Freeman Compression

Visit Freeman Compression Inc's New Blog

2010-05-07T15:14:00.003-04:00

Make sure you visit our new blog at:

http://www.freemancompression.com/weblog/

Get the latest training schedules, news, tutorials and other information related to video streaming and compression.

UniversalSports.com Taps Inlet Technologies for Both Live Streaming and Video-On-Demand

2009-11-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

Inlet Technologies, the leader in innovative solutions for digital media preparation, announced that Universal Sports has selected its Spinnaker and Armad solutions to power UniversalSports.com’s live and on-demand coverage of world-class sports.

Universal Sports serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic and lifestyle sports programming, offering more than 1,000 live events and 7,000 hours of annual original event programming. UniversalSports.com delivers more than 100,000 hours of programming content with dedicated, sport-specific "channels," including Skiing, Rowing, Swimming, and Cycling, to give fans a centralized, convenient, consistent place to go for event video, video highlights, breaking news, and features. Universal Sports is following a growing trend in the sports industry by complementing traditional broadcasts with unprecedented online access.

"We're dedicated to delivering our fans and viewers at UniversalSports.com the highest quality video presentation of our world-class sporting events," said Carlos Silva, president and COO of Universal Sports. "Increasingly, fans are turning to the web to view their favorite sports, competitions and events. Our partners at Inlet Technologies allow us to deliver the online sports-viewing experience that brings our viewers back for more."

“Inlet’s Spinnaker and Armada solutions, along with Microsoft Smooth Streaming, will offer UniversalSports.com viewers the highest quality video and more personalized viewing options,” said John Bishop, senior vice president of strategy and business development, Inlet Technologies. “Following the recent Vancouver Winter Games announcement, we are excited and proud of this collaboration with UniversalSports.com, which further solidifies Inlet’s role as a strategic partner of NBC Sports, and as a leader in online sports video.”

Inlet’s Spinnaker family of encoding solutions is especially well-suited for live sports as it provides broadcast-quality streams over the Internet to multiple devices and screens. With its built-in support for adaptive streaming protocols, including iPhone streaming and Microsoft Smooth Streaming, Spinnaker delivers exceptional quality that enhances online viewing of live sports action. Spinnaker’s patent pending stream synchronization capability makes it ideal for adaptive bitrate delivery.

Inlet is also redefining the process of building and scaling a video-on-demand operation. Automation and software intelligence are the keys to building scale and quality while minimizing costs. Inlet's Armada is a revolutionary workflow management system that automates the entire file preparation process and adds encoding intelligence, not just simple node management.

Internap Enhances Content Delivery Network for High-Quality Video

2009-11-18T13:12:00.002-05:00

Internap Network Services Corporation, a global provider of end-to-end Internet business solutions, announced enhancements to its Content Delivery Network (CDN) offering, including new ease-of-use functions and automation of key CDN capabilities. Exclusively delivered with Internap’s Performance IP™ service – which ensures optimal video delivery across the Internet – these enhancements deliver an intelligent video streaming solution that simplifies and automates content creation, management and reporting with the highest quality end user experience.

According to comScore’s Video Metrix service, during the month of September 2009, more than 84.8% of the total U.S. Internet audience watched online video, and the average online viewer watched 9.8 hours of video. As more organizations look to adopt video CDNs as part of their marketing strategy and business operations, they also face cost and complexity challenges associated with delivering high-quality content across an increasingly diverse device landscape of PCs, netbooks and mobile phones. Additionally, as video usage broadens beyond the user-generated content and over-the-top media and entertainment markets and becomes a core enterprise tool for communicating with business-critical audiences – such as employees, customers, investors and partners – ensuring the highest quality experience to those consumers by overcoming issues of network latency, congestion and downtime are also becoming key CDN requirements.

Internap’s CDN addresses these challenges with a fully-integrated solution for live and on-demand video streaming – with the Adobe® Flash® Platform, Microsoft® Silverlight™ and iPhone formats – that allows organizations to focus exclusively on content creation by simplifying and streamlining the workflow for content uploading, transcoding, management and reporting. By leveraging Internap’s patented MIRO™ (Managed Internet Route Optimizer) technology – which dynamically selects the best path for video traffic across multiple Internet backbones based on network performance characteristics instead of the least number of Internet hops – organizations are assured of a highly-reliable CDN with guaranteed uptime and performance-based service level agreements.

“Our collaboration with Internap provides customers with a one-stop shop for seamless delivery of high-quality online video,” said Bill Rusitzky, senior director for media alliances at Adobe. “Internap’s CDN utilizing the Adobe Flash Platform is optimized for delivery to a broad range of operating systems and devices while providing the network performance and high-quality experience customers expect from Internet video today.”

Through its partnerships and enhancements to its CDN solution, Internap provides customers with the ability to maximize the consuming audience by addressing the broadest range of devices across the Internet. According to comScore Media Metrix, approximately 75 percent of online videos viewed worldwide are delivered using Adobe Flash technology, making it the No. 1 technology for video on the Web. Adobe Flash Player — already installed on 98 percent of Internet-connected desktops — gives viewers access to rich content without having to download additional software.

The new ease-of-use features within Internap’s CDN MediaConsole® 5.0 CDN include:
Integrated, rule-based transcoding – automatically converts video into the ideal formats for a broad range of devices, allowing content to reach the widest audience possible without additional management and development costs.

Integrated adaptive bitrate – continuous bitrate adjustment dynamically adapts video streams based on the capabilities and bandwidth of the network, ultimately ensuring that the best quality video is delivered to an individual device.

Advanced analytics and reporting – enables video campaign refinement through: comprehensive statistics for individual video streams delivered; audience geographical information; and audience viewing habits by file, directory or custom segmentation, among other capabilities.

“Microsoft is committed to helping partners deliver the highest quality online video with Silverlight,” said Steve Sklepowich, director for Silverlight at Microsoft Corp. “Internap’s enhancements to their CDN provide their customers with a simplified content creation and delivery solution, allowing them to more efficiently deliver high quality video with interactivity using Silverlight across the Web.”

“Video is the single most immersive, engaging and effective form of electronic communication, but the cost and complexity associated with high-quality delivery has held it back from being even more widely used on the Web,” said Peter Evans, senior vice president of marketing at Internap. “Internap’s CDN enhancements address this issue by automating the entire process from video creation to management to delivery, and then delivering superior performance with the industry’s only route-optimized CDN for video quality that you can see. This finally frees enterprises to focus on delivering valuable content to drive their business and not worry about the technology behind managing and distributing it. ”

Internap is showcasing its CDN offering, along with its Performance IP service, at Streaming Media West, November 17-19, in San Jose, Calif. in booth 601.

Envivio 4Caster C4 Encoder Powers Bouygues Telecom Mobile TV Service

2009-11-17T21:34:00.004-05:00

Envivio Inc. announced that its 4Caster C4 video encoder is being used by Bouygues Telecom, one of France's largest mobile network operators with ten million subscribers, to encode video for its TV 3G+ mobile video service. The Bouygues Telecom video headend is hosted by Cognacq-Jay Image, the content management and delivery subsidiary of TDF. TV 3G+ provides subscribers with access to more than 60 channels in a variety of standard and premium packages.

When launching the new service in November 2008, Bouygues Telecom and Cognacq-Jay Image elected to replace their legacy software encoders with the 4Caster C4 hardware encoder configured for Mobile TV. The multi-profile 4Caster C4 enables the TV 3G+ service to be optimized for the 176 different handsets currently in use by Bouygues Telecom subscribers. This includes a QVGA resolution, 3.5G HSDPA profile to deliver premium video quality for subscribers with high end devices.

“4Caster C4 from Envivio has helped us by delivering the reliability and performance needed to provide a good quality of experience for the end user, as well as flexibility that is enabling our company to follow the fast-moving mobile market.” said Thibaut Keraval in charge of Mobile Services Solutions in Bouygues Telecom

“Upgrading the existing infrastructure to an up-to-date Envivio platform was an important decision in the development of TV 3G+,” said David Karoutchi, Business Development Manager – Mobile & Broadband, Cognacq-Jay Image. “The 4Caster C4 provides a high reliability, high performance foundation that offers the superior service levels we were looking for in order to ensure the best experience for subscribers.”

The award-winning Envivio 4Caster C4 simultaneously delivers four channels of video with up to 32 different Mobile TV profiles per system, providing an advanced compression platform for operators launching new services or upgrading early generation services based on software encoding platforms. The Bouygues Telecom deployment also includes the Envivio 4Manager headend management system, providing M:N automatic redundancy configuration for true carrier-grade service availability. This transforms mobile TV into a full-fledged service offering, based on a state-of-the-art professional headend infrastructure.

Brightcove 4 Online Video Platform Unveiled

2009-11-16T10:17:00.004-05:00

Brightcove Inc. announced the general availability of Brightcove 4, a major new release of the industry-leading online video platform with enhancements that empower customers to maximize the quality, reach and business impact of online video across desktops and devices. Brightcove 4 introduces a host of new features, including support for native iPhone™ video application development, expanded live streaming capabilities, advanced analytics, and new resources for video distribution, monetization and custom online video applications.

Brightcove also introduced the new Brightcove Express edition to bring the power and flexibility of the leading online video platform within reach for all website projects, no matter how large or small. Brightcove Express is priced starting at 99 dollars per month with no annual contract.

“As video becomes pervasive on the Web, publishers face increasingly complex and demanding requirements that often span multiple use-cases and devices,” said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. “Brightcove 4 provides a powerful and extensible suite of new services that make it easy for customers to execute three-screen strategies and generate additional value from online video through new distribution and monetization opportunities. And with Brightcove Express, the Brightcove 4 platform is accessible for any size organization and projects of any scope.”

