JPEG-XS Support: Enhancing UltraGrid For Open-Source Users
The Importance of JPEG-XS for UltraGrid and Open-Source Communities
Enhancing UltraGrid capabilities with JPEG-XS is a feature request that could significantly benefit the open-source community, particularly users of CESNET and UltraGrid. JPEG-XS is a relatively new, visually lossless compression standard designed for high-resolution, high-frame-rate video. Its primary advantage lies in its extremely low latency and minimal computational overhead, making it ideal for real-time applications like professional video production, broadcasting, and high-performance computing where UltraGrid often plays a role. Currently, the lack of native JPEG-XS support within UltraGrid presents a barrier for users who wish to leverage this advanced codec. Implementing JPEG-XS would allow for more efficient transmission and processing of high-quality video streams without compromising on performance, a critical factor in many UltraGrid use cases. This not only improves the technical capabilities of UltraGrid but also aligns it with the evolving landscape of video compression technologies, ensuring its relevance and usability for a wider range of projects and developers. The open-source ethos thrives on collaboration and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, and adding JPEG-XS would be a substantial step in that direction, fostering innovation and broader adoption.
Exploring Implementation Avenues for JPEG-XS in UltraGrid
To bring JPEG-XS capability within UltraGrid, there are two promising avenues that have been identified, each with its own set of advantages. The first is through integration with the SVT-JPEG-XS library, available on GitHub at https://github.com/OpenVisualCloud/SVT-JPEG-XS. The Silicon Valley Video (SVT) project, driven by Intel, focuses on developing highly optimized, open-source video codecs. Integrating SVT-JPEG-XS would likely offer a robust and performance-tuned solution, benefiting from ongoing development and community contributions associated with the SVT framework. This approach would leverage existing, well-maintained open-source infrastructure. The second, and perhaps more direct, route is via the native implementation of JPEG-XS within FFmpeg/libavcodec. This is a significant development, as FFmpeg is a cornerstone of video processing across countless applications. The recent addition of this native support, which can be tracked via its commit history at https://git.ffmpeg.org/gitweb/ffmpeg.git?a=search&h=HEAD&st=commit&s=JPEG-XS, means that JPEG-XS encoding and decoding are becoming first-class citizens within the FFmpeg ecosystem. UltraGrid, which often relies on or interfaces with FFmpeg for various media handling tasks, could potentially tap into this native support directly. This would likely lead to a more streamlined integration, as FFmpeg's architecture is well-understood and widely used within the multimedia development sphere. Both options represent viable pathways to empower UltraGrid users with the benefits of JPEG-XS, and the choice between them might depend on specific integration complexities, performance requirements, and development resources available to the UltraGrid project.
The Advantages of JPEG-XS: Low Latency and Visual Losslessness
Understanding the advantages of JPEG-XS, particularly its low latency and visually lossless compression, is key to appreciating why its integration into UltraGrid is so important. Unlike traditional codecs that often introduce noticeable delays or require significant processing power, JPEG-XS is engineered from the ground up for minimal latency. This is achieved through its unique, block-based, intra-frame compression architecture, which avoids the complex inter-frame prediction found in codecs like H.264 or HEVC. For applications within UltraGrid, such as real-time remote collaboration, high-frequency data visualization, or distributed scientific simulations, this ultra-low latency is not just a feature but a necessity. It ensures that participants or systems are interacting with data and visual information in near real-time, preventing the disorientation and inefficiency that can arise from even millisecond delays. Furthermore, the
