Video compression, or encoding, defines what is possible in video services, particularly on resource-constrained mobile networks and devices, so the battle between two rival would-be standards, HEVC and AOMedia, is an important one to operators and content providers. The issues are highlighted by Beamr, a small Israeli start-up which has taken a $4m funding round from Verizon’s venture arm this month. Beamr offers technology to apply perception filters prior to encoding in order to optimize video. It has a computer look at video as if it were a human, and make differences which the human eye could not appreciate go away, making it easier to encode. The additional $4m funding came from Verizon Ventures and it joins existing investors Eric…