Brightcove 4 builds on the success of the most comprehensive and widely-used online video platform in the market with wide-ranging innovations and enhancements.

Deliver high-quality video experiences across desktops and devices - Brightcove 4 introduces new capabilities that make it easier than ever to execute high-quality, three-screen strategies:
• Custom cloud encoding offers fine-grained control over state-of-the-art encoding technology, with higher quality default encoding, more formats, and more renditions to ensure optimal quality on every connection and device.

• Secure multi-bitrate streaming protects content while delivering smooth adaptive streaming over any connection.

• Universal Delivery Service (UDS) enables the delivery of content over the most appropriate protocol for the viewer, whether it is via PC, mobile device, connected television or set-top box.

• Brightcove Player and Software Development Kit (SDK) for the iPhone expands the delivery options available to website publishers to include iPhone applications and mobile video websites.

Maximize the business value of online video - Brightcove 4 addresses new use-cases and advanced requirements with a host of new features to help businesses and organizations generate additional value from their online video initiatives:
• Advanced monetization capabilities offer more control and efficiency in ad operations, access to new advertising networks and servers from Google, Yahoo, FreeWheel and the OpenX ad technology platform, as well as support for Video Ad Serving Template (VAST), the new industry standard enabling publishers to work with multiple ad servers and networks.

• Enhanced analytics provide in-depth insight into viewer engagement and the overall value of an organization's video content by highlighting the most effective and ineffective initiatives.

• Social sharing accelerates the flow of video through social networks and services, including Facebook®, MySpace and Twitter.

• Support for live streaming, including the ability to mix and match live and video on-demand programming within the same Brightcove players, brings the compelling immediacy of ad-supported live content within reach for publishers and projects of all sizes and scope.

• Media sharing helps publishers share videos across divisions, affiliates, and with other partners with a single click, enabling them to generate more value from their content through re-use and re-distribution.

Harness the power of cloud-based services to extend online video - Brightcove 4 includes a wide array of new cloud services, SDKs, and extensibility options that provide publishers with an advanced starting point that can adapt and scale to the requirements of the most sophisticated video project:
• Enhanced Media Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) allow developers to build deep, real-time integrations within their Web applications to drive search engine optimization and support robust workflow adaptations that lower the cost of video publishing.

• New Player APIs support the development of highly customized user experiences, advanced monetization, analytics tracking, and synchronized content placement.

• Brightcove Experience Markup Language (BEML) component skinning makes it easier to create fully branded player controls and in-player design elements without requiring Flash programming.

• iPhone SDK for Objective C programmers introduces pre-built components for playback, social sharing, content discovery, and hooks into the Brightcove Media API services.

• Ad Rules API and SDK offers more control and efficiency in ad operations to enable the easy development of sophisticated ad policies, new business logic and custom ad player integrations.

Available for any online video project, no matter how large or small - Brightcove 4's new capabilities and pricing brings the leading online video platform within reach for every professional website project or organization:
• Brightcove Express is a new edition that packs in all the essentials required to jumpstart new online video projects for as little as 99 dollars per month and with no annual contract.

• Easy integration with advertising networks makes it possible to deliver ad-supported video content at low cost.

• Google Analytics integration provides organizations with easy access to the most popular free Web analytics package, making it possible to get a unified view of all content interactions at an extremely low cost.

• Content Management System (CMS) integrations with popular entry-level and open source CMS solutions such as WordPress, TypePad, Drupal, Joomla and Ektron, enable websites of all sizes to easily integrate professional video into their existing Web publishing workflow.

Elemental Technologies Releases Elemental Server

2009-11-15T13:07:00.005-05:00

Elemental Technologies, the leading provider of massively parallel video processing solutions, announced the release of Elemental™ Server, the world’s first GPU-based transcoding appliance. Elemental Server’s breakthrough technology enables faster than real time, simultaneous encoding of video files targeting the comprehensive specifications required for the three-screen experience of TV, PC and mobile. Delivering high-speed encoding and premium video output using GPUs (graphics processing units), Elemental Server can replace multiple CPU-only solutions for a fraction of the price, ensuring immediate capital and maintenance cost savings.

With video consumption skyrocketing and predicted to comprise 90 percent of consumer Internet traffic by 2012, companies require encoding technology that leapfrogs current CPU-only solutions. Elemental Server’s innovative multi-GPU system can simultaneously process and encode video to multiple resolutions and bitrates and provides support for all major adaptive bit rate standards.

“Content distributors are experiencing rising demand for all types of video and Elemental Server is ideally suited to address this trend,” said Sam Blackman, CEO and chairman of Elemental Technologies. “The shift towards massively parallel computing opens new frontiers in the video processing landscape, and we are proud to introduce Elemental Server as the first of many enterprise-class, GPU-accelerated video processing solutions we are bringing to market.”

Companies not only focused on delivering online video content, but a broad range of broadcast networks, mobile operators and government agencies are deploying Elemental Server into their workflows to efficiently deliver more online video content with immediate benefits in price/performance and transcoding versatility.

Elemental Server is designed to fit into existing workflows with crucial video processing features including:

Simultaneous processing of up to four 1080p or 24 standard definition video transcodes in real time.
Support for concurrent processing of multiple resolutions and bitrates on a single system, simplifying the requirements for creating Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) content and streamlining the overall content production process.
Dense transcoding that completely replaces multiple CPU-only hardware and software systems, allowing a single Elemental Server to replace up to seven dual quad-core CPU-only systems.
Flexible output support for today’s most popular codecs including MPEG-2, VC-1 and H.264, as well as support for a wide variety of output containers including F4V, ASF, WMV, 3GP, and MP4.

Elemental Server is the first product available in a family of GPU-accelerated solutions currently in development. Elemental Server is available for sale directly from Elemental. Learn more about Elemental Server at www.elementaltechnologies.com/server.

Sorenson Media Launches Sorenson Squeeze 6

2009-11-12T10:43:00.002-05:00

Sorenson Media announced the immediate availability of Sorenson Squeeze 6, a significant update to the gold-standard video encoding software application. Sorenson Squeeze 6 provides the first total workflow solution for video professionals, enabling customers to employ innovative tools - such as email and text notifications and a secure review and approval process - that simplify the overall workflow and allow them to more easily encode and publish their video files on the Internet. Optimized video codecs and new filters have also been added, significantly improving video quality and encoding speed.

Video Management Made Easy
Working in tandem with the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network (Sorenson Media’s re-imagined online video publishing platform), Sorenson Squeeze 6 includes a variety of new unique features that make encoding and publishing videos online easier:
- E-mail and Text Notifications. Sorenson Squeeze 6 can now send automatic notifications to clients, colleagues, supervisors, friends or the users themselves via e-mail and text message (SMS) when encoding jobs are completed. With this new feature, users can start an encoding job and walk away, knowing they will be notified immediately when the process is done.
- Review and Approval Workflow. Video professionals can now add their clients’ and supervisors’contact information to Sorenson Squeeze, which will automatically send them secure, password protected videos for review and approval after encoding jobs are completed. This automated workflow is accessible from desktop computer Web browsers as well as the iPhone, enabling busy professionals to review and approve content on the go. After viewing a video, reviewer feedback and comments are immediately sent back to the Squeeze user, thereby streamlining the workflow of today’s video professionals.
- Direct Publishing and Syndication. In addition to seamless publishing to the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network, Sorenson Squeeze 6 users can upload high-quality encoded files directly to popular social media sites, such as YouTube and Twitter, as well as to content delivery networks, including Akamai and Limelight.- Enhanced User Interface. The Sorenson Squeeze 6 interface has been re-designed to simplify the video compression workflow and provide easy access to the software’s powerful features, including encoding presets; high-quality audio and video filters; DVD burning tools; and the new review, approval and notification functions.- Complimentary Sorenson 360 Review & Approval Account. Every purchase of Squeeze 6 includes a complimentary one-year Review & Approval account to the Sorenson 360 Video Delivery Network, making Squeeze the first end-to-end encoding and publishing solution.

Higher Quality, Faster Encoding, Expanded Compatibility
Sorenson Squeeze 6 surpasses previous versions of the software in both speed and quality by incorporating and optimizing the latest On2 VP6 and MainConcept H.264 codecs. Internal benchmark tests have shown Sorenson Squeeze 6 is up to 500 percent faster than Sorenson Squeeze 5 when encoding in the H.264 and VP6 formats, both of which are standard formats included with every copy of Squeeze 6. New video filters, including blur, RGB, tint, white balance and timecode, have also been added to improve the quality of any encoded video. New input and output formats have also been added to Sorenson Squeeze 6, including:
- New Input Formats: AVC-Intra and WMV with VC-1 for use in Blu-ray and Microsoft Silverlight
- New Output Formats: AVI, AIFF, DV Stream, Image Sequence, Wave, and WMV with VC-1

To coincide with the release of Squeeze 6, Sorenson Media has also launched an innovative new Preset Exchange, an online repository of professional “video encoding recipes” or presets. The presets in the Exchange have been created by top industry compression experts, thereby providing Squeeze 6 users with direct access to the same encoding tools used by seasoned encoding professionals to get the best quality out of their encoding processes. Because the Preset Exchange is seamlessly integrated with Squeeze 6, users can instantly import new presets into Squeeze by clicking “Install” on the Preset Exchange Web site. Along with previous integration with Avid’s suite of editing applications, Sorenson Squeeze 6 also now works seamlessly with Apple’s Final Cut Pro and iMovie. This process significantly improves workflow times by eliminating the need for cumbersome exporting and importing between applications and enables users to tap into the powerful Squeeze feature set directly from their favorite editing software.

