ads only using something called the lifting transform, at least a important wavelet transforms can. Now, it turns out that the DCT can also be decomposed using lifting transforms using only bit shifts and ads. And that is something that my company developed way back back in 1998 actually. Pankaj Topiwala: 10:18 And we showed that not only for DCT, but a large class of transforms called lab transforms, which included the block transforms, but in particular included more powerful transforms the importance of that in the story of video coding. Is that up until H.264, all the video codec. So H.261, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, all these video codecs used a floating point implementation of the discrete cosign transform and without requiring anybody to implement you know a full floating point transform to a very large number of decimal places. What they required then was a minimum accuracy to the DCT and that became something that all codecs had to do. Instead. If you had an implementation of the DCT, it had to be accurate to the true floating point DCT up to a certain decimal point in, in the transform accuracy. Pankaj Topiwala: 11:27 With the advent of H.264, with H.264, we decided right away that we were not going to do a flooding point transform. We were going to do an integer transform. That decision was made even before I joined, my company joined, the development base, H.264, AVC, But they were using 32 point transforms. We found that we could introduce 16 point transforms, half the complexity. And half the complexity only in the linear dimension when you, when you think of it as a spatial dimension. So two spatial dimensions, it's a, it's actually grows more. And so the reduction in complexity is not a factor of two, but at least a factor of four and much more than that. In fact, it's a little closer to exponential. The reality is that we were able to bring the H.264 codec. Pankaj Topiwala: 12:20 So in fact, the transform was the most complicated part of the entire codec. So if you had a 32 point transform, the entire codec was at 32 point technology and it needed 32 points, 32 bits at every sample to process in hardware or software. By changing the transform to 16 bits, we were able to bring the entire codec to a 16 bit implementation, which dramatically improved the hardware implementability of this transfer of this entire codec without at all effecting the quality. So that was an important development that happened with AVC. And since then, we've been working with only integer transforms. Mark Donnigan: 13:03 This technical history is a really amazing to hear. I, I didn't actually know that Dror or you, you probably knew that, but I didn't. Dror Gill: 13:13 Yeah, I mean, I knew about the transform and shifting from fixed point, from a floating point to integer transform. But you know, I didn't know that's an incredible contribution Pankaj. Pankaj Topiwala: 13:27 We like to say that we've saved the world billions of dollars in hardware implementations. And we've taken a small a small you know, a donation as a result of that to survive as a small company. Dror Gill: 13:40 Yeah, that's great. And then from AVC you moved on and you continued your involvement in, in the other standards, right? That's followed. Pankaj Topiwala: 13:47 in fact, we've been involved in standardization efforts now for almost 20 years. My first meeting was a, I recall in may of 2000, I went to a an MPEG meeting in Geneva. And then shortly after that in July I went to an ITU VCEG meeting. VCEG is the video coding experts group of the ITU. And MPEG is the moving picture experts group of ISO. These two organizations were separately pursuing their own codecs at that time. Pankaj Topiwala: 14:21 ISO MPEG was working on MPEG-4 and ITU VCEG was working on H.263, and 263 plus and 263 plus plus. And then finally they started a project called 263 L for longterm. And eventually it became clear to these two organizations that look, it's silly to work on, on separate codecs. They had worked once before in MPEG-2 develop a joint standard and they decided to, to form a joint team at that time called the joint video team, JVT to develop the H.264 AVC video codec, which was finally done in 2003. We participate participated you know fully in that making many contributions of course in the transform but also in motion estimation and other aspects. So, for example, it might not be known that we also contributed the fast motion estimation that's now widely used in probably nearly all implementations of 264, but in 265 HEVC as well. Pankaj Topiwala: 15:38 And we participated in VVC. But one of the important things that we can discuss is these technologies, although they all have the same overall structure, they have become much more complicated in terms of the processing that they do. And we can discuss that to some extent if you want? Dror Gill: 15:59 The compression factors, just keep increasing from generation to generation and you know, we're wondering what's the limit of that? Pankaj Topiwala: 16:07 That's of course a very good question and let me try to answer some of that. And in fact that discussion I don't think came up in the discussion you had with Gary Sullivan, which certainly could have but I don't recall it in that conversation. So let me try to give for your listeners who did not catch that or are not familiar with it. A little bit of the story. Pankaj Topiwala: 16:28 The first international standard was the ITU. H.261 standard dating roughly to 1988 and it was designed to do only about 15 to one to 20 to one compression. And it was used mainly for video conferencing. And at that time you'd be surprised from our point of view today, the size of the video being used was actually incredibly tiny about QCIP or 176 by 144 pixels. Video of that quality that was the best we could conceive. And we thought we were doing great. And doing 20 to one compression, wow! Recall by the way, that if you try to do a lossless compression of any natural signal, whether it's speech or audio or images or video you can't do better than about two to one or at most about two and a half to one. Pankaj Topiwala: 17:25 You cannot do, typically you cannot even do three to one and you definitely cannot do 10 to one. So a video codec that could do 20 to one compression was 10 times better than what you could do lossless, I'm sorry. So this is definitely lossy, but lossy with still a good quality so that you can use it. And so we thought we were really good. When MPEG-1 came along in, in roughly 1992 we were aiming for 25 to one compression and the application was the video compact disc, the VCD. With H.262 or MPEG-2 roughly 1994, we were looking to do about 35 to one compression, 30 to 35. And the main application was then DVD or also broadcast television. At that point, broadcast television was ready to use at least in some, some segments. Pankaj Topiwala: 18:21 Try digital broadcasting. In the United States, that took a while. But in any case it could be used for broadcast television. And then from that point H.264 AVC In 2003, we jumped right away to more than 100 to one compression. This technology at least on large format video can be used to shrink the original size of a video by more than two orders of magnitude, which was absolutely stunning. You know no other natural signal, not speech, not broadband, audio, not images could be compressed that much and still give you high quality subjective quality. But video can because it's it is so redundant. And because we don't understand fully yet how to appreciate video. Subjectively. We've been trying things you know, ad hoc. And so the entire development of video coding has been really by ad hoc methods to see what quality we can get. Pankaj Topiwala: 19:27 And by quality we been using two two metrics. One is simply a mean square error based metric called peak signal to noise ratio or PSNR. And that has been the industry standard for the last 35 years. But the other method is simply to have people look at the video, what we call subjective rating of the video. Now it's hard to get a subjective rating. That's reliable. You have to do a lot of standardization get a lot of different people and take mean opinion scores and things like that. That's expensive. Whereas PSNR is something you can calculate on a computer. And so people have mostly in the development of video coding for 35 years relied on one objective quality metric called PSNR. And it is good but not great. And it's been known right from the beginning that it was not perfect, not perfectly correlated to video quality, and yet we didn't have anything better anyway. Pankaj Topiwala: 20:32 To finish the story of the video codecs with H.265 HEVC in 2013, we were now able to do up to 300 to one to up to 500 to one compression on let's say a 4K. And with VVC we have truly entered a new realm where we can do up to 1000 to one compression, which is three full orders of magnitude reduction of the original size. If the original size is say, 10 gigabits, we can bring that down to 10 megabits. And that's unbelievable. And so video compression truly is a remarkable technology. And you know, it's a, it's a marvel to look at. Of course it does not, it's not magic. It comes with an awful lot of processing and an awful lot of smarts have gone into it. That's right. Mark Donnigan: 21:24 You know Pankaj, that, is an amazing overview and to hear that that VVC is going to be a thousand to one. You know, compression benefit. Wow. That's incredible! Pankaj Topiwala: 21:37 I think we should of course we should of course temper that with you know, what people will use in applications. Correct. They may not use the full power of a VVC and may not crank it to that level. Sure, sure. I can certainly tell you that that we and many other companies have created bitstreams with 1000 to one or more compression and seeing video quality that we thought was usable. Mark Donnigan: 22:07 One of the topics that has come to light recently and been talked about quite a bit. And it was initially raised by Dave Ronca who used to lead encoding at Netflix for like 10 years. In fact you know, I think he really built that department, the encoding team there and is now at Facebook. And he wrote a LinkedIn article post that was really fascinating. And what he was pointing out in this post was, was that with compression efficiency and as each generation of codec is getting more efficient as you just explained and gave us an overview. There's a, there's a problem that's coming with that in that each generation of codec is also getting even more complex and you know, in some settings and, and I suppose you know, Netflix is maybe an example where you know, it's probably not accurate to say they have unlimited compute, but their application is obviously very different in terms of how they can operate their, their encoding function compared to someone who's doing live, live streaming for example, or live broadcast. Maybe you can share with us as well. You know, through the generation generational growth of these codecs, how has the, how has the compute requirements also grown and has it grown in sort of a linear way along with the compression efficiency? Or are you seeing, you know, some issues with you know, yes, we can get a thousand to one, but our compute efficiency is getting to the, where we could be hitting a wall. Pankaj Topiwala: 23:46 You asked a good question. Has the complexity only scaled linearly with the compression ratio? And the answer is no. Not at all. Complexity has outpaced the compression ratio. Even though the compression ratio is, is a tremendous, the complexity is much, much higher. And has always been at every step. First of all there's a big difference in doing the research, the research phase in development of the, of a technology like VVC where we were using a standardized reference model that the committee develops along the way, which is not at all optimized. But that's what we all use because we share a common code base. And make any new proposals based on modifying that code base. Now that code base is always along the entire development chain has always been very, very slow. Pankaj Topiwala: 24:42 And true implementations are anywhere from 100 to 500 times more efficient in complexity than the reference software. So right away you can have the reference software for say VVC and somebody developing a, an implementation that's a real product. It can be at least 100 times more efficient than what the reference software, maybe even more. So there's a big difference. You know, when we're developing a technology, it is very hard to predict what implementers will actually come up with later. Of course, the only way they can do that is that companies actually invest the time and energy right away as they're developing the standard to build prototype both software and hardware and have a good idea that when they finish this, you know, what is it going to really cost? So just to give you a, an idea, between, H.264 and Pankaj Topiwala: 25:38 H.265, H.264, only had two transforms of size, four by four and eight by eight. And these were integer transforms, which are only bit shifts and adds, took no multiplies and no divides. The division in fact got incorporated into the quantizer and as a result, it was very, very fast. Moreover, if you had to do, make decisions such as inter versus intra mode, the intra modes there were only about eight or 10 intra modes in H.264. By contrast in H.265. We have not two transforms eight, four by four and eight by, but in fact sizes of four, eight, 16 and 32. So we have much larger sized transforms and instead of a eight or 10 intra modes, we jumped up to 35 intra modes. Pankaj Topiwala: 26:36 And then with a VVC we jumped up to 67 intro modes and we just, it just