WMT VIDEO SETTINGS CAN BE CONFUSING AND NEED TO BE UNDERSTOOD

Although most staff are aware that the WMT series of products have 3 picture quality settings, many people do not actually know how they function and why they are there.  The only reason that there are 3 settings (High or Best Quality, Medium quality and Low quality) is because other products also offer these settings.  In addition, many tenders request these settings, therefore for compliance, they are required to be able to bid on a particular tender.

The reality is that MVP uses a very advanced adaptive bitrate encoder and for this reason, at no time should we adjust the picture quality (for demos or for customer use).  The setting should always be set to Highest/Best Quality.  The reason for this is that as long as we are using the units on the Highest quality, the encoder (operating at 2.5mbps) will automatically reduce the bitrate to accommodate for low bandwidth and the picture will be scaled down slightly (this is not usually noticed by the viewer).  If we start of choosing Medium (operates at 1.5mbps) or Low quality (operates at 1mbps), the encoder is capped and will not yield the best picture possible even if there is the bandwidth available.  The adaptive bit rate encoder technology allows for the bit rate to drop when the band width is low and then return again when the bandwidth is available.  If you start a demo or a customer uses the Medium or Low settings, the encoder will never yield an HD quality feed, even if you have 5mbs available.

This is a very important lesson and everyone should understand the technology and how it works.  

NOTE: AT NO TIME IS ANYONE TO CHANGE THE QUALITY OF THE PICTURE AND THE SETTING MUST ALWAYS REMAIN ON HIGH QUALITY.  THIS MUST ALSO BE TOLD TO ALL CUSTOMERS AND THEY MUST UNDERSTAND THAT THE OTHER OPTIONS ARE ONLY THERE BECAUSE SOMETIMES THEY ARE REQUIRED FOR BIDDING ON TENDERS.  ALL DEMOS AND CUSTOMERS MUST OPERATE AT THE HIGHEST QUALITY SETTING AT ALL TIMES.  PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE LATENCY SETTINGS, AS THOSE CAN BE ADJUSTED.