ViewCast CEO David Stoner to Discuss Streaming Technology

2009-11-10T14:05:00.003-05:00

ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, announced that President and CEO David Stoner will be speaking at the Sports Video Group’s second-annual Venue Technology Summit in Dallas on November 11. This year’s event will take place in one of the most technologically advanced stadiums ever designed: the Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Attendees will enjoy an in-depth technical overview of the new stadium’s groundbreaking video facility, as well as panel discussions and workshops covering some of the hottest topics facing venue technology professionals.

Stoner will participate in the afternoon panel (2:45 pm - 3:45 pm) on Understanding Fiber, IP, and Wireless Technology. The panel will discuss how next-generation technologies are transforming sports venues into massive communication hubs that can deliver content to fans more easily than ever. The discussion will lay out the basics of the technologies and help venue personnel and architects understand how they can change venue design and systems integration to better achieve their programming objectives.

“I have been involved in engineering and operations management of technology companies engaged in video and imaging technology and hardware and software development for more than 20 years, and I look forward to sharing my expertise with fellow participants in this year’s Venue Technology summit,” said Stoner. “ViewCast has been at the forefront of innovative solutions that are tailor-made for large venue broadcasting. By sharing knowledge about next-generation technologies, like our turnkey IP-based streaming media systems, we can enable venue technology professionals to deliver the professional-quality video programming they need to grow their market share beyond conventional coverage areas.“

Telestream Speeds Video Encoding

2009-11-08T13:41:00.002-05:00

Telestream announced that DnA Creative Services, a leading video production company in Louisiana has selected Episode® Encoder for Windows to address the company’s advanced encoding and content repurposing needs. DnA uses Episode Encoder for various applications such as convert video to MPEG for DVD, using QuickTime and Windows Media for emailing and uploading projects to clients, and Flash for embedding videos on client web sites. Episode Encoder makes it easy to import virtually any file format and encode media to Web, DVD, or mobile including portable device formats.

As a full-service media company that provides location filming, audio recording, and complete postproduction services, DnA needed a practical means of delivering TV commercials digitally to area television stations. Over the years, DnA has used several software encoders, including Sorenson Squeeze, but turned to Telestream’s Episode Encoder for Windows due to its flexibility to quickly encode a multitude of formats including high-quality broadcast formats.

One of DnA’s ongoing projects is a semi-annual modeling and talent competition. During the weeklong event, DnA does on-location editing and uses the Episode iPhone setting to quickly encode videos before showing them to event producers on the iPhone handset. With this flexibility, the producer can instantly provide approvals and comments before broadcasting on the large projection screen over the main stage, thus mitigating any additional costs for re-shoots. In addition to flexibility, DnA chose the Episode Encoder because it has the fastest encoding speeds available in a desktop video encoder, and its fine-tuning compression capabilities generate the highest-quality media files.

“Episode Encoder's impact is much greater than the dollar value we charge for encoding video. With Episode, we are totally comfortable that the encoded video will be the highest quality and the process will be very quick and simple as opposed to the worry and work-around we would have had to go through with other encoding solutions,” said David Cardwell, Owner of DnA Creative Services.

DnA also credits using Episode to encode DVD-compliant video files, which cuts the company’s time to produce a master DVD in half. Even more significant, videos on the resulting DVDs look noticeably better and in the long run the company expects to see this directly impact its bottom line.

“The Episode line continues to deliver an unprecedented customer encoding experience, and we are delighted to have customer success stories of this nature,” said Barbara DeHart, VP of Marketing at Telestream. “The innovative work DnA Creative Services is doing as the result of Episode truly changes the way the company does business. The quick encoding speeds actually allow companies such as DnA to focus on its core competencies and in this instance, I would say, the product has not only out-performed the competition, but helps deliver peace of mind.”

Free Video Streaming and Compression Tools Training in Atlanta

2009-11-07T23:29:00.007-05:00

There will be a Free Video Streaming and Compression Tools Training in Atlanta, Georgia at the Courtyard Atlanta Airport North/Virginia Avenue on Dec. 11, 2009. So If you're in or near Atlanta, Georgia and need to get familiar with video streaming and compression make sure you attend this Free Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional Training in Atlanta. The training will get you up to speed with video encoding using Telestream's Episode Encoder and webcasting with Telestream's Wirecast. The training day also includes Instructor and Video Streaming and Compression Consultant, Derrick Freeman, teaching attendees how to perform log file analysis using Sawmill Professional. You can Click Here to Register for the Event in Atlanta.

Brightcove Cited as an Online Video Platform Leader

2009-11-06T15:01:00.000-05:00

Brightcove Inc., the leading online video platform, announced it was recognized as a leader by Forrester Research, Inc. in its report, The Forrester Wave: U.S. Online Video Platforms, Q4 2009. Brightcove was among the select companies that Forrester invited to participate in its Wave report, and the company received top scores across all of the major evaluation categories.

According to the report, “Brightcove’s offering is the most comprehensive video platform in this Forrester Wave evaluation; it consistently scores high marks with few, if any, gaps. The company’s customer base, video scale, and internal resources are unrivaled in the market today. Brightcove’s significant resources and road map position the company to stay ahead in the video platform race.”

“Brightcove is honored to be recognized by Forrester as a leading online video platform,” said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. “This is an exciting time for the online video industry, as video is becoming as pervasive as text on the Web and nearly every professional website is looking to publish video. We see an enormous global opportunity to establish Brightcove as the dominant platform for professional video publishing on the Web, and we believe this recognition from Forrester further validates our leadership position in the market.”

Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of six U.S. online video platform vendors against 37 criteria in three major categories – current offering, strategy and market presence. Platforms were evaluated against several features, including media management, user-generated video, player capabilities, publishing capabilities, distribution capabilities, monetization capabilities, reporting capabilities, internationalization, integration, scalability, and service offerings. Strategy was measured against the vendor’s ability to envision the future needs of the marketplace, the road map required to meet these needs, partner relationships and executive team experience. Customer base and financial strength were measured to determine market presence.

Setting the File Output Location in Sorenson Squeeze

2009-11-05T23:05:00.005-05:00

Setting the file output location in Sorenson Squeeze is done inside the Squeeze Preferences. This is valuable when you want to have all of your encoding output to a specific location. Here's how to define the Default Output Location in Squeeze.

Navigate to the Squeeze pull-down menu and select Preferences.

By default Same as Source is selected. To set another location for your output files

click the Radio button and the Browse button to navigate to the new destination.

Navigate to the folder that you want to save files to. In my case I'll select the Movies folder. Next click the Choose button.

Now the Movies folder appears as my Default Output Location. All files encoded will now go to this output destination.

Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced Gains More Than 1,000 Beta Customers

2009-11-04T16:12:00.006-05:00

Wowza Media Systems®, the media server software company, announced that more than 1,000 beta customers are using a preview release of its Wowza Media Server® 2 Advanced software, including numerous customers who have already deployed Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced servers in production networks.

Among the first production deployments was global CDN Mirror Image Internet, which launched a Wowza-powered multi-protocol video delivery service for Flash®, iPhone™ and other desktop and mobile clients. In addition to content delivery networks like Mirror Image, Wowza has seen a surge in adoption of its new server from online TV platforms and television broadcasters.

Early adopter Livestation, an online destination for global TV and radio news, is using Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced to offer live broadcasts from international channels like BBC World News, C-SPAN, Deutsche Welle, euronews and others to viewers on multiple screens – the iPhone, desktop and other devices.

“Wowza is changing the way the business of online video content delivery is conducted and is doing so in a way that generates value across the entire content delivery chain,” said Matteo Berlucchi, CEO, Livestation. “Whether you are an online TV platform like us or a content creator, the power and flexibility of the Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced cannot be ignored. And at the end of the day, that enables us to bring quality content to the everyday consumer on any device – a strong value proposition for our customers as well as our viewers.”

Spanish national broadcast channel laSexta and a UK-based TVCatchup, an online TV platform delivering over 30 channels from broadcaster like BBC, Sky and Virgin, have deployed Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced for concurrent Flash and iPhone streaming.

“Wowza gave us a unified streaming platform that greatly simplified our infrastructure and gave us tremendous competitive and cost advantage,” commented Guillermo Revuelta, systems engineer, laSexta. “The combination of these capabilities along with Wowza’s incredible customer support is what makes all the difference. I can’t think of television streaming without it going forward.”

“The Wowza unified workflow architecture is a real breakthrough,” said Nick Parr, co-founder, TVCatchup. “The ability to serve multiple client technologies from one streaming platform has greatly improved our market reach. As demand for our service continues to soar, Wowza remains our first and indeed the only choice for media servers.”

Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced is the world’s first multi-protocol unified media streaming platform to provide media properties, service providers, enterprises and other organizations the ability to deliver video to the three most popular digital screens – computer, mobile phone, and IPTV set-top boxes – without the need for costly investments in separate client-specific technologies for the encoding, storage and delivery.

“Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced provides a dramatic shift towards a democratization of video that is focused on the needs of all involved in the content delivery value chain, from creators to consumers. Instead of locking the industry into special-interest media platforms, protocols and players, Wowza 2 Advanced provides a unified platform for content delivery to multiple players” said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and co-founder, Wowza Media Systems. “Built on the proven Wowza Media Server platform currently deployed by more than 30,000 licensees worldwide, Wowza 2 Advanced is the first media server software to truly unify streaming capabilities in a simple delivery workflow.”   

The Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced has been named a finalist in the category of Best Streaming Innovation by the readers of Streaming Media magazine. The winner will be announced on November 19 at the Readers' Choice Awards reception at the Streaming Media West/Online Video Platform event in San Jose, CA. A live demonstration of Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced will be conducted at Wowza Media booth number 527.

