Brazil’s Arycom to Resell Streambox ACT-L3 Solutions

Streambox Inc. today announced that it has formed a partnership with Arycom, a major provider of satellite telecommunications services, to resell Streambox ACT-L3 solutions in the Brazilian marketplace. Through the partnership, Arycom will leverage its expertise in turnkey satellite and IP-based solutions to broaden Streambox’s presence in key vertical markets including broadcasting, government, telecommunications, and the military.

Based in São Paulo, Brazil, Arycom is a leading provider of satellite capacity and services through the Inmarsat and Iridium satellite systems. The company’s core competencies in fixed and mobile IP technologies for land, air, and sea-based applications offer clear synergies with Streambox’s IP-centric solutions for newsgathering, video transport, and content aggregation. Based on the industry-leading ACT-L3 codec, Streambox’s software-based solutions enable broadcasters, government agencies, and enterprises to deliver high-quality live and file-based broadcast video from the field using low cost, low-data-rate IP connections.

Streambox and Arycom will be conducting a ‘road show’ in Brazil, scheduled for March 23-27, 2009. The objective for the ‘road show’ is to highlight the joint capabilities of the two companies and to do hands-on presentations of how broadcasters and other key user groups can stream high-quality, low cost SD and HD video over a variety of IP networks.

“Arycom is the ideal partner to help us expand our market presence in Brazil. The company’s deep experience in IP- and satellite-based technologies and solutions offers a natural fit with the Streambox portfolio of products,” said Bob Hildeman, chairman and CEO at Streambox. “In addition, we will be able to leverage Arycom’s established relationships with suppliers and major Brazilian broadcasters, as well as its excellent network and customer base in our traditional vertical markets.”

“The Brazilian broadcasting landscape is becoming intensely competitive as broadcasters race to become early adopters of the latest technologies. As a result, there is strong demand for turnkey ENG and IP-based video solutions,” said Svante Hjorth, CEO of Arycom. “Streambox’s software-based newsgathering and video transport solutions will give us powerful leverage as we seize this market opportunity with broadcasters as well as other key industry groups we already target.”

Inlet First to Announce Live and VoD Support for Microsoft IIS7 Smooth Streaming

Inlet Technologies, a leader in advanced encoding solutions for new media, announced full support for Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) Smooth Streaming technology. Both live events and video on demand content benefit from the quality and scalability advantages of Smooth Streaming, and Inlet Technologies is the first encoding technology provider to announce support of this new platform. Microsoft Corp. and Inlet will demonstrate live Smooth Streaming in action this week at the MIX09 conference put on by Microsoft.

Smooth Streaming is Microsoft’s new HTTP-based adaptive streaming platform, an advanced media delivery method that switches seamlessly between multiple streams, depending on the available bandwidth and PC performance at any given moment. The best possible quality video stream is automatically delivered to the end user without stuttering, dropped frames or buffering. While the Smooth Streaming process itself is completely invisible to the end user, it results in a much improved user experience. It also offers broadcasters the ability to offer true HD (720p+) streams to clients who have sufficient bandwidth without alienating those with lower speed connections.

Inlet is the first encoding solutions provider to announce support for Smooth Streaming for live streaming and video on demand applications. These solutions are ideal for a wide variety of media companies wanting to stream a range of high quality content, including sports, news, and special events. Both Inlet’s Spinnaker family of live streaming appliances and Armada automated VoD management system have built-in support for Smooth Streaming.

“Microsoft is dedicated to improving all aspects of online video, for both consumers and media companies, but we can’t do it alone. We work closely with industry leading partners such as Inlet to help make Smooth Streaming a truly open platform and to make it as easy as possible for media companies to migrate to it,” explained Steve Sklepowich, group product manager for Silverlight at Microsoft.

“We are excited to have yet another ‘first’ under our belt, with this support for Microsoft Smooth Streaming,” said Neal Page, Inlet Technologies CEO. “Inlet is committed to improving all aspects of the online video business by applying advanced technology solutions to real-world applications. Smooth Streaming is a significant leap forward, and presents a compelling opportunity to help media companies improve the quality of online video for all of their customers.”

Inlet also will demonstrate live Smooth Streaming at the NAB show; visit booth number SL5624 for more information

Video Streaming Seminar for Church Staff

There's a Video Streaming Seminar coming up for Pastors and Technical Staff. The seminar is geared towards helping Pastors and their staff get a better understanding of streaming media technology. The next seminar is scheduled to be in Indianapolis, IN. Time and Date: TBA.

Session for Pastors

The session for Pastors starts at 10 am and is designed to give Pastors a better understanding of Video Streaming, Web Video and Podcasting. The session will provide a good overview of how Churches can take advantage of delivering videos for Downloadable Streaming, Real-time Streaming, Live Streaming and Podcasting. The session for Pastors will be taught in a non-technical
manner to help give a better understanding of the
possibilities with Streaming Media and Podcasting
technologies.

Session for Technical Staff

The session for Church Technical Staff will dive
into more of the technical parts of Web Streaming and
Podcasting. The presenter will show various
streaming and encoding tools during the presentation
to give staff an understanding of what's available.
There will also be more details on the cost of the
various tools. Tools covered in the session will
include: Video Encoding/Compression Tools, Live
Streaming Tools, and Audience Reporting Tools.

If you would like to attend the event contact Freeman Compression Inc. at 407-477-5837. If you can't make the event and would like to have a personalized Video Streaming Seminar in your city or on-line give us a call.

Real-Time Streaming to Smartphones Now Available

The ability to delivery real-time streaming videos to Smartphones is now available. If you would like to set-up your own streaming server to serve videos for mobile devices, you can do it. You have the option to delivery real-time streaming videos in .3gp, .3g2 and .MP4 flavors for today's Smartphones. You can utilize Apple's QuickTime Streaming Server and QTSS Publisher for providing On-demand streams as well as 24/7 live streaming channels. Tools such as Telestream's Episode, QuickTime Pro or Sorenson Squeeze can be used for encoding your videos for mobile devices. The key for viewing real-time streaming content is to use one of the latest Smartphones. Many of these devices allow you to click on .3gp, .3g2 and .mp4 links on a web page to view your streaming videos. A lot of regular cell phones also support streaming media.

I like the following Smartphones for real-time streaming:

Blackberry Curve
Blackberry Storm
HTC - Touch Pro
Samsung Omnia