became so much more complex. The compression ratio between HEVC and VVC is not quite two to one, but let's say, you know, 40% better. But the the complexity is not 40% more. On the ground and nobody has yet, to my knowledge, built a a, a, a fully compliant and powerful either software or hardware video codec for VVC yet because it's not even finished yet. It's going to be finished in July 2020. When it, when, the dust finally settles maybe four or five years from now, it will be, it will prove to be at least three or four times more complex than HEVC encoder the decoder, not that much. The decoder, luckily we're able to build decoders that are much more linear than the encoder. Pankaj Topiwala: 27:37 So I guess I should qualify as discussion saying the complexity growth is all mostly been in the encoder. The decoder has been a much more reasonable. Remember, we are always relying on this principle of ever-increasing compute capability. You know, a factor of two every 18 months. We've long heard about all of this, you know, and it is true, Moore's law. If we did not have that, none of this could have happened. None of this high complexity codecs, whatever had been developed because nobody would ever be able to implement them. But because of Moore's law we can confidently say that even if we put out this very highly complex VVC standard, someday and in the not too distant future, people will be able to implement this in hardware. Now you also asked a very good question earlier, is there a limit to how much we can compress? Pankaj Topiwala: 28:34 And also one can ask relatively in this issue, is there a limit to a Moore's law? And we've heard a lot about that. That may be finally after decades of the success of Moore's law and actually being realized, maybe we are now finally coming to quantum mechanical limits to you know how much we can miniaturize in electronics before we actually have to go to quantum computing, which is a totally different you know approach to doing computing because trying to go smaller die size. Well, we'll make it a unstable quantum mechanically. Now the, it appears that we may be hitting a wall eventually we haven't hit it yet, but we may be close to a, a physical limit in die size. And in the observations that I've been making at least it seems possible to me that we are also reaching a limit to how much we can compress video even without a complexity limit, how much we can compress video and still obtain reasonable or rather high quality. Pankaj Topiwala: 29:46 But we don't know the answer to that. And in fact there are many many aspects of this that we simply don't know. For example, the only real arbiter of video quality is subjective testing. Nobody has come up with an objective video quality metric that we can rely on. PSNR is not it. When, when push comes to shove, nobody in this industry actually relies on PSNR. They actually do subjective testing well. So in that scenario, we don't know what the limits of visual quality because we don't understand human vision, you know, we try, but human vision is so complicated. Nobody can understand the impact of that on video quality to any very significant extent. Now in fact, the first baby steps to try to understand, not explicitly but implicitly capture subjective human video quality assessment into a neural model. Those steps are just now being taken in the last couple of years. In fact, we've been involved, my company has been involved in, in getting into that because I think that's a very exciting area. Dror Gill: 30:57 I tend to agree that modeling human perception with a neural network seems more natural than, you know, just regular formulas and algorithms which are which are linear. Now I, I wanted to ask you about this process of, of creating the codecs. It's, it's very important to have standards. So you encode a video once and then you can play it anywhere and anytime and on any device. And for this, the encoder and decoder need to agree on exactly the format of the video. And traditionally you know, as you pointed out with all the history of, of development. Video codecs have been developed by standardization bodies, MPEG and ITU first separately. And then they joined forces to develop the newest video standards. But recently we're seeing another approach to develop codecs, which is by open sourcing them. Dror Gill: 31:58 Google started with an open source code, they called VP9 which they first developed internally. Then they open sourced it and and they use it widely across their services, especially in, YouTube. And then they joined forces with the, I think the largest companies in the world, not just in video but in general. You know those large internet giants such as Amazon and Facebook and and Netflix and even Microsoft, Apple, Intel have joined together with the Alliance of Open Media to jointly create another open codec called AV1. And this is a completely parallel process to the MPEG codec development process. And the question is, do you think that this was kind of a one time effort to, to to try and find a, or develop a royalty free codec, or is this something that will continue? And how do you think the adoption of the open source codecs versus the committee defined codecs, how would that adoption play out in the market? Pankaj Topiwala: 33:17 That's of course a large topic on its own. And I should mention that there have been a number of discussions about that topic. In particular at the SPIE conference last summer in San Diego, we had a panel discussion of experts in video compression to discuss exactly that. And one of the things we should provide to your listeners is a link to that captured video of the panel discussion where that topic is discussed to some significant extent. And it's on YouTube so we can provide a link to that. My answer. And of course none of us knows the future. Right. But we're going to take our best guesses. I believe that this trend will continue and is a new factor in the landscape of video compression development. Pankaj Topiwala: 34:10 But we should also point out that the domain of preponderance use preponderant use of these codecs is going to be different than in our traditional codecs. Our traditional codecs such as H.264 265, were initially developed for primarily for the broadcast market or for DVD and Blu-ray. Whereas these new codecs from AOM are primarily being developed for the streaming media industry. So the likes of Netflix and Amazon and for YouTube where they put up billions of user generated videos. So, for the streaming application, the decoder is almost always a software decoder. That means they can update that decoder anytime they do a software update. So they're not limited by a hardware development cycle. Of course, hardware companies are also building AV1. Pankaj Topiwala: 35:13 And the point of that would be to try to put it into handheld devices like laptops, tablets, and especially smartphones. But to try to get AV1 not only as a decoder but also as an encoder in a smartphone is going to be quite complicated. And the first few codecs that come out in hardware will be of much lower quality, for example, comparable to AVC and not even the quality of HEVC when they first start out. So that's... the hardware implementations of AV1 that work in real time are not going to be, it's going to take a while for them to catch up to the quality that AV1 can offer. But for streaming we, we can decode these streams reasonably well in software or in firmware. And the net result is that, or in GPU for example, and the net result is that these companies can already start streaming. Pankaj Topiwala: 36:14 So in fact Google is already streaming some test streams maybe one now. And it's cloud-based YouTube application and companies like Cisco are testing it already, even for for their WebEx video communication platform. Although the quality will not be then anything like the full capability of AV1, it'll be at a much reduced level, but it'll be this open source and notionally, you know, royalty free video codec. Dror Gill: 36:50 Notionally. Yeah. Because they always tried to do this, this dance and every algorithm that they try to put into the standard is being scrutinized and, and, and they check if there are any patents around it so they can try and keep this notion of of royalty-free around the codec because definitely the codec is open source and royalty free. Dror Gill: 37:14 I think that is, is, is a big question. So much IP has gone into the development of the different MPEG standards and we know it has caused issues. Went pretty smoothly with AVC, with MPEG-LA that had kind of a single point of contact for licensing all the essential patents and with HEVC, that hasn't gone very well in the beginning. But still there is a lot of IP there. So the question is, is it even possible to have a truly royalty free codec that can be competitive in, in compression efficiency and performance with the codec developed by the standards committee? Pankaj Topiwala: 37:50 I'll give you a two part answer. One because of the landscape of patents in the field of video compression which I would describe as being, you know very, very spaghetti like and patents date back to other patents. Pankaj Topiwala: 38:09 And they cover most of the, the topics and the most of the, the tools used in video compression. And by the way we've looked at the AV1 and AV1 is not that different from all the other standards that we have. H.265 or VVC. There are some things that are different. By and large, it resembles the existing standards. So can it be that this animal is totally patent free? No, it cannot be that it is patent free. But patent free is not the same as royalty free. There's no question that AV1 has many, many patents, probably hundreds of patents that reach into it. The question is whether the people developing and practicing AV1 own all of those patents. That is of course, a much larger question. Pankaj Topiwala: 39:07 And in fact, there has been a recent challenge to that, a group has even stood up to proclaim that they have a central IP in AV1. The net reaction from the AOM has been to develop a legal defense fund so that they're not going to budge in terms of their royalty free model. If they do. It would kill the whole project because their main thesis is that this is a world do free thing, use it and go ahead. Now, the legal defense fund then protects the members of that Alliance, jointly. Now, it's not as if the Alliance is going to indemnify you against any possible attack on IP. They can't do that because nobody can predict, you know, where somebody's IP is. The world is so large, so many patents in that we're talking not, not even hundreds and thousands, but tens of thousands of patents at least. Pankaj Topiwala: 40:08 So nobody in the world has ever reviewed all of those patent. It's not possible. And the net result is that nobody can know for sure what technology might have been patented by third parties. But the point is that because such a large number of powerful companies that are also the main users of this technology, you know, people, companies like Google and Apple and Microsoft and, and Netflix and Amazon and Facebook and whatnot. These companies are so powerful. And Samsung by the way, has joined the Alliance. These companies are so powerful that you know, it would be hard to challenge them. And so in practice, the point is they can project a royalty-free technology because it would be hard for anybody to challenge it. And so that's the reality on the ground. Pankaj Topiwala: 41:03 So at the moment it is succeeding as a royalty free project. I should also point out that if you want to use this, not join the Alliance, but just want to be a user. Even just to use it, you already have to offer any IP you have in this technology it to the Alliance. So all users around the world, so if tens of thousands and eventually millions of you know, users around the world, including tens of thousands of companies around the world start to use this technology, they will all have automatically yielded any IP they have in AV1, to the Alliance. Dror Gill: 41:44 Wow. That's really fascinating. I mean, first the distinction you made between royalty free and patent free. So the AOM can keep this technology royalty free, even if it's not patent free because they don't charge royalties and they can help with the legal defense fund against patent claim and still keep it royalty free. And, and second is the fact that when you use this technology, you are giving up any IP claims against the creators of the technology, which means that if any, any party who wants to have any IP claims against the AV1 encoder cannot use it in any form or shape. Pankaj Topiwala: 42:25 That's at least my understanding. And I've tried to look at of course I'm not a lawyer. And you have to take that as just the opinion of a video coding expert rather than a lawyer dissecting the legalities of this. But be that as it may, my understanding is that any user would have to yield any IP they have in the standard to the Alliance. And the net result will be if this technology truly does get widely used more IP than just from the Alliance members will have been folded into into it so that eventually it would be hard for anybody to challenge this. Mark Donnigan: 43:09 Pankaj, what does this mean for the development of so much of the technology has been in has been enabled by the financial incentive of small groups of people, you know, or medium sized groups of people forming together. You know, building a company, usually. Hiring other experts and being able to derive some economic benefit from the research and the work and the, you know, the effort that's put in. If all of this sort of consolidates to a handful or a couple of handfuls of, you know, very, very large