BlackArrow Provides VOD Ad Insertion Technology for Comcast On Demand Service

2009-11-03T23:24:00.006-05:00

BlackArrow, a leading worldwide provider of advanced advertising solutions for New Television platforms, announced that its video-on-demand (VOD) ad insertion platform has gone live in Jacksonville, Florida with Comcast Corporation, the nation’s leading provider of entertainment, information and communication products and services. Comcast has chosen BlackArrow’s Advanced Advertising System to lead its ad insertion technology for its On Demand programming.

BlackArrow’s Advanced Advertising System gives programmers and cable operators a real-time, multiplatform campaign management and decision system for offering more timely and relevant ads in their On Demand sessions. Traditionally, advertising campaigns in video-on-demand content have had limited effectiveness due to the static nature of the ads being encoded directly into the VOD stream. In the Jacksonville market, Comcast is inserting standard 15- and 30-second promotional spots as well as newly introduced 20-second spots designed to drive tune-in for upcoming shows and specials on PBS KIDS Sprout and FEARnet in a dynamic environment.

Diana Kerekes, vice president of Video Content for Comcast, said, “The ability to update VOD advertising will help us offer feature parity with traditional linear and Internet-based advertising systems. We’re pleased to be working with a technology leader like BlackArrow as we look for ways to offer our programming partners expanded opportunities to monetize their content offerings.”

“Comcast has led the industry in creating new opportunities to reach consumers in the on-demand marketplace, and we’re excited to be working with them,” said Dean Denhart, chief executive officer, BlackArrow. “By combining BlackArrow’s expertise in advanced VOD advertising platforms with Comcast’s VOD leadership, we hope to expand the business model significantly for on-demand advertising.”

StreamingMedia.com Announces the 2009 Streaming Media Reader's Choice Finalists

2009-11-02T19:50:00.008-05:00

StreamingMedia.com announces the 2009 Streaming Media Reader's Choice Finalists. The winners will be announced at the Readers' Choice Awards reception at the Streaming Media West/Online Video Platform event on November 19, 2009. If you're available make sure you attend the event. Winners will also be announced on the site on November 20, 2009.

Here are the finalists:

Best Online Video Startup Company – Content
EffinFunny, Legend of Neil
Invodo, Invodo Product Video Library
Purchase Brothers, Escape from City 17

Best Online Video Startup Company – Technology
Boinx, BoinxTV
Encoding.com
Livestream, Livestream

Best Streaming Innovation
Adobe Dynamic Streaming
Microsoft Smooth Streaming
Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced

Encoding Software (over $1000)
Inlet Technologies Fathom
Rhozet Carbon Coder
Telestream FlipFactory

Encoding Software (under $1000)
Adobe Media Encoder CS4
Microsoft Expression Encoder
Sorenson Squeeze

Enterprise Video Platform
Accordent Technologies Rich Media Communications Suite
Kontiki Delivery Management System
VBrick EtherneTV

Global CDN
Akamai
Highwinds
Level 3
Limelight

Hardware Encoder (HD)
Digital Rapids StreamZ HD
Telestream Pipeline HD Dual
ViewCast Niagara 7500

Hardware Encoder (SD)
Digital Rapids StreamZ/DRC-Stream
VBrick H.264 Appliance
ViewCast Niagara Pro II

Live Video Streaming Platform
Justin.tv
Livestream
Ustream

Online Video Platform (free)
Blip.tv
Vimeo
YouTube

Online Video Platform (Premium)
Brightcove
Kaltura
Sorenson 360

Portable Live Encoding Appliance
Digital Rapids TouchStream
NewTek TriCaster
ViewCast GoStream SURF

Regional (North American) Delivery Network
PowerStream
StreamGuys
Streaming Media Hosting

Reporting and Analytics Solution
Accordent Media Management System
Omniture Site Catalyst
Skytide Insight for Flash Video Players

Search and Indexing Platform
Digitalsmiths VideoSense 2.0
EveryZing MediaCloud
Gotuit VideoMarker Pro

Server Hardware/Software
Adobe Flash Media Server 3.5
Microsoft IIS7 Media Services 3.0
Wowza Media Server Pro

Streaming Music Solution
Last.fm
Live365
Pandora

Transcoding SaaS
Amazon Web Services EC2
mPOINT
Multicast Media Technologies Multicast Transcoding

Video Advertising Management Platform
Eyeblaster
Tremor Media Acudeo
YuMe ACE

Video Advertising Network
Broadband Enterprises Video Network
Tremor Media
YuMe

Webcasting/Presentations Solutions
Accordent Technologies Capture Station
ON24 Webcast Center
Sonic Foundry Mediasite 5.1

Streaming H.264 Videos with Wowza Media Server Pro

2009-11-01T23:02:00.011-05:00

Streaming H.264 Videos with Wowza Media Server Pro is common place and a great benefit of the Wowza Server. If you have a collection of H.264 real-time streaming videos you can movie the entire library to the Wowza Server since it supports real-time streaming of not only Flash videos but also H.264 videos as well. Now, it's important to note that the server doesn't support real-time streaming of MPEG-4 files but only the H.264 files. Remember in most streaming and compression applications MPEG-4 Part 2 is listed as MPEG-4 and MPEG-4 Part 10 is listed as H.264 or AVC. Why move all of your content to the Wowza Media Server Pro? Well, if you're moving the H.264 real-time content form a server such as the QuickTime Streaming Server, the move will give your content the cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility that Flash provides.

To learn more about encoding and authoring H.264 real-time streaming videos for Flash using the Wowza Media Server Pro attend one of our 1-Day Wowza Media Server Pro Trainings. The class also covers many other topics and is available on-line, on-site or in-class.

Dreamweaver Great for Authoring Streaming Video

2009-10-31T23:43:00.009-04:00

Dreamweaver is great for authoring streaming video. So, if you need to start putting video content on-line then it's a tool you should have in your arsenal. The application is featured in our 2-Day Video Streaming and Compression Trainings. One of the benefits of Dreamweaver is that it doesn't insert a lot of unnecessary code. Also, if you're authoring Flash content the task becomes a breeze. The tool automatically inserts the proper code whenever you insert a .SWF or .FLV file. You can use Dreamweaver to also author Windows Media, Real Media, QuickTime, and MPEG-4 content. Attend one of our Video Streaming and Compression Trainings to find out how to use the Dreamweaver and how to author your streaming video.

Livestream Launches Livepack - The World's First Solution for Wireless Live Streaming at HD Quality

2009-10-30T23:09:00.005-04:00

Livestream announced the availability of Livepack, a turn-key hardware solution for wireless live streaming at HD quality to hundreds of thousands of viewers on the web.

Livepack is ideal for live broadcasting any events including concerts, interviews, sporting events, town hall meetings, paparazzi, university graduations, weddings, ceremonies, transmission from a moving car, and a variety of enterprise applications.

"Livepack is like having a satellite television truck in a backpack," said Max Haot, CEO and co-founder of Livestream. "If you want to live stream in high quality at an event where you don't have a reliable fixed Internet connection, broadcasting with a cell phone cannot yet deliver either the high video quality or network reliability you need. The only other solution available is a traditional broadcast truck and satellite signal which can cost up to $50,000 a day."

Livepack is an integrated solution using hardware provided by Livestream's partner, LiveU, that has been fully integrated with Livestream's streaming video platform and content delivery network (CDN). Livepack fits in a custom-designed backpack and includes everything required to stream live: a built-in wireless connection with six load-balanced 3G/EVDO modems over three carriers, encoding hardware, Firewire cable, and 30 hours of streaming uplink time per month.

Livepack product details and recordings of live videos can be viewed at www.livestream.com/livepack. Livepack was recently used for coverage of the MTV Video Music Awards, NY Fashion Week, Harry Potter movie premiere and Pixie Lott Live.

Livestream's groundbreaking Livepack redefines simplicity for live mobile HD quality video streaming. Once Livepack is powered up, and a DV camera is connected, all it takes is just one press of a button to start the live streaming, enabling broadcasters to deliver live, on the scene, video coverage at just a fraction of what a satellite truck costs to rent and operate.

Livepack quickly establishes a reliable Internet connection and is not tied to one wireless network, as it includes six 3G/EVDO modems for redundancy. Because it integrates with Livestream's streaming video platform, Livepack does not require any additional re-encoding or server in your offices to reach its destination. Once the video reaches the Livestream content delivery network the video is immediately streamed in your Livestream player, as well as being captured and securely archived.

Freeman Compression Inc. Looking for Trainers in Rome, Italy

2009-10-30T00:04:00.006-04:00

Freeman Compression Inc. is looking for Trainers in Rome, Italy that can teach video streaming and compression training classes.

Trainers with expertise in the following are needed:

Go Stream Surf
Sorenson Squeeze
Episode Encoder Pro
Wirecast
Video and Audio Podcasting
Video Streaming
Video Compression
Sawmill Professsional
Authoring Streaming Videos with Dreamweaver
Streaming Servers

We can be reached at 407.477.5837 or by email at info@freemancompression.com.

WNYC Radio Rolls Out Innovative Radio Program with ViewCast Streaming Solution

2009-10-28T22:40:00.009-04:00

ViewCast Corporation announced that WNYC, America’s most listened-to public radio station, has selected ViewCast’s Niagara GoStream SURF portable encoding system for the station’s newly-opened The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space. The Greene Space is a state-of-the-art, multi-media performance space and broadcast studio that presents live broadcasts and tapings of WNYC’s signature programs. In addition, music concerts and festivals, audio theater, literary readings, art exhibits, political debates, symposia, town hall meetings and other exciting civic and cultural events are presented in the space. Most shows from The Greene Space are webcast live and archived in real time in Adobe Flash formats via the Niagara GoStream SURF. Many programs are also made available as video-on-demand (VOD) via the WNYC website.

