Upgrade Transcoding Capabilities

Author: Rick Staa, Livepeer Foundation

Funding Mechanism: On-chain Treasury - SPE Proposal

Submission URL: Apply Here

Winning Submission URL: TBD

Claimed By: TBD

1. Purpose

Livepeer’s shift toward real-time AI has diversified demand, but reliable, high-quality transcoding remains a foundational capability for building real-world video applications. Today, the network cannot consistently convert decentralized transcoding capacity into production-grade workloads, limiting adoption by platforms that require predictable performance, modern codecs, and operational reliability.

As decentralized video platforms (e.g. Streamplace) and streaming gateway providers (e.g. Frameworks) gain traction, Livepeer must strengthen and modernize its transcoding stack so applications can depend on it directly, not only through Livepeer Studio, but via multiple gateways across the ecosystem. Improving core transcoding capabilities now ensures Livepeer continues to fulfill its mission as the open video network of the world, offering a complete, production-ready media primitive alongside emerging real-time AI workflows.

2. Outcome

Overall success is when Livepeer reliably converts decentralized transcoding capacity into sustained, production-grade workloads. Performance is predictable under real load, modern codecs and formats are supported, and multiple independent gateways—not just Livepeer Studio—can onboard and operate real applications. Transcoding becomes a dependable, first-class network primitive that strengthens Livepeer’s role as the open video network of the world.

Key Metrics To Measure The Outcome Against:

1. Transcoding Demand & Fees: Sustained growth in production transcoding minutes and fees generated on the network.

2. Gateway Adoption: Number of independent gateways actively offering production transcoding services.

3. Application Usage: Number of distinct applications running sustained, non-test transcoding workloads.

4. Performance Predictability: Defined and consistently achieved success-rate, latency, and error targets under representative load.

3. Requirements

Must Have:

• Production-Grade Transcoding Capability: Core transcoding functionality that delivers reliable, predictable performance suitable for sustained real-world workloads.

• Modern Codec & Format Support: Support for contemporary codecs and formats required by production video applications.

• Operational Predictability: Resource management and load handling that maintain consistent behavior under variable demand and prevent overload.

• Multi-Gateway Operability: Transcoding capabilities that can be operated by multiple independent gateways, not tied to a single distribution channel.

Should Have:

• Clear Documentation & Onboarding: Documentation and examples sufficient for applications and gateway providers to adopt transcoding without bespoke support.

• Hardware Diversity Support: Demonstrated support for multiple hardware classes to expand operator participation and network capacity.

• Basic Observability: Performance and utilization signals sufficient for operators and gateways to diagnose failures and understand behavior under load.

Nice To Have:

• Unified Media & AI Workflows: Ability to compose transcoding with real-time AI processing (e.g. transcription, video understanding) into a single pipeline.

• Developer & Operator Tooling: Optional tooling that reduces friction in managing transcoding workloads and infrastructure.

4. Proposal Guidelines

Your proposal must include the following in your proposal. Here is a guideline for what we are looking for: Livepeer RFP — Proposal Template

• Company Overview & Capabilities

• Experience and why you are a great fit for this work

• Milestones (with funding amount, timeline, deliverables, demo day for each)

• Outcomes

• Budget & Governance (how funds will be distributed)