companies, you know, does that, I guess I'm, I'm asking from your view, will, will video and coding technology development and advancements proliferate? Will it sort of stay static? Because basically all these companies will hire or acquire, you know, all the experts and you know, it's just now everybody works for Google and Facebook and Netflix and you know... Or, or do you think it will ultimately decline? Because that's something that that comes to mind here is, you know, if the economic incentives sort of go away, well, you know, people aren't going to work for free! Pankaj Topiwala: 44:29 So that's of course a, another question and a one relevant. In fact to many of us working in video compression right now, including my company. And I faced this directly back in the days of MPEG-2. There was a two and a half dollar ($2.50) per unit license fee for using MPEG-2. That created billions of dollars in licensing in fact, the patent pool, MPEG-LA itself made billions of dollars, even though they took only 10% of the proceeds, they already made billions of dollars, you know, huge amounts of money. With the advent of H.264 AVC, the patent license went not to from two and a half dollars to 25 cents a unit. And now with HEVC, it's a little bit less than that per unit. Of course the number of units has grown exponentially, but then the big companies don't continue to pay per unit anymore. Pankaj Topiwala: 45:29 They just pay a yearly cap. For example, 5 million or 10 million, which to these big companies is is peanuts. So there's a yearly cap for the big companies that have, you know, hundreds of millions of units. You know imagine the number of Microsoft windows that are out there or the number of you know, Google Chrome browsers. And if you have a, a codec embedded in the browser there are hundreds of millions of them, if not billions of them. And so they just pay a cap and they're done with it. But even then, there was up till now an incentive for smart engineers to develop exciting new ideas in a future video coding. But, and that has been up the story up till now. But when, if it happens that this AOM model with AV1 and then AV2, really becomes a dominant codec and takes over the market, then there will be no incentive for researchers to devote any time and energy. Pankaj Topiwala: 46:32 Certainly my company for example, can't afford to you know, just twiddle thumbs, create technologies for which there is absolutely no possibility of a royalty stream. So we, we cannot be in the business of developing video coding when video coding doesn't pay. So the only thing that makes money, is Applications, for example, a streaming application or some other such thing. And so Netflix and, and Google and Amazon will be streaming video and they'll charge you per stream but not on the codec. So that that's an interesting thing and it certainly affects the future development of video. It's clear to me it's a negative impact on the research that we got going in. I can't expect that Google and Amazon and Microsoft are going to continue to devote the same energy to develop future compression technologies in their royalty free environment that companies have in the open standards development technology environment. Pankaj Topiwala: 47:34 It's hard for me to believe that they will devote that much energy. They'll devote energy, but it will not be the the same level. For example, in developing a video standards such as HEVC, it took up to 10 years of development by on the order of 500 to 600 experts, well, let's say four to 500 experts from around the world meeting four times a year for 10 years. Mark Donnigan: 48:03 That is so critical. I want you to repeat that again. Pankaj Topiwala: 48:07 Well, I mean so very clearly we've been putting out a video codec roughly on the schedule of once every 10 years. MPEG-2 was 1994. AVC was 2003 and also 2004. And then HEVC in 2013. Those were roughly 10 years apart. But VVC we've accelerated the schedule to put one out in seven years instead of 10 years. But even then you should realize that we had been working right since HEVC was done. Pankaj Topiwala: 48:39 We've been working all this time to develop VVC and so on the order of 500 experts from around the world have met four times a year at all international locations, spending on the order of $100 million per meeting. You know so billions of dollars have been spent by industry to create these standards, many billions and it can't happen, you know without that. It's hard for me to believe that companies like Microsoft, Google, and whatnot, are going to devote billions to develop their next incremental, you know, AV1and AV2 AV3's. But maybe they will it just, that there's no royalty stream coming from the codec itself, only the application. Then the incentive, suppose they start dominating to create even better technology will not be there. So there really is a, a financial issue in this and that's at play right now. Dror Gill: 49:36 Yeah, I, I find it really fascinating. And of course, Mark and I are not lawyers, but all this you know, royalty free versus committee developed open source versus a standard those large companies who some people fear, you know, their dominance and not only in video codec development, but in many other areas. You know, versus you know, dozens of companies and hundreds of engineers working for seven or 10 years in a codec. So you know, it's really different approaches different methods of development eventually to approach the exact same problem of video compression. And, and how this turns out. I mean we, we cannot forecast for sure, but it will be very interesting, especially next year in 2020 when VVC is ratified. And at around the same time, EVC is ratified another codec from the MPEG committee. Dror Gill: 50:43 And then AV1, and once you know, AV1 starts hitting the market. We'll hear all the discussions of AV2. So it's gonna be really interesting and fascinating to follow. And we, we promise to to bring you all the updates here on The Video Insiders. So Pankaj I really want to thank you. This has been a fascinating discussion with very interesting insights into the world of codec development and compression and, and wavelets and DCT and and all of those topics and, and the history and the future. So thank you very much for joining us today on the video insiders. Pankaj Topiwala: 51:25 It's been my pleasure, Mark and Dror. And I look forward to interacting in the future. Hope this is a useful for your audience. If I can give you a one parting thought, let me give this... Pankaj Topiwala: 51:40 H.264 AVC was developed in 2003 and also 2004. That is you know, some 17 years or 16 years ago, it is close to being now nearly royalty-free itself. And if you look at the market share of video codecs currently being used in the market, for example, even in streaming AVC dominates that market completely. Even though VP8 and VP9 and VP10 were introduced and now AV1, none of those have any sizeable market share. AVC currently dominates from 70 to 80% of that marketplace right now. And it fully dominates broadcast where those other codecs are not even in play. And so they're 17, 16, 17 years later, it is now still the dominant codec even much over HEVC, which by the way is also taking an uptick in the last several years. So the standardized codecs developed by ITU and MPEG are not dead. They may just take a little longer to emerge as dominant forces. Mark Donnigan: 52:51 That's a great parting thought. Thanks for sharing that. What an engaging episode Dror. Yeah. Yeah. Really interesting. I learned so much. I got a DCT primer. I mean, that in and of itself was a amazing, Dror Gill: 53:08 Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Mark Donnigan: 53:11 Yeah, amazing Pankaj. Okay, well good. Well thanks again for listening to the video insiders, and as always, if you would like to come on this show, we would love to have you just send us an email. The email address is thevideoinsiders@beamr.com, and Dror or myself will follow up with you and we'd love to hear what you're doing. We're always interested in talking to video experts who are involved in really every area of video distribution. So it's not only encoding and not only codecs, whatever you're doing, tell us about it. And until next time what do we say Dror? Happy encoding! Thanks everyone.
Learn about Unified Patents hereCheck out Unified Patents Objective PAtent Landscape OPAL toolRead the Independent economic study for HEVC royaltiesShawn Ambwani LinkedIn profileRelated episode: VVC, HEVC & other MPEG codec standardsThe Video Insiders LinkedIn Group is where thousands of your peers are discussing the latest video technology news and sharing best practices. Click here to join --------------------------------------Would you like to be a guest on the show? Email: thevideoinsiders@beamr.comLearn more about Beamr-------------------------------------- TRANSCRIPT (edited slightly for readability)Narrator: 00:00 The Video Insiders is the show that makes sense of all that is happening in the world of online video as seen through the eyes of a second generation codec nerd and a marketing guy who knows what I-frames and macro blocks are. Here are your hosts, Mark Donnigan and Dror Gill. Mark Donnigan: 00:19 Well, welcome back to The Video Insiders. Dror, how you doing today? I'm doing great. How are you Mark? I am doing awesome. As always. I am super pleased to welcome Shawn Ambwani who is co-founder of Unified Patents and Shawn is gonna tell us all about what Unified Patents does and we're going to dive into, you know, just a really tremendous discussion. But Shawn, Welcome to the podcast! Shawn Ambwani: 00:46 Hey guys. Thanks Mark. Thanks for, for allowing me to participate on your wonderful podcast. I look at this as similar to 'All Things Considered' and 'How I built this', two of my favorite podcasts. Mark Donnigan: 01:01 Those are awesome podcasts by the way. What an honor? Yeah. Wow. The level that I expect you guys to be at in traffic very shortly. That's right. Well, we hope so to. Well, why don't you introduce yourself you know, and give us a quick snapshot of your background and then let's let's hear about what Unified Patents is doing. Shawn Ambwani: 01:23 It's kind of a, I have an interesting I mean some might say not so interesting, but I think it's interesting background related to this area since, you know, the first startup that I did and the second one were all related to MPEG4. So I co-founded a company called Envivio, which way back when was actually one of the original MPEG4 companies when they just had simple profile actually out there doing encoders and decoders. And then I went to a Korean company called NexStreaming, which actually still exists, which is doing encoders as well, but more for the mobile space and decoders. So it's an area I'm quite familiar with. I wasn't really being an attorney back then. Now I'm kind of more of an attorney than I was back then, but I tried to avoid being an attorney as much as possible in general. Shawn Ambwani: 02:16 And basically I helped co-found a company called Unified Patents. And what unified patents does is it gets contributions from member companies as well as it allows small companies to join for free and they participate in joining what we call zones. And these different zones are intended to protect against what we consider unsubstantiated or invalid patent assertions. And the goal of these zones is to deter those from occurring in the first place. So if you imagine the kind of a technology area, let it be content or let it be video codec in this case or other things as having a bunch of companies that have a common interest in maintaining, you know, patents and ensuring patents that are asserted in that space are valid, which means that no one invented the idea beforehand. And also that it's fairly priced and you know, people are explaining the rationale behind what they're doing and they're not basically just attempting to get people to settle out, not because the assertions are valid or good, but simply because the cost of litigation is so high when it comes to patents. Shawn Ambwani: 03:35 And we want to deter that type of activity because there's been a lot of investment in that activity so far. In fact, most litigation's are by NPE's and so Unified started by doing those zones and, and, and we've have a bunch of them now. We just launched an open source zone in fact, but with you know, Linux foundation and OIN and IBM and others and the video codec zone was something that we were thinking about for a long time. It's something that I'm very familiar with from my past dealings with MPEG LA and other pools. And it was a big issue I think. And it has been a constant issue, which is how do you deal with multiple pools or multiple people asking for money in a standard? How do you deal with the pricing of it? Especially if you're smaller entities and you don't have the information that may be larger companies might have. Shawn Ambwani: 04:26 How do you deal with that and how do you deal with all the invalid assertions that are being done or declarations that occur in this area? How do you figure out who you have to pay? And how much you have to pay. All these add a level of complexity to deploying these standards, which makes adoption harder and creates the uncertainty that causes people to go to proprietary solutions, which I think is a negative in the end. So that's why Unified Patents really created this area and created the video codec zone. And basically we've been pretty, I think, successful so far now actually going through and doing each one of the things we said we were going to do. Dror Gill: 05:06 So what, what are those things basically when you set up a zone and, and want to start finding those patterns that