“With the opening of The Greene Space, thousands of visitors each year are welcomed inside WNYC to experience great radio as it is created,” said Indira Etwaroo, Executive Producer of The Greene Space. “Technology allows millions more to connect to great content by stream, and in many cases download, audio and video of our live events. This is why it was so important to outfit the space with a cutting-edge digital audio and video production system.

“We tried to configure a PC-based encoder, but the machine time and labor for encoding via software, particularly for VOD, was both difficult and expensive,” said Bill Porter, President of Whitehorse Productions, Inc. and consultant to The Greene Space, who managed the ViewCast implementation for WNYC. “ViewCast’s Niagara GoStream SURF was a cost-effective, turnkey solution to provide reliable, real-time, live streaming of video programs and performances, plus VOD turnaround by next morning.“

“WNYC’s The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space is a model of innovation and a testament to the advanced capabilities that ViewCast’s streaming media technology can facilitate for today’s forward-looking content providers,” said David Stoner, President and CEO, ViewCast. “Our plug-and-play, professional-grade Niagara streaming media systems ensure exceptional ease of use, video quality and reliability for sophisticated broadcast applications such as WNYC’s The Greene Space, enabling high-performance video capture and streaming for both live and on-demand content.“

ViewCast’s Niagara streaming media appliances are designed to deliver the quality, features and ease-of-use convenience that professional broadcasters demand. They are pre-configured, plug-and-play solutions that enable users to quickly capture and broadcast premium quality audio and video in multiple formats and at multiple bit rates - all simultaneously. Plus they are powered by ViewCast’s award-winning Osprey technology, guaranteeing exceptional quality and reliability.

Encoding H.264 Downloadable Streaming Video with Episode Encoder Pro

2009-10-27T22:34:00.020-04:00

Encoding H.264 downloadable streaming video with Episode Encoder Pro is simple to do. For this tutorial we’ll take a DV.mov source file that is 720 x 480 and 29.97 frames per second captured from an analog source. The source file has the DV/DVCPro Codec for video with PCM for audio.

To get started with encoding this file for downloadable streaming for high broadband users in Episode Encoder Pro, we first need to select our source file.

Next, drag it to the Batch area where Drag Source is displayed

Now your source file can been seen in the batch. You can also drag the video file directly to the Batch from a folder or the desktop. Let me talk a little about our source before we move forward. If you select the source and click the Enter button on your keyboard a preview of the video appears.

As my preview appears I want to point out that this source has black banding around the edges. As we encode our video we want to make sure we crop this black out of the video. It will make our output file look so much better. Now we’ll move forward to create a compression preset for our encoding. Keep in mind that these settings will be a good starting point as every source file is different and the encoder will respond differently to each source file you encode.

Open up the Templates and twirl down to the All File Formats Templates.

Once the All File Formats Templates are open navigate to the H.264 Download templates and select the H264_480x360 preset. With the preset selected Control-click and choose Duplicate from the Contextual Menu to make a copy.

You now have a copy of the preset you duplicated. Click where the H264_480x360 copy text appears to rename your preset.

Let’s call your preset H264_600k_DL and select Enter. Notice that we don’t have any spaces the preset name. This is because the preset will be used in the file naming and it’s better to take out all spaces in the encoding process. When you author video content for the web you don’t want to have spaces in your video name.

Once you rename your compression template Double-click the preset to open the setting for customizing.

When your setting is open the Output tab will appear. Since we are encoding a downloadable streaming H.264 file notice that your file extension will be .mp4 and the H.264 codec is used for the video and AAC is used for the audio. You can see that the Hint Prepare for Streaming check box is not selected. Hinting isn’t necessary to use because we’re not targeting this video file for a streaming server.

Next move on to the Video Tab. Twirl down where H.264 is displayed to adjust the settings for the H.264 codec.

For the datarate type in 600 kbps and you can continue to use VBR using VBV. For the buffer, since this is a downloadable video, you can increase your buffer to 10 seconds. This will allow the codec to vary the bit rate more. For the Keyframe distance you can use a value of 90 frames which will provide a keyframe at least every 6 seconds.

Click on the Profile and Quality tab. Notice that 2-pass encoding is selected. Adjust the quality slider to the highest quality of 100 and twirl up the codec setting.

Go to the Frame Rate Filter and twirl down. For the filter mode choose Fixed framerate.

For the Framerate preset you can use Automatic and select 15 fps. Now twirl up the Frame Rate filter.

Twirl down the Deinterlace filter and choose Automatic Detection for the Field Order. This fact that this setting is available is great because with compression it’s always good to know you field order. Choosing the Automatic Detection value takes the guess work out and the codec will determine the field order for you. Go ahead and twirl up the Deinterlace filter.

Now twirl down the Resize filter.

For the output size you can leave it at 480 x 360. You can choose Cut for Maintain proportion with.

For the cropping values we’ll multiply the 4:3 aspect ratio by 8 and crop 32 x 24 pixels. So crop 12 pixels off the top, 12 pixels off the bottom, 16 pixels off the left and 16 pixels off the right.

Since we’re dealing with video from an analog source we need to apply a Noise Reduction filter. Navigate to the Noise Reduction filter and click the check box to make it active.

Now, twirl down the Noise Reduction filter to adjust the values. Check Median and Only Filter Chroma to apply the filter only on the Chroma channel. Leave the other values at the default. Twirl up the Noise Reduction filter.

Let’s move to the Audio tab.

Click on the Bit Rate Pop-up Menu and choose 32 kbps.

You can leave Stereo selected for Channels and 44.1 kHz selected for the sample rate.

Now that were are finished making our adjustments click the Save Setting button to the top right on the Episode Encoder Pro interface.

Click the Close Setting button.

Next, select the H264_600k_DL setting that you created

and drag it onto your DV.mov video source.

You can see that your compression preset appears right below the video source. Before we start encoding let’s look at something. Select the H264_600kDL preset and click the Enter key.

A preview of your video output appears with the cropping values applied under the Resize filter. Our black edges no longer appear. Time to encode your video file.

At the bottom right of the Episode Encoder Pro interface click the Start Encoding button.

You can watch your progress under status. This will show you how much time you have left.

Once your video has finished encoding your status will switch to Done. You have now encoded an H.264 downloadable streaming video using Episode Encoder Pro.

New Streambox Live IP-Based Contribution Service Receives STAR Awar

2009-10-26T22:29:00.005-04:00

Streambox, Inc. announced that its newly launched Streambox Live IP-based video contribution service was honored with a 2009 STAR (Superior Technology Award Recipient) Award by the editorial staff of TV Technology Europe, at the recent IBC2009 show in Amsterdam. In addition, Streambox Live “caught the eye” of IBC staffers, who featured the product in a special conference session entitled “What Caught My Eye.”

Based on Streambox’s award-winning ACT-L3 technology, the Streambox Live service enables remote broadcasters and citizen reporters to upload compressed live video streams to broadcast studios through Internet-based Streambox Live Data Centers. The Streambox Live service interoperates seamlessly with Streambox's industry-leading platform of SD and HD broadcast-quality video encoders and decoders, as well as its complete line of broadcast and distribution servers.

The STAR Award (Superior Technology Award Recipient) is designed to celebrate and showcase the preeminent technological innovations available to the broadcast industry. TV Technology Europe's editor reviewed a variety of products, examined the technical applications and their overall contribution to the industry, and then chose Streambox Live as one of 25 winners. For the “What Caught My Eye” designation, the Streambox Live demonstration was captured by a roving IBC film crew and the footage was featured the next day in a presentation shown to conference delegates.

“We believe Streambox Live has tremendous potential to revolutionize news programming by enabling broadcasters to add citizen reporters and ad hoc contributors to the newsgathering team in an easy-to-use and cost-effective manner,” said Bob Hildeman, chairman and CEO of Streambox. “It’s truly an honor to be among only 25 solutions at IBC to receive a STAR Award, and it’s a real validation of Streambox Live's potential in the industry. And the fact that the ‘What Caught My Eye’ team picked up right away on the solution’s value and benefits really shows its instant appeal to broadcasters.”

ON24 Announces Full Windows 7 Support

2009-10-24T21:20:00.005-04:00

ON24, Inc., the global leader in webcasting and virtual event solutions, announced that it will be providing full support for webcasts and virtual shows on Windows 7. The launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system has been one of the most anticipated technology introductions of the year.

In addition, ON24 is announcing a beta program for select customers to execute online webcasts using Silverlight, Microsoft’s plug-in for creating rich interactive Web applications. "ON24 already offers Flash webcasts," explained ON24 Chief Technology Officer Jayesh Sahasi. "With the introduction of Silverlight, we will be able to supplement the use of proprietary media players like RealPlayer and Windows Media Player with next-generation technology—for even greater reach and functionality."

ON24 product development and support efforts are designed to maximize virtual event accessibility. "As our Windows 7 and Silverlight support demonstrates, providing ubiquitous access to virtual events is our priority," said ON24 Chief Marketing Officer Denise Persson. "We are committed to providing to our customers the industry’s greatest reach."

RipCode and CSS Strike China Distribution Partnership for Transactional Transcoding

2009-10-23T17:45:00.005-04:00

RipCode, Inc., the leader in transactional video transcoding, announced a distribution alliance with Century Sage Scientific (CSS), a premier reseller and systems integrator of broadcast, Internet, and streaming technologies to the Chinese media and telecommunications markets.

