VPU acceleration enters Easy Video API
NETINT and MainConcept announced VPU acceleration support in the Easy Video API, aiming to speed up hardware‑optimized encoding and decoding for cloud/CDN workflows (x.com). The integration is presented as a cost‑efficient way to scale transcoding pipelines—an attractive angle for high‑volume newsroom video processing (x.com).
MainConcept and NETINT said on April 9 that NETINT video processing unit support is now part of MainConcept’s Easy Video API, adding dedicated video hardware to the same interface developers already use for graphics processors and software codecs. (prlog.org) A video processing unit is a chip built mainly for compressing and unpacking video, while a graphics processing unit is a broader parallel processor that also handles graphics and artificial intelligence workloads. MainConcept said Easy Video API already supported hardware from Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm before this addition. (mainconcept.com) (prlog.org) The new support covers hardware-accelerated encoding for Advanced Video Coding, High Efficiency Video Coding, and AOMedia Video 1, plus decoding for Advanced Video Coding and High Efficiency Video Coding on NETINT hardware. The companies said the target use cases include large streaming, over-the-top video, and cloud transcoding jobs. (prlog.org) Transcoding is the step where one video file gets converted into multiple formats, bitrates, or resolutions so it can play on different phones, televisions, and network connections. MainConcept markets Easy Video API as a way to avoid wiring together separate software development kits for each hardware vendor and says one application programming interface can cut implementation time and costs by 80%. (mainconcept.com) NETINT sells application-specific integrated circuit hardware for video, and its pitch is density and electricity savings in data centers that process many streams at once. On its website, the company says its Smart video processing units can deliver 10 times the density of older setups and use 80% less energy than central-processing-unit-based servers. (netint.com) That matters in cloud video because encoding is one of the most compute-heavy steps in the pipeline, and the cost scales with every extra live channel, clip, and output format. NETINT says one Quadra video server can encode 320 high-definition streams and that its chips are also available through Akamai Cloud infrastructure. (netint.com) Easy Video API itself is not new. MainConcept launched it in April 2024 as part of Codec Software Development Kit 15.0, positioning it as one layer for software codecs and hardware codecs across multiple chip vendors instead of separate integrations for each one. (newscaststudio.com) The April 2026 update extends that strategy from graphics processors to dedicated video silicon, which could appeal to operators that want hardware acceleration without rewriting their media stack for a new device class. MainConcept Chief Executive Officer Deacon Johnson said customers want “flexibility without added engineering burden,” while NETINT Chief Marketing Officer Mark Donnigan said rising stream counts and power prices are pushing operators toward denser hardware. (prlog.org) The immediate test will be adoption by streaming, cloud, and media engineering teams that already use MainConcept codecs but want lower-power transcoding at higher volume. Both companies said they would show the integration at NAB Show 2026. (prlog.org)