may be invalid how do you go about doing that? What is the process? Shawn Ambwani: 05:18 Yeah, so I mean there's two major things in the SEP zones that it's not, it's not just about finding invalid patents, although I can tell you it's relatively easy to find invalid patents in any of these zones. That's not a difficulty. The hard part is figuring out which ones to go to or which ones are going to be the most interesting to go after. And that takes a lot of art. Essentially identifying them, finding out good prior art that we feel comfortable with, hiring good counsel. There's all kinds of weighing mechanisms that go into it, who the entity is, how it came about, how old the patents are, where it came from. All of these variables go into that kind of equation of when we decide. What's kind of unique about the way we work is we work independently of our members, so our members are funding these activities and some join for free. Shawn Ambwani: 06:11 So we have a number of members of the video codecs and we use all this money and information in our activities to basically go back and decide what to do, with the objective of deterring you know, what we consider bad assertions in this space. And then that's one part of it. The other part of it is that SEP's are all about, you know, an area called FRAND, fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory. And part of all of that involves negotiation. And so what we provide are tools to allow companies to negotiate we think in a fair and more transparent way to licensors as to pricing. But also explaining why the pricing is the way it is. Because one of the problems that we've had in the big picture is that a lot of these licensors have been asking for money, whether their own pools, whether outside of pools, whatever. Shawn Ambwani: 07:12 But no one can really explain why the price is what it is. And I think that leads to a lot of people to just stop paying or stop wanting to get into licensing discussions. And that's not beneficial for the market. And so by explaining how the price comes out the way it is and providing a very, we consider, solid methodology for it, it allows our members but also licensors to better understand who owns what and how much value is in the standard. So what they should reasonably expect to get for that technology and how much licensees reasonably should expect to pay in order to deploy the technology. Mark Donnigan: 07:55 Now my question, you know, Shawn is when you are getting into these conversations with the parties or party that, you know, owns this IP and I'm speaking more around sort of the pricing and the model and that sort of thing. Are you then...is that information available to your members or is it more that you're sort of helping facilitate, helping bring some rationality, you know, so that then that body can turn around and make public: "Hey, great news!" We've decided that all digitally distributed content doesn't carry, you know, a royalty cost. What exactly, I guess what my question is, what exactly is, is your role then in informing the market? Shawn Ambwani: 08:40 I think that, well, I mean there's a number of things to talk about, but what's I think most important is that we, you know, we don't know necessarily what the right price is. We hired an outside economist to look into that and he came back with a pricing range in you know, a report that we gave the highlights too and there was some press over and it's on our website but you can also look at it through a number of particles and basically he came back with a price of between 8 cents and 28 cents I believe if I'm accurate. Is what he believed the estimate to be for the value of the technology including everything. And it ranged based on I think the device and like other factors and stuff like that. Now that high level information we provided publicly and in fact we provided the information on who made the report when it was created and what it was based on. Shawn Ambwani: 09:38 And we even provided kind of the overall methodology of how it was done, which is basically being used at a very high level. They used MPEG LA's AVC license as the starting point or the foundation for deciding what HEVC in this case, which is what he was looking at, pricing should be based on his expert analysis. And then he modified that based on switching costs based on the cost of bandwidth, the cost of storage and quality and other factors basically that are valuable. So, that's where we went. Now, what's important to understand is that we published that information so anyone could take a look at the, at the high level. And the methodology pretty much tells you the roadmap of where we started and how we ended up where we are. The other part is how do you decide who you have to pay and how much each person gets. Even assuming that you figure out that, let's say it's 25 cents, that you think the royalty rate should be for it. And I'm not saying that's the number, but everyone can decide on whatever number they feel comfortable. Our expert created this report and we published it. Other people can create other reports and I'm sure they have their own kind of versions. But what's important for us is that, you know, people should explain why they came out with their pricing. And unfortunately in pools and licensing organizations in general, that just doesn't happen. Dror Gill: 11:05 So basically you're finding economical reason behind a certain price for for this technology. In this case, HEVC. And now companies who want to use HEVC, how do they use this number? Because they have your number, which is the total, and then they have royalty rates that are asked that, you know, certain patent pools are asking and they add up to a different number that could be a higher number. So do they just you know, divide the number that they think is the right one among the different patent pools and pay them the amount they think they should pay or do they just use it as a negotiating tool when they talk to them and, and you know, and negotiate the actual world, the rates that they will have to pay? Shawn Ambwani: 11:52 By providing a lot of this information. Some of it publicly like economic report in some format. The hope is that smaller entities instead of rolling over when licensing people come by and say, Hey, take it or leave it, they really have an ability to make a fair response, a good faith response with information that allows them to then basically justify why they came up with a price and really push back and say, listen, you know, this is what my methodology came out to. Now. It could be right, could be wrong. You know, in the end in FRAND negotiations, I have to make a good faith offer. That's really the intent. So that's an important aspect of pushing back on this kind of, we think less information that is occurring in the marketplace and more fragmentation. And I think they're all interrelated because of the less information you have more fragmentation. Cause if everyone could agree on a price and everyone agreed that this is the fair value for the technology, there really wouldn't be multiple pools in my opinion or multiple licensors, because everyone would know what the number is. And so why would you separate? Dror Gill: 13:07 But basically you're saying that even if a patent pool set, the royalty rates and those royalty rates in some cases are public, at least for some of the patent pools, this is not what a licensor would pay. This is just kind of a starting point for a negotiation and you're providing tools for this type of negotiation. Shawn Ambwani: 13:23 We also think that validity is a big issue because none of these entities look at validity when they're incorporating patents into their pools or into their licensing. It's really up to the licensees or the people who are potentially taking the license to have the responsibility to go out and figure that out, which can be very, very costly. Dror Gill: 13:44 You assume they're valid, right? If they're licensing patents to you, you assume that they're licensing valid patents. Right? These are kind of, you know, respectable patent holders and patent pools. Why would they license something that's not valid? Shawn Ambwani: 13:57 I mean, it's a great point. I mean, the argument would be that they want to license patents. Mark Donnigan: 14:03 That's their business at the end of the day. Yeah. Shawn Ambwani: 14:08 Right. So, you know, if you had a car and you're trying to sell a car, you're going to accentuate the good things about the car. Not that it's a rebuilt or something like that or you know, like it's, it's been, you know, it's been in a crash or accident like, yeah. Like you're going to show what you want to show. Right. And that's natural in any of these cases. The unfortunate fact is that it's very costly to figure out that stuff and there's no really organization you'd think a licensing organization like MPEG LA or others. And I'm not saying MPEG LA is doing a bad job necessarily, I'm just pointing them out as an example, would do a better job of vetting to some degree on that type of activity. But they don't, and I think there's a number of reasons Mark Donnigan: 14:53 Why do they want to do that? I almost liken this to the 500 channel cable bundle of which there's about 15 high quality channels and there's 485 that are anywhere from just a, you know, not, not relevant, not interesting to, you know, to even lower quality than that, but, but you know, but Hey, I got a 500 channel bundle, right? So I feel like, wow, it must be worth $100 a month, you know, or whatever. Shawn Ambwani: 15:23 The idea that that licensing organizations like MPEG LA or (HEVC) Advance or other ones like that aren't doing it to the benefit of their licensors. It just seems ridiculous to me. I mean the people on their, on their management and the people who are actually owning that organization, typically it's managed and owned and administrative fees are paid to licensors. And traditionally the money flows one way from licensees to licensors. It's for the benefit of the licensors. And the rules that they put in are essentially to make sure that those guys are protected. They have no incentive in general of saying people's patents are invalid. And, and that's just a bad fact pattern for them. If basically they get back and say, Hey, listen this patent... Yeah, no, it's bad. Mark Donnigan: 16:16 Exactly. So, so in that context then it completely makes sense that they don't vet you know, at the level that you are and why, you know, Unified Patents needs to exist, you know, is because we need this sort of independent third party. I guess. I, I, you know, that's, that's out there doing this work. Now, Shawn, one of the things that I noticed is you're acting both against NPE's, so, non-practicing entities, and against SEP's. So standard essential patents. What are the issues with SEP's? Shawn Ambwani: 16:51 Well, I mean the general assumption has been, and I don't know where this assumption came from, was that standard essential patents or people who declare their patents to be standard essential are more likely to be valid than other patents. And in the real world where there's litigation and there's challenges and things get checked out or vetted essentially, adversarially, the reality is that standard essential patents in all the studies that have been done fair, far worse, than normal patents do on average. And you know, it's not shocking actually when you think about it. Obviously there's a lot of self selection here, but part of the reason why is, you know, when you're submitting into pools or in when you're getting these patents, when part of a standardization body or doing other activities, there's a lot of other people involved and it's usually built on other ideas that people have had in the past. Shawn Ambwani: 17:59 And it's not surprising that a lot of these patents have underlying ideas that had been done in the past or other people had brought up previously. Sometimes they weren't accepted, sometimes they were or sometimes they were put on hold. Who knows? But there's a lot of prior art oftentimes in these areas. These aren't open fields, these aren't brand new innovations that typically come up. And so that's not surprising. Now, you know, there's also a general belief that standard essential patterns are more valuable. And I think, you know, that's a pretty, I would say, you know, I dunno if it's absolutely valid, but it's not unreasonable to believe that if you declare a patent, as standardized, if you look at the average patent and compared to that patent, it's probably your, it's probably more valuable, at that point. Because you basically said it's part of a standard that people are probably going to adopt at that point versus a patent in general, which you never know most of the time, whether anyone's going to use that patent. Shawn Ambwani: 19:02 I mean the vast majority of patents are never actually used in any way whatsoever. They're not enforceable because they're just ideas that people have most of the time, and these patents are arguable more likely than not to be in a standard and that standard might or might not actually get used in the end. Inherently you get - they're more valuable. The problem is there's tons of over declaration that occurs in this area. There's very little incentive. I mean some places there's more of an incentive than others, but the way MPEG works specifically is that you can do blanket declarations and so you don't have to declare specific patents. And, other standards, you have to basically declare each individual patent that you have. So, I mean, there's all kinds of trade offs, and all these different things, but the reality is that no one really knows exactly how many patents need to be licensed. And that just