As a certified systems integrator to some of the world’s largest broadcast and telecom equipment manufacturers and operators, CSS has a proven track record of delivering fully integrated, turnkey systems for IPTV, Web, and communications applications. Recent CSS projects include large-scale deployments for CCTV, Shenzen Media Group, and the upcoming master-control build-out for the 11th National Games in the People’s Republic of China. RipCode’s transactional transcoding technology expands the CSS portfolio for broadcast, broadband and 3G mobile services, while also providing cost-effective options for Internet delivery of educational and other entertainment content.

China’s broadcast and mobile communications market has unique requirements and regulations relative to other geographical regions. The number of mobile users is expected to surpass 1.2 billion within four years, leading to a growing appetite for quality content over broadband and wireless connections. “Given the sheer number and model variance of devices, optimizing transmission and encoding recipes for local browsers and mobile handsets is both a significant undertaking and opportunity for a value-added service,” says Alex So, CSS vice president of marketing. “In order to best serve the local market, CSS and RipCode have already begun joint testing and development to ensure smooth adoption of RipCode transcoding technology in China. RipCode’s solution portfolio provides leading transcoding technology – but goes beyond what we’ve seen from traditional vendors by also addressing on-demand ad insertion, client detection, and policy-based bandwidth optimization – key factors in our selection of RipCode for the China market.”

“We are seeing increasing interest and demand in China – not only for three-screen content delivery – but also in the innovation RipCode delivers through its end-to-end transactional transcoding solution approach,” says Greg Lowitz, RipCode executive vice president of sales. “CSS represents the top brands in the broadcast and communications business, and we’re thrilled to be part of their solution portfolio for the Chinese media and telecommunication markets.”

Telestream and Flowerfire Sponsor Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional Training in Six U.S. Cities

2009-10-21T11:59:00.011-04:00

Orlando, Florida - October 21, 2009 - Freeman Compression Inc. today announced that it will be providing Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional Training in six U.S. cities from December 2009 through May 2010. The Episode Encoder and Wirecast portion of the training is sponsored by Telestream and the Sawmill Professional portion is sponsored by Flowerfire. The full day training sessions will take place in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Orlando. Free instruction will be provided on video compression using Telestream Episode Encoder Pro, live streaming media production using Telestream Wirecast and log files analytics for streaming servers and other devices using Flowerfire Sawmill Professional.

The training sessions will be led by Derrick Freeman, Instructor and Video Streaming Consultant for Freeman Compression, Inc. Freeman provides instruction for Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional classes at Freeman Compression Inc.

"Training is geared at familiarizing class attendees with the use of Episode Encoder, Wirecast and Sawmill Professional, along with helping them realize the powerful features found in each of these tools,” said Derrick Freeman, Instructor. “These classes will be exciting because we'll get the chance to show students encoding techniques, how to set-up live streaming, and many of the endless possibilities when users analyze their log files."

The cost of the training is free. Registration is free as well. A schedule of dates, times and locations is available at www.freemancompression.com/html/trainingevents.html. Those who would like to register or receive more information can contact Freeman Compression Inc. at 407.477.5837 or send an email to info@freemancompression.com.

About Flowerfire, Inc.
Flowerfire, Inc., founded in 1996 and based in Santa Cruz, California, is a software company which provides log analysis and reporting solutions. Flowerfire's primary product is Sawmill, a universal log analysis tool which can analyze and generate reports from over 800 log formats, including log files from all popular web servers, media servers, security applications, mail servers, spam filters, firewalls, proxies, gateways, and FTP servers. In addition to Sawmill, Flowerfire also provides consulting services for log analysis and reporting solutions. Flowerfire is privately held, family-friendly, and employee owned and controlled. (www.sawmill.net)

About Telestream
Telestream products make it possible to get video content to any audience regardless of how it is created, distributed or viewed. Throughout the entire digital media lifecycle, from capture to viewing, for consumers through high-end professionals, Telestream products include components, cross-platform encoding and live video streaming applications, plus fully-automated workflow systems. Telestream enables users in a broad range of business environments to leverage the value of their video content. Telestream corporate headquarters are located in Nevada City, California, and its team of video experts is located in France, Germany, Sweden, UK and US. (www.telestream.net)

About Freeman Compression Inc.
Located in Orlando, Florida Freeman Compression Inc. provides consulting for video streaming and compression. The company also offers video streaming training and compression training. The classes provided are: 1-Day Wowza Media Server Pro, 1-Day Episode Pro, 1-Day Wirecast, 1-Day Sawmill Professional and 2-Day Video Streaming and Compression. (www.freemancompression.com)

STV Launches High Definition With Brightcove

2009-10-20T14:34:00.002-04:00

Brightcove Inc., the leading online video platform, announced that leading Scottish broadcaster, STV, has launched a series of new HD-quality, long-form video initiatives for catch-up viewing purposes using the Brightcove platform. “Scotland Revealed” a landmark, three-part documentary series filmed in HD is now available on STV’s online TV on Demand service, STV Player, for 90 days to viewers around the world.

“Scotland Revealed is one of STV's key landmark programmes for 2009, and I'm delighted that viewers across the world can watch this stunning series in all its HD glory on the STV Player,” said Alistair Brown, head of new media at STV. “The world class quality of the STV Player and Brightcove’s online video platform ensures that we can offer an unrivalled viewing experience of this breathtaking, high definition programme, which I hope viewers in Scotland and beyond will enjoy.”

Scotland Revealed is a visually stunning series that offers a spectacular look at the country, including some of its most iconic landmarks, landscapes and cityscapes, to provide viewers with fascinating insight into what has shaped Scotland. STV is employing the full range of capabilities provided by the Brightcove online video platform to support its new video initiatives. Brightcove’s long-form delivery capabilities enable STV to deliver HD-quality, full episodes of the Scotland Revealed series.

“STV was one of our first major broadcast customers in Europe, so it’s been particularly gratifying to witness the evolution and expansion of the organization’s online video initiatives,” said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. “We’re proud that STV has chosen the Brightcove platform to support its groundbreaking Scotland Revealed series and look forward to contributing to the success of its future catch-up TV offerings.”

STV, a long-time Brightcove customer, rolled out its first catch-up TV offerings with the Brightcove platform in July 2008 and more recently through the re-launched STV Player site. The site ensures quick access to important and popular content and showcases programs in the context of STV’s other listings, all while ensuring the best possible viewing experience for the end user. STV also took advantage of Brightcove’s wide range of Media and Player APIs to provide more flexibility around its content workflow.

Downloadable Streaming with Sorenson Squeeze and Dreamweaver

2009-10-19T16:20:00.027-04:00

Downloadable Streaming with Sorenson Squeeze and Dreamweaver is very common. Today we'll show you how to encode a Real Media video with Sorenson Squeeze and then author that video in Dreamweaver with a RAM file. RAM files are beneficial to use because you can hide the absolute path to the video file on your Server. Let's begin.

Open up Sorenson Squeeze and click the Import File button to bring your source files into Squeeze.

When you click the Import File button you'll see a dialog window open up. Select you file and click the open button. For this tutorial I'll select the Step10DraggingaPreset.mov file and click the Open button.

Now you'll can see you source file in Squeeze. Notice that the Batch Tree display the file Step10DraggingaPreset.mov video ready for encoding in the Batch Tree. You can also see a still frame of the video in the Squeeze Preview Window.

Let me take a moment to talk about the source and explain our approach for encoding this video. The source is a 720 x 480 video with Animation for the video codec and IMA for the audio codec. This is a video tutorial that has edited screen captures. Our delivery will be for downloadable streaming with Real Media. OK, now let's move forward with out tutorial.

Now, that we have our source ready for encoding we need to create our compression preset.

Navigate to the Audience presets. Switch to Format view by adjusting the pull-down and open up the Real Media presets (Real Media presets are only available for PC users). Once you open the presets click the Lg setting. Once selected click the Copy a Preset button which is the second button from the left.

When the Audio/Video Compression Settings dialog opens your preset will be labled Lg copy.

By highlighting your text in the Name text box you can change the name. For this tutorial change the name of your preset to 1000k_DL.

Now it's time to custom your Real Media downloadable streaming preset. For the video codec we want to make sure RealVideo 10. This is the latest codec for Real Media and it'll give you the best quality. Since we're doing downloadable streaming we want to use 2-Pass VBR for our compression method. We definitely want to vary our bit rate to achieve the highest quality for our output. For our the Video datarate you can type in 1000 kbps. For Frame select 640 x 480 and select Maintain Aspect Ratio. For the frame rate you can use 10 frames per second since this video is screen captures with very little motion.

For our Key Frame Every value we'll use 300 frames. This will produce a key frame at least every 300 frames. A higher keyframe value or a longer period before new key frames is better with this type of content since many of the frames are similar. Since our Frame Rate is 10 frames per second. This Key Frame Every interval produces a key frame a least every 30 seconds. If the codec feels that it needs to insert a key frame it will do it automatically. You can need the Video Mode at Normal with the default Startup Latency of 4 Secs.

Moving on to the Audio settings you can select 64 kbps for the audio datarate leaving 16 for the Sample Size, 44.1 kHz for the Sample Rate with Stereo audio.

Once you've made all of the adjustments to your Audio/Video Compression Settings you can click the OK button. Now you have a Real Media preset called 1000k_DL inside your Audiences.

Now that your setting is created you need to apply it to your video source. Select the Real Media 1000k_DL setting and drag it over top of your source.

You can now see the compression setting applied to the video in the image above. Once applied it appears below the source video.

Before we encode the video we need to create a filter preset for this encode. Under the Filters select the Generic Web filter setting. Once selected click the Copy a Preset button.

