YouTube really loves us all uploading video to the site. The problem is the quality of these videos can sometimes be shoddy, while the bandwidth needs are extravagant. The solution? An Irish company called Green Parrot Pictures, apparently.
YouTube UGC
User-Generated Content (UGC) is an integral part of YouTube. Hell, it makes up the vast majority of the content on the site, though the amount of more professional content from YouTube Partners has started to increase of late.
The problem for YouTube is the quality isn’t always there when it comes to UGC, especially now that many people shoot video on mobile devices which are also capable of doing a multitude of other things. Then there is the size of these videos to consider, as the bandwidth costs for hosting this kind of content must cost YouTube a (not so) small fortune.
Thankfully YouTube has found a solution.
Green Parrot Pictures
is a company currently based in Dublin, Ireland which YouTube has now acquired. Founder Anil Kokaram and his team will soon be heading over to California to continue the work they have been doing on the Emerald Isle.
What Green Parrot Pictures’ digital video technology offers is an improvement in video quality while at the same time less bandwidth. Which is clearly a compelling duality for YouTube to possess, hence the acquisition.
As YouTube itself explains in a blog post:
“Some of YouTube’s most popular or moving videos are shot using low-quality mobile phones and video cameras. Take, for example, videos of recent protests in Libya. Although emotionally captivating, they can be jerky, blurry or unsteady. What if there was a technology that could improve the quality of such videos — sharpening the image, reducing visual noise and rendering a higher-quality, steadier video — all while your video is simply being uploaded to the site? You can imagine how excited we were when we discovered a small, ambitious company based in Ireland that can do exactly this … Their technology helps make videos look better while at the same time using less bandwidth and improving playback speed.
Conclusions
The terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed, and it’s not clear exactly how YouTube will use the newly acquired company or the technology it has inherited along with it. It could be as simple as an automated process at the time of uploading, or an optional extra for those who want to use it.
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