creates a lot of uncertainty. And you know, a lot of companies who are trying to make money, not off products but off of doing licensing thrive on uncertainty because that's where they can make money. Is basically by, you know, saying, okay, well who knows what can happen, but if you take care of me now, I can make sure that I'm not going to cause you issues. Dror Gill: 20:23 Right. And that's why uncertainty is in the middle of FUD, fear, uncertainty, doubt, which is one of those tactics and uncertainty is definitely a big part of that. Shawn Ambwani: 20:33 Yeah. I mean, the other thing is that companies in general, it seems like a one way street a lot of the time, which is pretty unfortunate in that although I'm not sure if I have a good solution, you know, a lot of companies, the licensors have a way of getting together, agreeing on a price and then licensing through an organization like MPEG LA or others to do that type of activity or Velos (Media), or whatever it is. They choose, you know, they can select a price, they can work together, agree on a price. And the reason why they can do that according to the DOJ is because it's a different product than what's available before. So it decreases uncertainty by making it easier for people to take a license of convenience for that specific technology area. Dror Gill: 21:21 Otherwise, it might might've been considered price setting, Shawn Ambwani: 21:24 Right? Yeah. It would be considered price. It would be considered price setting. But in this case, the argument is always that you can always go to each individual company and get a license or negotiate a separate license. This is a license of convenience for this technology area from all these companies for one price. And that makes it a lot easier for people on both sides to be able to know exactly how much they're going to be getting and how much they're going to have to pay for clearing this risk. Which makes sense. I fundamentally have no problem with pools and what they do. The, the issue comes up is that a lot of these pools, A) don't talk about the pricing, they don't look at the validity. They don't really have a great essentially checking on top of it. And they're very much incentivized to help out the licensors, not the licensees figure stuff out. And what ends up happening is over time you kind of, and you have companies also that are not interested in making products, which is unfortunate. They're just interested in making money off of their licensing. Which is unfortunate because there's a lot of games that can be played in the standardization world to get your stuff in and then get your patents in basically. Mark Donnigan: 22:44 Well, it ultimately, it, it stops innovation. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, and one thing, and Dror and I have talked about this on episodes and we've certainly talked about this a lot, you know, privately within Beamr is, you know, it's a little bit mystifying as well because okay, so HEVC clearly was set back as a result of, of many issues. But you know, largely what we'd been talking about for the last 35 minutes and the adoption of HEVC. And yet these people, as you point out, the licensors, they don't make money if nobody's using the technology. So, so what's mystifying to us is that this is not, you know, it's not like somehow they're getting paid still. You know, even though the adoption of the technology is not in place or it's not being used, they're not getting paid. And so it seems like at some point, you know, a rational actor would stand up and say, wait a second, I'd rather get something rather than nothing! But, it's almost like they, they're not acting that way. Dror Gill: 23:46 But, but it did happen. They did reduce the royalty rate. Yes, yes, yes. Certainly. And they did come to their senses and they did put a cap and then initially it was uncapped and they did remove royalties from content. And you know, they did a lot of things in the right direction after the pressure from the market when they realized they're not going to get anything. And when AV1 started to happen, you know, and they were pressured by that, by a competing codec that was supposedly a royalty free and didn't have these issues. So I think the situation is improved. But you've launched a specific zone. It's called the video codec zone, but basically right now it deals only with HEVC. Shawn Ambwani: 24:33 A lot of these patents that we've challenged relate not just to HEVC but potentially to AV and other codecs like AVC as well. Cause there's such overlap between these things. That's why we generically call it a video codec zone. So, obviously a lot of the things that we've looked at in like the economic report and everything else and landscape, a lot of the focus has been on HEVC. Dror Gill: 24:59 So you examined the HEVC and and you saw this situation that you have three patent pools. One of them hasn't even announced the royalty rates and, and you have a lot of independent patent holders who claim to have standard essential patents for HEVC. And this is kind of your, you're opening a, a situation. So what, what was the first thing that, that you did, how did you start to, to approach the HEVC pattern topic and what actions did you take? Shawn Ambwani: 25:34 Like I said, we've done a bunch of different stuff. We had a submission repo called open, which where we collated all the prior art, not prior art, but submissions into the standard for HEVC and AVC and other standards from MPEG so people can make it easily searchable. In fact, 50% of the priority art that we got for our patent challenges came from the submission repo, which is great, which is basically, you know, previous submissions to the same standard. We have OPAL, which is our landscape tool. And then, you know, obviously we have OPEN which is our evaluation report that I mentioned for HEVC. And then we did a bunch of reviews of validity and challenged a bunch of patents in different licensing entities. I mean, Velos, I think they don't consider themselves a pool. Just to be clear. Dror Gill: 26:29 Because they actually own the patents. They've licensed those patents on their own? Shawn Ambwani: 26:34 Well, I think they just don't consider themselves tackling a patent pool in the way that MPEG LA and HEVC Advanced does simply that would throw them into a different bucket and they would have all kinds of requirements on them that they don't want basically. So you know when the DOJ kind of made the rules or kind of the lawyers decided what the right rules are to make it work, you know like you've got to show your stuff. Basically you got to show your price, you've got to make sure it's reasonable or it's, you know, like there's, there's no most favored nation clause. I mean there is a most favorite nation (MFN) let me rephrase this. So all these things to make sure that everything is very transparent in order to allow this kind of companies to get together and set a price for how much they want to license for it, which typically would have huge anti-competitive or antitrust issues. Right. They made all these rules and Velos I think would not consider themselves technically a patent pool like those guys because that would make them have the similar requirements. Dror Gill: 27:40 So they're like an independent patent holder? Shawn Ambwani: 27:42 I don't really know what they call themselves. I've definitely never heard them say that they're a patent pool. I've heard other people call them a patent pool. I probably have at some point, but I don't really know if they actually consider themselves a patent pool Dror Gill: 27:55 Because I noticed that your litigation was against the patent holders. Companies like GE and KBS and against Velos Media itself. Yeah. Shawn Ambwani: 28:07 Yeah. Well Velos is you know, an unusual beast in that it owns a number of patents that got transferred to it as well as it provides licenses to the people who participated. You know, the other patent holders in general are much more traditional in their patent pool type activity in that the patent holders are different from the people who are doing the licensing. Dror Gill: 28:28 And you're not suing the patent pools like MPEG LA and HEVC Advanced or not your targets? Shawn Ambwani: 28:32 Well, they don't own patents directly, so really nothing to do as far as I know. I mean, you could say, you know, part of it is we're challenging them to a certain degree on their pricing and kind of their whole model of not looking at validity by challenging some of their patents as well as, you know, putting them on notice that as they get more patents in, we might challenge further patents for validity. So why don't they do it ahead of time? I mean, the idea that, you know, validity is a victimless crime if you don't check for validity, it doesn't hurt anyone. It's just not true in my opinion. It's just not true because you are hurting the people who actually innovated. There's a set amount of money that goes to everyone. If you have a bunch of patents and they're just like, you're checking for essentiality before you allow a patent in, you check for validity because there's a bunch of patents that just aren't valid that shouldn't be, they should not be making money off of. It just incentivizes people to get more invalid patents in the same space that they can stick into a pool to get a bigger share of it, like a giant game. Right? Mark Donnigan: 29:43 Yeah, that's a really good point. I'm wondering what is the cost to test for essentiality? Is some of this just sort of practical like it's just either too time consuming or costly to test? Yeah. I mean Shawn Ambwani: 29:58 Esentiality is often times more expensive than validity in some cases, but I mean they do test for essentiality. The companies pay to have their own patents tested often times for essentiality, but there is no test for validity that they enforce. So no one actually does it. You know, if they did ask for it, I'm sure people in some cases would pay for it, but more importantly, people who didn't think their patents would be found valid, probably wouldn't submit them in the first place then. Then there would be, there'd be huge disincentive for people who had that risk of that happening. They just wouldn't submit it, which you know, obviously it's going to hurt the pool because they get less patents. And at the same time, the hope is that people will think twice before they submit stuff they know is crap. Anyway. Mark Donnigan: 30:43 So what is, what is your bar for determining low quality? I mean, what does that process look like? Shawn Ambwani: 30:52 We have a bunch of patents that come into our hopper that we're constantly looking at in every single zone that we're in and we're constantly looking and seeing if it's a valid patent or not. And there's multiple ways of doing that. We have crowd sourcing that we do for that. We just pay people, you know, in order to do prior art experts for example, to do prior art searches. You can prior art search infinitely long these, there's no stopping. You know, what you can do. But you know, in the end there's only so much you can reasonably expect to find. And so from my perspective, you know, there's definitely been situations where we've looked at patents and we've said, okay, we don't think we have good prior art. We're just not going to do anything about it. And that's okay. In fact, I mean it's okay if a licensing entity or licensor has a valid patent, that's perfectly fine with me. Shawn Ambwani: 31:49 I think if they have a valid patent, they should be able to make money off of it. I have no problem with, it should be a fair amount if it's in a standard based on FRAND principles, but in general, people should be able to make money off of a valid patent. The problem is is that a lot of people are making a lot of money, in my opinion, off of a lot of bad patents. And invalid patents, which hurts the people who actually do have good patents because they're getting crowded out, which is sad because that really is the disincentive for innovation then is when the people actually are innovating aren't making money off of it because they're getting crowded out by the people who are just playing a good game. Dror Gill: 32:25 You described earlier the, the process with a standard setting bodies such as MPEG where you declare your patents but you only, you can declare them as, as a pool or as a bunch of patents and not specifically, and then you can basically, Dror Gill: 32:40 You know, create a pool and charge as much as you want if it's under the FRAND principles. Do you think there's anything broken in the standard setting process itself? Do those committees need to do something else in order to make sure that when they create a standard, the situation of royalties of, of the situation of, of IP which is essential to that standard is more well known that you have less uncertainty in that IP? Shawn Ambwani: 33:09 Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean there's always ways of like tweaking the system. Every standards body has different ways of managing it. I mean the only really clean way of doing it is saying it's royalty free and having anyone who participates in the standard agree that it's royalty free. Anything above that, just you know, you can play all these different types of rules and machinations and 3GPP has their own and other people, organizations have their own. But in the end it ends up being the same issue of you know, under declaring over declaring - issues with essentiality, validity, all kinds of other things. So I'm not sure if you, unless you go to that binary level, how much, you know, changing that up is going to change things fundamentally. I think the more fundamental thing is that, you know, the idea that I think the fundamental reason why you have these patent pools and other things like that was to clear risk and decrease uncertainty. Unfortunately I'd say uncertainty is actually increasing in some of these cases not decreasing by all these different groups asking for money at this point, which is unfortunate. Dror Gill: 34:17 No, that's a very interesting insight, really. Mark Donnigan: 34:19 Hey, thanks for joining us, Shawn. This was really an amazing discussion and we definitely have to have a part two. Shawn Ambwani: 34:26 All right, well, thanks for your time, gentlemen. I really appreciate it. Dror Gill: 34:28 Thank you. Narrator: 34:30 Thank you for listening to The Video Insiders podcast, a production of Beamr Imaging limited. To begin using Beamr's codecs today, go to beamr.com/free to receive up to 100 hours of no cost HEVC and H.264 transcoding every month.