You can now see the new copy of the Filter preset labled Generic Web Copy in the Name Text Box.

Select the text and rename the Filter preset Deinterlace_Blend. This gives our filter a good description just in case we want to use it for other projects in the future.

In the filter preset there are checked boxes that a enabled which shows the values being used in this setting. For your setting you should have the Deinterlace, Contrast, Brightness and Audio Volume filters checked.

Let's adjust the Deinterlace filter first. Generally, when performing encodes with screen captured tutorials content it's better to Deinterlace by using a Blend where the 2 fields are blended together. This works better than totally discarding one of your fields.

Adding a Contrast and Brightness boost is good for delivering web content so we'll leave our Contrast value at 15

and you can leave your Brightness value at 10.

For the Audio Volume select Normalize from the pull-down and input a value of 90. This will increase the lower audio levels to match the higher audio levels. There's also an option to do a volume adjust by selecting Adjust from the pull-down menu.

Once all of your adjustments are made click the OK button to save and close your filter.

To apply your filter select Deinterlace_Blend filter and drag onto your Real Media 1000k_DL preset that you have applied.

Notice the Deinterlace_Blend filter appears on the bottom of your applied preset.

To start encoding click the Squeeze It button.

When you video has finished encoding you will see Complete displayed in the Progress section of the Batch Tree. By default the file will output to the same folder as your source file.

Once your Real Media file is encoded you can author it for your website. When you are authoring web pages it's important that you have a folder on your desktop that has the same folder structure as your website. For example, if you have a folder called html, images and movies in the root directory of your website then you should have folder on your website with the same folder names similar to the image above. In this example we have a folder for the website on the desktop called training_website.

Before you start authoring it's best to movie your encoded Real Media video to its destination on the web. Navigate to the output location of your video file and copy it to the movies folder which should be inside the training_website folder that you are using for this tutorial.

Open Dreamweaver and select the Site that you want to access. In my case I'm using Freeman for Classes. Make sure you click the connect button to the far left right under you site. Next, click on Expand button to expand your view. You should be able to see your Remote Files and your Local Files. Above is view on the Local Files. This are the files sitting on your desktop. They are located on the right inside Dreamweaver in the Files view.

The Remote Files are located on the left. Notice that there is a movies, images and html file in both locations.

If you open up the movies folder you can see your Real Media Downloadable Streaming video that you moved to the movies folder earlier. Let's upload it to your website. Select the Real Media video and drag it to the movies folder on your Web Server. This is where the Remote File are located.

When the file starts transferring or uploading to your website you'll see a Background File Activity dialog appear. This dialog provides you with a status on your upload.

Moving on, let's author the Real Media video for the web. First, let me talk about what we're doing here in this step. We're going to create a web page with a link that when clicked will open up our Real Media downloadable streaming video. However, we want to hide the location of where the file is stored on our server along with any IP address information. To do this we'll use a RAM file which is a text file with a .ram extension that holds the absolute path to the Real Media Download video. This file will sit on our server in the same folder as our video file.

OK. Open Notepad

and type in the following information highlighted in the image above.

Type in http://www.yourwebsite.com/movies/youvideoname.rmvb?title="My Video". Make sure you put the URL to the Real Media video on your own website here. This is where your video is located. It you followed the tutorial correctly your Real Media download streaming video should be located in your movies folder.

Next, choose Save from the File Pull-down menu and call the file RM1000DL.ram.

Place the RM1000DL.ram file in your movies folder. Next upload the 1000DL.RAM file you created to the Movies folder on your web server.

Once your Real Media RAM file is on-line you can create your web page. In Dreamweaver select New from the File Pull-down menu.

When the Dialog Window opens choose HTML

and then choose Create.

Now Save your HTML page and call it RM1000DL.html. Make sure you save the RM1000DL.html page in your html folder inside your training_website folder.

Next, move you cursor to the top of the page in the Design View similar to the image above.

Navigate to the Insert Pull-down menu and select Hyperlink to add a link to our RAM file.

Remember, our RAM file holds the absolute path to our Real Media Downloadable Streaming file. When we create our link to the video we don't have to reference the video, we can simply reference the RAM file. When viewers click on the link if Real Media Player is installed the video will be automatically open in the player.

Let's continue. For Text type in My Real Media Video. For Link you need to put the path to your RAM file. This can be a relative path by typing in ../movies/RM1000DL.ram. The reason why we can use this relative path is because the html folder is parallel to the movies folder in this tutorial. It's best to always use relative paths. One benefit is that you can view all of your pages from your desktop. A greater benefit is that it'll make your website portable to another Web Server with a different Domain Name. Select _parent for the Target.

This is what you new link looks like.

We're almost finished. Save your file by selecting Save from the File Pull-down menu.

In the File View in Dreamweaver open the html folder and click on the RM1000DL.html web page. Drag it to the html folder under Remote Files on the left of the File View.

If you see a dialog that asks you if you want to Put dependent files? you can click No.

Now that your new wep page is created and is on your website . Type in the URL to your new page. This should be http://www.yourwebsite.com/html.RM1000DL.html. You should then see the your page appear. Click on the link that displays My Real Media Video.

With Real Media Player installed you should see you video open up in the Real Media Player similar to the image shown here. Congratulations on encodiing a Real Media Downloadable Streaming video in Squeeze and authoring it in Dreaweaver!

Sorenson Squeeze 5 Enabling First Seamless Editing, Encoding and Publishing Workflow

2009-10-18T15:33:00.006-04:00

Sorenson Media announced that the latest versions of Avid video editing solutions – Media Composer(4.0), Symphony (4.0) and NewsCutter (8.0) – integrate Sorenson Squeeze 5, providing users a seamless process for editing and encoding the highest quality video content in the most popular formats. Through Sorenson Squeeze’s unique integration with the Sorenson 360 online video platform, Avid customers may further benefit from a workflow solution that enables users to seamlessly edit, encode and publish the highest quality video online.

This most recent product offering is the latest in a six-year relationship Sorenson Media has maintained as the encoding tool integrated with Avid software. As the gold-standard video encoding application, Sorenson Squeeze enables editors, producers and filmmakers who use Avid video editing software to easily deliver video in all of the most popular video formats, with advanced encoding options and superior results.

Avid is dedicated to providing customers the highest quality video solutions that help them achieve their creative vision. By integrating our industry-leading editing software with the newest versions of third-party applications like Sorenson Squeeze, we help deliver the ultimate creative toolset.” said Mark Overington, vice president of product management at Avid. “Our customers have asked for a seamless all-in-one workflow and we continue to work with industry partners to extend the existing capabilities of our editor solutions for added functionality throughout the post-production process.”

Through the Avid software interface, video editors are able to send their video files directly to Sorenson Squeeze for encoding without adding any additional steps. Using Sorenson Squeeze’s simple workflow, users can output content in a wide variety of formats, including Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, for online, DVD or mobile delivery. The software also encodes in HD for MPEG-2, Flash, VC-1, and H.264 formats. Video professionals can compress and encode multiple files simultaneously and apply advanced pre-processing filters to produce higher quality video.

Additionally, the latest version of Sorenson Squeeze integrates seamlessly with the Sorenson 360 online video platform. This unique process creates an all-in-one editing-to-publishing solution for Avid customers, enabling them to efficiently publish videos of the highest-quality to the Web without adding any additional steps to their workflow. Once uploaded to Sorenson 360, users can easily deliver their video content to any Web site by cutting and pasting an automatically generated embed code and gain access to powerful analytics and other video management tools.

“We are thrilled that Sorenson Media continues to enjoy a strong relationship with Avid as the encoding tool of choice for their exceptional editing applications,” said Peter Csathy, CEO of Sorenson Media. “With the integration of Sorenson Squeeze – and, in turn, the additional Sorenson 360 platform – Avid customers are able to edit, encode and publish their videos efficiently on the Web or prepare the best quality videos for mobile media playback, DVD and other uses.”

Installing Episode Plug-in for Compressor 3

2009-10-17T23:07:00.005-04:00

If you have a license of Telestream's Episode Encoder and you are using Compressor 3 you can have access to the Episode Encoder encoding templates right from within Compressor. Here's how to install the Episode Encoder Plug-in for Compressor to get access to the templates.

On the install disk image for Episode there's a folder called Plug-ins.

Inside the folder there's a package called Episode Plug-in for Compressor. Double click on the package to install it. Restart your computer and the Episode presets will be an option in Compressor 3 encoder.

ViewCast Selects Rahul Commerce as Master Distributor

2009-10-16T16:14:00.006-04:00

ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, today announced that it has expanded its business relationship with Rahul Commerce, a leading distributor of multimedia technology in India. Previously a ViewCast reseller, Rahul Commerce has been designated a master distributor of ViewCast solutions, servicing India via offices in Mumbai and Pune and further extending ViewCast’s presence among Indian technology dealers, system integrators and broadcasting outlets.

“The new designation gives Rahul Commerce the opportunity to leverage its industry expertise and rich experience with ViewCast’s streaming media product portfolio in India, a country emerging as a significant market for streaming video in public and private enterprises,” said ViewCast Senior Vice President of Sales Gary J. Klembara.

“India’s rapidly developing Internet infrastructure represents a tremendous opportunity for its public institutions and private enterprises to leverage web streaming, video conferencing, IPTV and other rich media technologies to reach a larger audience within the country and around the world,” Klembara said. “Our alliance with Rahul Commerce promises to put ViewCast at the forefront of this technology movement, and positions us for accelerated business growth in the Indian market.” The market for streaming media technology in India has been driven in large part by the expansion of tele-education and tele-medicine programs across the government and education sectors. Broadcasting companies are proliferating in parallel, and are exploring Internet programming opportunities to extend the reach and revenue potential of the country’s 500+ television channels. With the roll-out of 3G and WiMax wireless communication services fueling the adoption of mobile streaming technology, and rising consumer demand for high definition (HD) programming, the market for ViewCast’s analog and HD streaming media product portfolio in India is primed for extraordinary growth.