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E03: What does the future hold for video codecs? This week, The Video Insiders look at the past and present to assess the future landscape of video encoding as they discuss where AVC, VP9, and VVC fit into the codec stew. The following blog post first appeared on the Beamr blog at: https://blog.beamr.com/2018/12/15/the-future-of-3-character-codecs-avc-vp9-vvc/ Anyone familiar with the streaming video industry knows that we love our acronyms. You would be hard-pressed to have a conversation about the online video industry without bringing one up… In today's episode, The Video Insiders focus on the future of three-character codecs: AVC, VP9, and VVC. But before we can look at the future, we have to take a moment to revisit the past. The year 2018 marks the 15-year anniversary of AVC and in this episode, we visit the process and lifecycle of standardization to adoption and what that means for the future of these codecs. Want to join the conversation? Reach out to TheVideoInsiders@beamr.com. TRANSCRIPTION (lightly edited for improved readability) Mark Donnigan: 00:49 Well, Hi, Dror! Dror Gill: 00:50 Is this really episode three? Mark Donnigan: 00:52 It is, it is episode three. So, today we have a really exciting discussion as we consider the future of codecs named with three characters. Dror Gill: 01:03 Three character codecs, okay, let's see. Mark Donnigan: 01:06 Three character codecs. Dror Gill: 01:09 I can think of … Mark Donnigan: 01:09 How many can you name? Dror Gill: 01:10 Let's see, that's today's trivia question. I can think of AVC, VP9, AV1, and VVC? Mark Donnigan: 01:21 Well, you just named three that I was thinking about and we're gonna discuss today! We've already covered AV1. Yeah, yeah, you answered correctly, but we haven't really considered where AVC, VP9, and VVC fit into the codec stew. So when I think about AVC, I'm almost tempted to just skip it because isn't this codec standard old news? I mean, c'mon. The entire video infrastructure of the internet is enabled by AVC, so what is there to discuss? Dror Gill: 01:57 Yeah. You're right. It's like the default, but in fact, the interesting thing is that today, we're (in) 2018 and this is the twenty year anniversary of AVC. I mean, ITU issued the call for proposals, their video coding expert group, issued the call for proposal for a project. At the time was called H26L, and their target was to double the coding efficiency, which effectively means halving the bit rate necessary for given level of fidelity. And that's why it was called H26L, it was supposed to be low bit rate. Mark Donnigan: 02:33 Ah! That's an interesting trivia question. Dror Gill: 02:35 That's where the L came from! Mark Donnigan: 02:36 I wonder how many of our listeners knew that? That's kind of cool. H26L. Dror Gill: 02:42 But they didn't go alone. It was the first time they joined forces in 2001 with the ISO MPEG, that's the same Motion Pictures Experts Group, you know we discussed in the first episode. Mark Donnigan: 02:56 That's right. Dror Gill: 02:57 And they came together, they joined forced, and they created JVT, that was the Joint Video Team, and I think it's a great example of collaboration. There are standards by dealing with video communication standards, and ISO MPEG, which is a standards body dealing with video entertainment standards. So, finally they understood that there's no point in developing video standards for these two different types of applications, so they got all the experts together in the JVT and this group developed what was the best video compression standard at the time. It was launched May 30, 2003. Mark Donnigan: 03:35 Wow. Dror Gill: 03:36 There was one drawback with this collaboration in that the video standard was known by two names. There was the ITU name which is H.264. And then there's the ISO MPEG name which is AVC, so these created some confusion at the start. I think by now, most of our listeners know that H.264 and AVC are two of the same. Mark Donnigan: 03:57 Yeah, definitely. So, AVC was developed 15 years ago and it's still around today. Dror Gill: 04:02 Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's really impressive and it's not only around, it's the most popular video compression standard in the world today. I mean, AVC is used to deliver video over the internet, to computers, televisions, mobile devices, cable, satellite, broadcast, and even blu-ray disks. This just shows you how long it takes from standardization to adoption, right? 15 years until we get this mass market adoption market dominance of H.264, AVC as we have today. Dror Gill: 04:31 And the reason it takes so long is that, we discussed it in our first episode, first you need to develop the standard. Then, you need to develop the chips that support the standard, then you need to develop devices that incorporate the chip. Even when initial implementation of the codec got released, they are still not as efficient as they can be, and it takes codec developers more time to refine it and improve the performance and the quality. You need to develop the tools, all of that takes time. Mark Donnigan: 04:59 It does. Yeah, I have a background in consumer electronics and because of that I know for certainty that AVC is gonna be with us for a while and I'll explain why. It's really simple. Decoding of H.264 is fully supported in every chip set on the market. I mean literally every chip set. There is not a device that supports video which does not also support AVC today. It just doesn't exist, you can't find it anywhere. Mark Donnigan: 05:26 And then when you look at in coding technologies for AVC, H.264, (they) have advanced to the point where you can really achieve state of the art for very low cost. There's just too much market momentum where the encode and decode ecosystems are just massive. When you think about entertainment applications and consumer electronics, for a lot of us, that's our primary market (that) we play in. Mark Donnigan: 05:51 But, if you consider the surveillance and the industrial markets, which are absolutely massive, and all of these security cameras you see literally everywhere. Drone cameras, they all have AVC encoders in them. Bottom line, AVC isn't going anywhere fast. Dror Gill: 06:09 You're right, I totally agree with that. It's dominant, but it's still here to stay. The problem is that, we talked about this, video delivery over the internet. The big problem is the bandwidth bottleneck. With so much video being delivered over the internet, and then the demand for quality is growing. People want higher resolution, they want HDR which is high dynamic range, they want higher frame rate. And all this means you need more and more bit rate to represent the video. The bit rate efficiency that is required today is beyond the standard in coding in AVC and that's where you need external technologies such as content adaptive encoding perceptual optimization that will really help you push AVC to its limits. Mark Donnigan: 06:54 Yeah. And Dror, I know you're one of the inventors of a perceptual optimization technique based on a really unique quality measure, which I've heard some in the industry believe could even extend the life of AVC from a bit rate efficiency perspective. Tell us about what you developed and what you worked on. Dror Gill: 07:13 Yeah, that's right. I did have some part in this. We developed a quality measure and a whole application around it, and this is a solution that can reduce the bit rate of AVC by 30%, sometimes even 40%. It doesn't get us exactly to where HEVC starts, 50% is pretty difficult and not for every content (type). But content distributors that recognize AVC will still be part of their codec mix for at least five years, I think what we've been able to do can really be helpful and a welcome relief to this bandwidth bottleneck issue. Mark Donnigan: 07:52 It sounds like we're in agreement that for at least the midterm horizon, the medium horizon, AVC is gonna stay with us. Dror Gill: 08:01 Yeah, yeah. I definitely think so. For some applications and services and certain regions of the world where the device penetration of the latest, high end models is not as high as in other parts, AVC will be the primary codec for some time to come. Dror Gill: 08:21 Okay, that's AVC. Now, let's talk about VP9. Mark Donnigan: 08:24 Yes, let's do that. Dror Gill: 08:25 It's interesting to me, essentially, it's mostly a YouTube codec. It's not a bad coded, it has some efficiency advantages over AVC, but outside of Google, you don't see any large scale deployments. By the way, if you look at Wikipedia, you read about the section that says where is VP9 used, it says VP9 is used mostly by YouTube, some uses by Netflix, and it's being used by Wikipedia. Mark Donnigan: 08:50 VP9 is supported fairly well in devices. Though, it's obviously hard to say exactly what the penetration is, I think there is support in hardware for decode for VP9. Certainly it's ubiquitous on Android, and it's in many of the UHD TV chip sets as well. So, it's not always enabled, but again, from my background on the hardware side, I know that many of those SOCs, they do have a VP9 decoder built into them. Mark Donnigan: 09:23 I guess the question in my mind is, it's talked about. Certainly Google is a notable both developer and user, but why hasn't it been adopted? Dror Gill: 09:33 Well, I think there are several issues here. One of them is compression efficiency. VP9 brings maybe 20, 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AVC, but it's not 50%. So, you're not doubling your compression efficiency. If you want to replace the codec, that's really a big deal. That's really a huge investment. You need to invest in coding infrastructure, new players. You need to do compatibility testing. You need to make sure that your packaging and your DRM work correctly and all of that. Dror Gill: 10:04 You really want to get a huge benefit to offset this investment. I think people are really looking for that 50% improvement, to double the efficiency, which is what you get with HEVC but not quite with VP9. I think the second point is that VP9, even though it's an open source coder, it's developed and the standard is maintained by Google. And some industry players are kind of afraid of the dominance of Google. Google has taken over the advertising market online. Mark Donnigan: 10:32 Yes, that's a good point. Dror Gill: 10:34 You know, and search and mobile operating systems, except Apple, it's all Android. So, those industry players might be thinking, I don't want to depend on Google for my video compression format. I think this is especially true for traditional broadcasters. Cable companies, satellite companies, TV channels that broadcast over the air. These companies traditionally like to go with established, international standards. Compression technologies that are standardized, they have the seal of approval by ITU and ISO. Dror Gill: 11:05 They're typically following that traditional codec developer past. ISO MPEG too, now it's AVC, starting with HEVC. What's coming next? Mark Donnigan: 11:16 Well, our next three letter codec is VVC. Tell us about VVC, Dror. Dror Gill: 11:21 Yeah, yeah, VVC. I think this is another great example of collaboration between ITU and ISO. Again, they formed a joint video experts team. This time it's called JVET. Dror Gill: 12:10 So, JVET has launched a project to develop a new video coding standard. And you know, we had AVC that was advanced video coding. Then we had HEVC which is high efficiency video coding. So, they thought, what would be the next generation? It's already advanced, it's high efficiency. So, the next one, they called it VVC, which is versatile video code. The objective of VVC is obviously to provide a significant improvement in compression efficiency over the existing HEVC standard. Development already started. The JVET group is meeting every few in months in some exotic place in the world and this process will continue. They plan to complete it before the end of 2020. So, essentially in the next two years they are gonna complete the standard. Dror Gill: 13:01 Today, already, even though VVC is in early development and they haven't implemented all the tools, they already report a 30% better compression efficiency than HEVC. So, we have high hopes that we'll be able to fight the video tsunami that is coming upon us with a much improved standard video coder which is VVC. I mean, its improved at least on the technical side and I understand that they also want to improve the process, right? Mark Donnigan: 13:29 That's right, that's right. Well, technical capabilities are certainly important and we're tracking of course VVC. 30% better efficiency this early in the game is promising. I wonder if the JVET will bring any learnings from the famous HEVC royalty debacles to VVC because I think what's in everybody's mind is, okay, great, this can be much more efficient, technically better. But if we have to go round and round on royalties again, it's just gonna kill it. So, what do you think? Dror Gill: 14:02 Yeah, that's right. I think it's absolutely true and many people in the industry have realized this, that you can't just develop a video standard and then handle the patent and royalty issues later. Luckily some companies have come together and they formed an industry group called The Media Coding Industry Forum, or MC-IF. They held their first meeting a few weeks ago in Macau during empic meeting one through four. Their purpose statement, let me quote this from their website, and I'll give you my interpretation of it. They say the media coding industry forum (MC-IF) is an open industry forum with a purpose of furthering the adoption of standards initially focusing on VVC, but establishing them as well accepted and widely used standards for the benefit of consumers and the industry. Dror Gill: 14:47 My interpretation is that the group was formed in an effort for companies with interest in this next generation video codec to come together and attempt to influence the licensing policy of VVC and try to agree on a reasonable patent licensing policy in advance to prevent history from repeating itself. We don't want that whole Hollywood story with the tragedy that took a few years until they reached the happy ending. So, what are you even talking about? This is very interesting. They're talking about having a modular structure for the codec. These tools of the codecs, the features, can be plugged in and out, very easily. Dror Gill: 15:23 So, if some company insists on reasonable licensing terms, this group can just decide not to support the feature and it will be very easily removed from the standard, or at least from the way that companies implement that standard. Mark Donnigan: 15:37 That's an interesting approach. I wonder how technically feasible it is. I think we'll get into that in some other episodes. Dror Gill: 15:46 Yeah. That may have some effect on performance. Mark Donnigan: 15:49 Exactly. And again, are we back in the situation that the Alliance for Open Media is in with AV1. Where part of the issue of the slow performance is trying to work around patents. At the end of the day you end up with a solution that is hobbled technically. Dror Gill: 16:10 Yeah. I hope it doesn't go there. Mark Donnigan: 16:13 Yeah, I hope we're not there. I think you heard this too, hasn't Apple joined the consortium recently? Dror Gill: 16:21 Yeah, yeah, they did. They joined silently as they always do. Silently means that one day somebody discovers their logo… They don't make any announcement or anything. You just see a logo on the website, and then oh, okay. Mark Donnigan: 16:34 Apple is in the building. Mark Donnigan: 16:41 You know, maybe it's good to kind of bring this discussion back to Earth and close out our three part series by giving the listeners some pointers. About how they should be thinking about the next codec that they adopt. I've been giving some thought as we've been doing these episodes. I think I'll kick it off here Dror if you don't mind, I'll share some of my thoughts. You can jump in. Mark Donnigan: 17:11 These are complex decisions of course. I completely agree, billing this as codec wars and codec battles, it's not helpful at the end of the day. Maybe it makes for a catchy headline, but it's not helpful. There's real business decisions (to be made). There are technical decisions. I think a good place to start for somebody who's listening and saying “okay great, I now have a better understanding of the lay of the land of HEVC, for AV1, I can understand VP9, I can understand AVC and what some of my options are to even further reduce bit rate. But now, what do I do?” Mark Donnigan: 17:54 And I think a good place to start is to just look at your customers, and do they lean towards early adopters. Are you in a strong economic environment, which is to say quite frankly, do most of your customers carry around the latest devices? Like an iPhone X, or Galaxy 9. If largely your customers lean towards early adopter and they're carrying around the latest devices, then you have an obligation to serve them with the highest quality and the best performance possible. Dror Gill: 18:26 Right. If your customers can receive HEVC, and it's half the bit rate, then why not deliver it to them better quality, or say when you see the end cost with this more efficient codec and everybody is happy. Mark Donnigan: 18:37 Absolutely, and again, I think just using pure logic. If somebody could afford a more than $1000 device in their pocket, probably the TV hanging on the wall is a very new, UHD capable (one). They probably have a game console in the house. The point is that you can make a pretty strong argument and an assumption that you can go, what I like to think of as all in HEVC including even standard definition, just SDR content. Mark Donnigan: 19:11 So, the industry has really lost sight in my mind of the benefits of HEVC as they apply across the board to all resolutions. All of the major consumer streaming services are delivering 4K using HEVC, but I'm still shocked at how many, it's kind of like oh, we forget that the same advantages of bit rate efficiency that work at 4K apply at 480p. Obviously, the absolute numbers are smaller because the file sizes are smaller, etc. Mark Donnigan: 19:41 But the point is, 30, 40, 50% savings applies at 4K as it does at 480p. I understand there's different applications in use cases, right? But would you agree with that? Dror Gill: 19:55 Yeah, yeah, I surely agree with that. I mean, for 4K, HEVC is really an enabler. Mark Donnigan: 20:00 That's right. Dror Gill: 20:01 For HEVC, you would need like 30, 40 megabits of video. Nobody can stream that to the home, but change it to 10, 15, that's reasonable, and you must use HEVC for 4k otherwise it won't even fit the pipe. But for all other resolutions, you get the bang with the advantage or you can trade it off for a quality advantage and deliver higher quality to your users, or higher frame rate, or enable HDR. If all of these possibilities that you can do with HD and even SD content, give them a better experience using HEVC and being able to stream on devices that your users already have. So yeah, I agree. I think it's an excellent analysis. Obviously if you're up in an emerging market, or your consumers don't have high end devices, then AVC is a good solution. If there are network constraints, and there are many places in the world that network conductivity isn't that great. Or in rural areas where we have very large parts of the population spread out (in these cases) bandwidth is low and you will get into a bottleneck even with HD. Mark Donnigan: 21:05 That's right. Dror Gill: 21:06 That's where perceptual optimization can help you reduce the bit rate even for AVC and keep within the constraints that you have. When your consumers can upgrade their devices and when the cycle comes in a few years when every device has HEVC support, then obviously you upgrade your capability and support HEVC across the board. Mark Donnigan: 21:30 Yeah, that's a very important point Dror, is that this HEVC adoption curve in terms of silicon, on devices. It is in full motion. Just the planning life cycles. If you look at what goes into hardware, and especially on the silicon side, it doesn't happen that way. Once these technologies are in the designs, once they are in the dies, once the codec is in silicon, it doesn't get arbitrarily turned on and off like light switches. Mark Donnigan: 22:04 How should somebody be looking at VP9, VVC, and AV1? Dror Gill: 22:13 Well, VP9 is an easy one. Unless you're Google, you're very likely gonna skip over this codec. Not just that the VP9 isn't the viable choice, it simply doesn't go so far as HEVC in terms of bit rate efficiency and quality. Maybe two years back we would consider it as an option for reducing bit rate, but now with the HEVC support that you have, there's no point in going to VP9. You might as well go to HEVC. If you talk about VVC, (the) standard is still a few years from being ratified so, we actually don't have anything to talk about. Dror Gill: 22:49 The important point is again to remember, even when VVC launches, it will still be another 2 to 3 years after ratifying the standard before you have even a very basic playback ecosystem in place. So, I would tell our listeners if you're thinking, why should I adopt HEVC, because VVC is just around the corner, well, that corner is very far. It's more like the corner of the Earth than the corner of the next block. Mark Donnigan: 23:15 That's right. Dror Gill: 23:18 So, HEVC today, VVC will be the next step in a few years. And then there's AV1. You know, we talked a lot about AV1. No doubt, AV1 has support from huge companies. I mean Google, Facebook, Intel, Netflix, Microsoft. And those engineers, they know what they're doing. But now, it's quite clear that compression efficiency is the same as HEVC. Meanwhile, after removing other royalty cost for content delivery, HEVC Advance removed it. The license situation is much more clear now. You add to this the fact that at the end of the day, two to three years, you're gonna need five to ten times more compute power to encode AV1, reaching effectively the same result. Now Google, again. Google may be that they have unlimited compute resources, they will use it. They developed it. Dror Gill: 24:13 The smaller content providers, all the other ones, the non Googles of the world and other broadcasters with growing support for HEVC that we expect in a few years. I think it's obvious. They're gonna support HEVC and then a few years later when VVC is ratified, when it's supported in devices, they're gonna move to VVC. Because this codec does have the required compression efficiency improvement over HEVC. Mark Donnigan: 24:39 Yeah, that's an excellent summary Dror. Thank you for breaking this all down for our listeners so succinctly. I'm sure this is really gonna provide massive value. I want to thank our amazing audience because without you, the Video Insiders Podcast would just be Dror and me taking up bits on a server somewhere. Dror Gill: 24:59 Yeah, talking to ourselves. Mark Donnigan: 25:01 As you can tell, video is really exciting to us and so we're so happy that you've joined us to listen. And again, this has been a production of Beamr Imaging Limited. Please, subscribe on iTunes and if you would like to try out beamer codecs in your lab or your production environment, we are giving away up to $100 of HEVC and H264 in coding every month. That's each and every month. Just go to https://beamer.com/free and get started immediately.
Is AV1 more efficient than HEVC? Dror & Mark get into the middle of a 3 against 1 standoff over whether AV1 is actually more efficient than HEVC. The following blog post first appeared on the Beamr blog at: https://blog.beamr.com/2018/11/23/codec-efficiency-is-in-the-eye-of-the-measurer-podcast/ When it comes to comparing video codecs, it's easy to get caught up in the “codec war” mentality. If analyzing and purchasing codecs was as easy as comparing fuel economy in cars, it would undoubtedly take a lot of friction out of codec comparison, but the reality is that it's not that simple. In Episode 02, The Video Insiders go head-to-head comparing two of the leading codecs in a three against one standoff over whether AV1 is more efficient than HEVC. So, which is more efficient? Listen in to this week's episode, “Codec Efficiency Is in the Eye of the Measurer,” to find out. Want to join the conversation? Reach out to TheVideoInsiders@beamr.com. TRANSCRIPTION (lightly edited to improve readability only) Mark Donnigan: 00:41 Hi everyone I am Mark Donnigan and I want to welcome you to episode two of the Video Insiders. Dror Gill: 00:48 And I am Dror Gill. Hi there. Mark Donnigan: 00:50 In every episode of the Video Insiders we bring the latest inside information about what's happening in the video technology industry from encoding, to packaging, to delivery, and playback, and even the business behind the video business. Every aspect of the video industry is covered in detail on the Video Insiders podcast. Dror Gill: 01:11 Oh yeah, we usually do cover everything from pixels, to blocks, to microblocks, to frames, to sequences. We go all the way up and down the video delivery chain and highlight the most important things you should know before you send any video bits over the wire. Mark Donnigan: 01:28 In our first episode we talked about a very hot topic which asked, “Hasn't this kind of been worn out?” The whole HEVC, AV1 discussion. But I think it was very interesting. I sure enjoyed the talk. What about you Dror? Dror Gill: 01:47 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I sure did. It was great talking about the two leading codecs. I don't want to say the word, codec war. Mark Donnigan: 01:58 No, no, we don't believe in codec wars. Dror Gill: 01:59 We believe in codec peace. Mark Donnigan: 02:00 Yeah, that's true. Why is it so complicated to compare video codecs? Why can't it be as simple as fuel economy of cars, this one gets 20 miles per gallon and that one gets 30 and then I make a decision based on that. Dror Gill: 02:15 I wish it was that simple with video codecs. In video compression you have so many parameters to consider. You have the encoding tools, tools are grouped into what's called profiles and levels, or as AV1 calls them “experiments.” Mark Donnigan: 02:31 Experiments, mm-hmm… Dror Gill: 02:35 When you compare the codecs which profiles and levels do you use. What rate control method? Which specific parameters do you set for each codec? And each codec can have hundreds, and hundreds of parameters. Then there is the question of implementation. Which software implementation of the codec do you use? Some implementations are reference implementations that are used for research, and others are highly performance optimized commercial implementations. Which one do you select for the test? And then, which operating system, what hardware do you run on, and obviously what test content? Because encoding two people talking, or encoding an action scene for a movie, is completely different. Dror Gill: 03:13 Finally, when you come to evaluate your video, what quality measure do you use? There're various objective quality measures and some people use actual human viewers and they assesses subjective quality of the video. On that front also, there're many possibilities that you need to choose from. Mark Donnigan: 03:32 Yeah, so many questions and no wonder the answers are not so clear. I was quite surprised when I recently read three different technical articles published at IBC actually, effectively comparing AV1 versus HEVC and I can assume that each of the authors did their research independently. What was surprising was they came to the exact same conclusion, AV1 has the same compression efficiency as HEVC. This is surprising because some other studies and one in particular (I think we'll talk about) out there says the contrary. So can you explain what this means exactly, Dror. Dror Gill: 04:16 By saying that they have the same compression efficiency, this means that they can reach the same quality at the same bitrate or the other way round. You need the same bitrate to reach that same quality. If you need for example, two and a half megabits per second to encode an HD video file using HEVC at a certain quality, then with AV1 you would need roughly the same bitrate to reach that same quality and this means that AV1 and HEVC provide the same compression level. In other words, this means that AV1 does not have any technical advantage over HEVC because it has the same compression efficiency. Of course that's if we put aside all the loyalty issues but we discussed that last time. Right? Mark Donnigan: 04:56 That's right. The guys who wrote the three papers that I'm referencing are really top experts in the field. It's not seminar work done by a student, not to downplay those papers, but the point is these are professionals. One was written by the BBC in cooperation with the Multimedia and Vision Group at the Queen Mary University of London. I think nobody is going to say that the BBC doesn't know a thing or two about video. The second was written by Ateme, and the third by Harmonic, leading vendors. Mark Donnigan: 05:29 I actually pulled out a couple of phrases from each that I'd like to quote. First the BBC and Queen Mary University, here is a conclusion that they wrote, “The results obtained show in general a similar performance between AV1 and the reference HEVC both objectively and subjectively.” Which is interesting because they did take the time to both do the visual assessment as well as use a quality measure. Mark Donnigan: 06:01 Ateme said, “Results demonstrate AV1 to have equivalent performance to HEVC in terms of both objective and subjective video quality test results.” Dror Gill: 06:10 Yeah, very similar. Mark Donnigan: 06:16 And then here is what Harmonic said, “The findings are that AV1 is not more advantageous today than HEVC on the compression side and much more complex to encode than HEVC.” What do you make of this? Dror Gill: 06:32 I don't know. It sounds pretty bad to me, even two of those papers also analyzed subjective quality so they used actual human viewers to check out the quality. But Mark what if I told you that researchers from the University of Klagenfurt in Austria together with Bitmovin published a paper which showed completely different results. What would you say about that? Mark Donnigan: 06:57 Tell me more. Dror Gill: 06:58 Last month in Athens I was the ICIP conference that's the IEEE International Conference on Image Compression and Image Processing. There was this paper presented by this University in Austria with Bitmovin and their conclusion was, let me quote, “When using weighted PSNR, AV1 performs consistently better for bit rate compared to AVC, HEVC, and VP9.” So they claim AV1 is better than three codecs but specifically it's better than HEVC. And then they have a table in their article that compares AV1 to HEVC for six different video clips. The table shows that with AV1 you get up to 25% lower bitrate at the same quality than HEVC. Dror Gill: 07:43 I was sitting there in Athens last month when they presented this and I was shocked. Mark Donnigan: 07:50 What are the chances that three independent papers are wrong and only this paper got it right? And by the way, the point here is not three against one because presumably there're some other papers. I'm guessing other research floating around that might side with Bitmovin. The point is that three companies who no one is going to say that any of them are not experts and not highly qualified to do a video assessment, came up with such a different result. Tell us what you think is going on here? Dror Gill: 08:28 I was thinking the same thing. How can that be. During the presentation I asked one of the authors who presented the paper a few questions and it turned out that they made some very questionable decisions in all of that sea of possibility that I talked about before. Decisions related to coding tools, codec parameters, and quality measures. Dror Gill: 08:51 First of all, in this paper they didn't show any results of subjective viewing. Only the objective metrics. Now we all know that you should always your eyes, right? Mark Donnigan: 09:03 That's right. Dror Gill: 09:04 Objective metrics, nice numbers, but obviously you need to view the video because that's how the actual viewers are going to assess the (video) quality. The second thing is that they only used the single objective metric and this was PSNR. PSNR, it stands for peak signal-to-noise ratio and basically this measure is a weighted average of the difference in peaks between pixel values of the two images. Dror Gill: 09:30 Now, we're Video Insiders, but even if you're not an insider you know that PSNR is not a very good quality measure because it does not correlate very well with human vision. This is the measure that they choose to look at but what was most surprising is that there is a flag in the HEVC open source encoder which they used that if chosen, the result is improved PNSR. What it does, it turns off some psycho-visual optimizations which make the video look better but reduce the PSNR, and that's turned on by default. So you would expect that they're measuring PSNR they would turn that flag on so you would get higher PSNR. Well, they didn't. They didn't turn the flag on! Mark Donnigan: 10:13 Amazing. Dror Gill: 10:17 Finally, even then AV1 is much slower than HEVC, and they also reported in this data that it was much, much slower than HEVC but still they did not use the slowest encoding standing of HEVC, which would provide the best quality. There's always a trade off between performance and quality. The more tools you employ the better quality you can squeeze out of the video, of course that takes you more CPU cycles but they used for HEVC, the third slowest setting which means this is the third best quality you can get with that codec and not the very best quality. When you handicap an HEVC encoder in this way, it's not surprising that you get such poor results. Dror Gill: 11:02 I think based on all these points everybody can understand why the results of this comparison were quite different than all of the other comparison that were published a month earlier at IBC (by Ateme, BBC, Harmonic). Mark Donnigan: 11:13 It's interesting. Mark Donnigan: 11:14 Another critical topic that we have to cover is performance. If you measure the CPU performance on encoding time of AV1, I believe that it's pretty universally understood that you are going to find it currently is a hundred times slower than HEVC. Is that correct? Dror Gill: 11:32 Yeah, that's right. Typically, you measure the performance of an encoder and FPS which is frames per second. For HEVC it's common to measure an FPM which is frames per minute. Mark Donnigan: 11:42 Frames per minute, (more like) frames per hour, FPH. Dror Gill: 11:45 A year and a half ago or a year ago when there were very initial implementation, it was really FPD or FPH, Frames per hour or per day and you really needed to have a lot of patience, but now after they've done some work it's only a hundred times slower than HEVC. Mark Donnigan: 12:02 Yeah, that's pretty good. They're getting there. But some people say that the open source implementation of AV1 I believe it's AOM ENC. Dror Gill: 12:11 Yeah, AOM ENC. Mark Donnigan: 12:16 ENC exactly has not been optimized for performance at all. One thing I like about speed is either your encoder produces X number of frames per second or per minute, or it doesn't. It's really simple. Here is my next question for you. Proponents of AV1 are saying, “well it's true it's slow but it hasn't been optimized, the open source implementation,” which is to imply that there's a lot of room (for improvement) and that we're just getting started, “don't worry we'll close the gap.” But if you look at the code, and by the way I may be a marketing guy but my formal education is computer science. Mark Donnigan: 13:03 You can see it already includes performance optimizations. I mean eptimizations like MMX, SSE, there's AVX instructions, there's CPU optimization, there's multithreading. It seems like they're already trying to make this thing go faster. So how are they going to close this a hundred X (time) gap? Dror Gill: 13:22 I don't think they can. I mean a hundred X, that's a lot and you know even the AV1 guys they even admit that they won't be able to close the gap. I talked to a few senior people who're involved in the Alliance for Open Media and even they told me that they expect AV1 to five to 10 times more complex than HEVC at the end of the road. In two to three years after all optimization are done, it's still going to be more complex than HEVC. Dror Gill: 13:55 Now, if you ask me why it's so complex I'll tell you my opinion. Okay, this is my personal opinion. I think it's because they invested a lot of effort in side stepping the patents (HEVC). Mark Donnigan: 14:07 Good point. I agree. Dror Gill: 14:07 They need to get that compression efficiency which is the same as HEVC but they need to use algorithms that are not patented. They have methods that use much more CPU resources than the original patent algorithms to reach the same results. You can call it kind of brute force implementation of the same thing to avoid the patent issue. That's my personal opinion, but the end result I think is clear, it's going to be five to 10 times slower than HEVC. It has the same compression efficiency so I think it's quite questionable. This whole notion of using AV1 to get better results. Mark Donnigan: 14:45 Absolutely. If you can encode let's say on a single computer with HEVC a full ABR stack, this is what people want to do. But here we're talking speeds that are so slow let's just try and do (encode) one stream. Literally what you're saying is you'll need five to 10 computers to do the same encode with AV1. I mean, that's just not viable. It doesn't make sense to me. Dror Gill: 15:14 Yeah, why would you invest so much encoding into getting the same results. If you look at another aspect of this, let's talk about hardware encode. Companies that have large data centers, companies that are encoding vast amount of video content are not looking into moving from the traditional software encoding and CPUs and GPUs, to dedicated hardware. We're hearing talks about FPGAs even ASICs … by the way this is a very interesting trend in itself that we'll probably cover in one of the next episodes. But in the context of AV1, imagine a chip that is five to 10 times larger than an HEVC chip and which is the same complexity efficiency. The question I ask again is why? Why would anybody design such a chip, and why would anybody use it when HEVC is available today? It's much easier to encode, royalty issues have been practically solved so you know? Mark Donnigan: 16:06 Yeah, it's a big mystery for sure. One thing I can say is the Alliance for Open Media has done a great service to HEVC by pushing the patent holders to finalize their licensing terms … and ultimately make them much more rational shall we say? Dror Gill: 16:23 Yeah. Mark Donnigan: 16:25 Let me say that as we're an HEVC vendor and speaking on behalf of others (in the industry), we're forever thankful to the Alliance for Open Media. Dror Gill: 16:36 Definitely, without the push from AOM and the development of AV1 we would be stuck with HEVC royalty issue until this day. Mark Donnigan: 16:44 That was not a pretty situation a few years back, wow! Dror Gill: 16:48 No, no, but as we said in the last episode we have a “happy ending” now. (reference to episode 1) Mark Donnigan: 16:52 That's right. Dror Gill: 16:52 Billions of devices support HEVC and royalty issues are pretty much solved, so that's great. I think we've covered HEVC and AV1 pretty thoroughly in two episodes but what about the other codecs? There's VP9, you could call that the predecessor of AV1, and then there's VVC, which is the successor of HEVC. It's the next codec developed by MPEG. Okay, VP9 and VVC I guess we have a topic for our next episode, right? Mark Donnigan: 17:21 It's going to be awesome. Narrator: 17:23 Thank you for listening to the Video Insider podcast a production of Beamr limited. To begin using Beamr codecs today go to beamr.com/free to receive up to 100 hours of no cost HEVC and H.264 transcoding every month.
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