“ViewCast’s Osprey video capture cards and Niagara streaming media encoders have been integral to Rahul Commerce’s success in the streaming media technology market, enabling us to provide our clients with reliable, high-performance streaming media platforms, backed by ViewCast’s reputation for quality service and support,” said Dhiren Shah, director, Rahul Commerce in Pune. “Working together with ViewCast in our elevated role as master distributor, we can capitalize on India’s rapidly growing demand for Internet streaming technology and services, as well as its nascent demand for mobile streaming capabilities and HD programming.”

Rahul’s capabilities in India are exemplified by the company’s work with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), which has implemented ViewCast’s Osprey 230 analog video capture cards in schools and hospitals in remote locations around the country to help facilitate the organization’s expansive distance learning and tele-medicine programs. Utilizing its EDUSAT satellite system to aggregate and disseminate interactive programming from/to geographically dispersed educational and healthcare facilities, the ISRO counts on Osprey 230 cards to enable reliable, high-performance streaming of live and on-demand video content across a large network of facilities.

ViewCast Osprey video capture cards and Niagara streaming media encoders are designed to deliver the quality, features and ease-of-use that professional broadcasters demand. They are pre-configured, plug-and-play solutions that enable users to quickly capture and broadcast premium quality audio and video in multiple formats and at multiple bit rates - all simultaneously.

Tool for Encoding to MP3 audio files on the Mac

2009-10-15T22:54:00.008-04:00

If you need to encode MP3 audio files on the Mac then using tools such as Episode and Sorenson Squeeze are obviously good choices for this. There are MP3 encoding presets already built into both applications. If you're trying to save money a free tool that you can use is called Audacity. This tool was first recommended to me by Brian Alves, one of the world's leading podcasters and host of The DV Show. If you have AIFF source files Audacity can encode them. To use Audacity for encoding MP3 files you'll need to download and install the Audacity application and the LAME mp3 encoder available on the Audacity website under downloads.

Digital Rapids Connects Top-Tier Content Owners to YouTube

2009-10-14T16:50:00.007-04:00

Digital Rapids-the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences -- announced that the company is working with YouTube to integrate support for Content ID, YouTube's content identification and management system, directly into Digital Rapids' award-winning range of media production and repurposing systems.

Digital Rapids’ encoding and transcoding systems are used by leading media organizations to transform live, tape and file-based video and audio content into the formats required for viewing on multiple platforms including broadcast, cable and satellite television; IPTV; the Web; mobile phones and personal media players.

The integration of YouTube Content ID support with Digital Rapids' systems enables users to generate Content ID reference files -- often referred to as "fingerprints" -- immediately from the content during the encoding or transcoding process. These digital fingerprints are then uploaded to YouTube's Content ID system. YouTube's content identification tools compare existing and incoming user-uploaded videos against the reference file, identifying the ownership of such content and taking the action specified by the owner's usage policies. Content owners can choose to block user-uploaded content, permit it on YouTube while simply tracking usage data, or monetize the uploaded media by running advertising against it.

The creation of Content ID reference files directly within existing encoding and transcoding workflows increases productivity and reduces operational costs by eliminating the need for separate steps to create the fingerprints. By generating the Content ID reference files during production, content owners also need only upload the much smaller ID file to YouTube for tracking and protection, rather than the actual content itself -- increasing security and significantly shortening the time before YouTube can begin blocking, tracking or monetizing uploaded copies of the content.

"We're excited to be working with YouTube to streamline their interactions with content owners. Content identification technologies are often thought of strictly in terms of protection against piracy, but they also enable new monetization opportunities," said Brick Eksten, President of Digital Rapids Corporation. "The automatic identification of content and its ownership gives content owners the option of capitalizing on additional revenue opportunities wherever the content appears. The integration of YouTube's Content ID technology into our systems makes it easy for media organizations to take advantage of these capabilities within efficient, automated media production workflows."

"We're pleased to be working with Digital Rapids to integrate our Content ID technology with their solutions, which are used by leading broadcasters, motion picture studies and content providers worldwide," said George Salem, Content ID Product Manager at YouTube. "Easing content owners' ability to identify their content on YouTube is critical to how they work with us to both control and monetize their assets. Support for Content ID directly within Digital Rapids powered live ingest, encoding and file-based transcoding workflows lets their customers easily provide us with ID files at almost the exact same time the content is produced, without changing how they currently do business."

Media Console Makes Life Simple for Authoring Streaming Content

2009-10-13T22:02:00.007-04:00

For all those individuals in media organizations, public affairs and media departments that need to start delivering video to the web, there is an amazing tool to help you out. Internap's Media Console is amazing and makes life simple for authoring streaming content. The Media Console tool takes the hard work out of authoring your streaming videos for your website. The only item that you have to focus on is encoding your videos. Once you encode your content all you have to do is upload your videos to the Internap CDN. The Media Console comes as part of the package for using the Internap Content Delivery Network (CDN).

There is a nice user interface that allows you to upload your videos. You can also FTP video to the content delivery network as well. The Media Console includes pre-made Flash Media player templates, generated embed and object tags, support for live and on-demand streaming, live streaming statistics and many other features. If you are serious about moving forward with streaming content on-line, you owe it to yourself to give Internap's CDN and their Media Console tool a try.

Vizada and Streambox Partner

2009-10-12T23:16:00.008-04:00

Vizada, the leading independent satellite communications provider, and Streambox, a leading provider of IP-based newsgathering solutions, have signed an agreement to provide media organizations with a high quality video streaming service without significant infrastructure investment. The companies announced the partnership at IBC, the leading international forum for the electronic media industry, taking place in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The partnership is based on the provision of Streambox’s Advanced Distribution Server (ADS) service, installed at Vizada’s data center in Amsterdam. The bundled service has been developed particularly for media organizations based in areas with more limited access to dedicated network infrastructure.

With the service in place, reporters broadcast live video images from location over a mobile satellite terminal, and these are in turn routed via Streambox’s ADS service. The ADS service makes the most of the higher bandwidth provided by Vizada’s terrestrial network infrastructure, and adds video management, packet redundancy, and forward error correction, to ensure that the live video reaches broadcasters offices in broadcast quality ready for transmission.

Vizada provides reporters with Inmarsat BGAN or ThurayaIP mobile satellite terminals capable of high-speed streaming data rates. Through its Terralink® family of IP & networking solutions, Vizada has also developed the terrestrial infrastructure necessary to house the Streambox server as well as relay the images from the mobile satellite terminal to the headquarter office.

“Operations of this kind generally involve a significant investment by the media organization, because to transmit broadcast quality images directly from the reporter’s location to the bureau, a dedicated, private network has to be put in place,” said Eric Verheylewegen, VP Commercial Sales, Vizada Americas. “We have the expertise to set this up, and do so for a number of media customers through our service providers, but not all our clients wish to invest this heavily, particularly for short-term projects.”

“It’s exciting to be partnering with Vizada to provide an innovative video delivery solution,” said Bob Hildeman, Chairman and CEO Streambox, Inc. “Our technology and software combined with Vizada’s networking expertise takes advantage of the Internet to provide an innovative solution that is both lower cost and easier to use.”

Vizada supplies mobile satellite services and solutions to the world’s leading media organizations, including CNN, Al-Arabiya News Channel, France24 and ITN. It provides the equipment, technical expertise, training and customer support to enable journalists to report live from anywhere in the world and transmit high-quality images back to headquarter office for broadcasting.

Streambox supplies IP-based newsgathering and video transport products and solutions to leading broadcasters and organizations around the world, including CNN, NHK, Sky, FOX, CBS, NBC Universal, and the US Government.

Telestream's Drive-in is Currently Unavailable

2009-10-11T22:25:00.008-04:00

Telestream has decided to suspend further distribution of the Drive-in software pending its evaluation of the recent decision of the U.S. District Court in Real Networks, Inc. v. DVD Copy Control Association, Inc. They are taking this step as a precautionary measure, and will continue to monitor the situation. They will keep the public posted on any further developments.

Highwinds and Octoshape Tee Up High Quality Streams for PGA TOUR

2009-10-10T21:54:00.005-04:00

Highwinds Network Group, Inc., a multiplatform IP services and content distribution provider, and Octoshape, a provider of streaming solutions for high quality and large-scale events, announced that their technologies have been used for online streaming of the four PGATOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup events on PGATOUR.COM.

PGATOUR.COM’s signature LIVE@ franchise offered live streaming from marquee holes at all four of the Playoff tournaments which included The Barclays (Aug. 27-30), Deutsche Bank Championship (Sept. 4-7), BMW Championship (Sept. 10-13) and THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola (Sept. 24-27). Streaming of the month-long PGA TOUR Playoffs utilized the Highwinds-Octoshape solution and helped deliver quality streams of this high-profile event to global online audiences.

As the demand for high-quality video and an enhanced feature set grows in the online media sector, Highwinds and Octoshape continue to work together to deliver robust, resilient solutions through the Octoshape live streaming solution running seamlessly on the Highwinds content delivery network (CDN). The PGATOUR.COM video player, which is fully customizable and enables golf fans to enjoy enhanced features, including digital video recording, leaderboard overlays, scorecard overlays, social network interaction and more, integrated the Octoshape high-quality video streaming solution for the four FedExCup events. For the same events, all live PGATOUR.COM coverage was streamed over the Highwinds CDN.

“Highwinds is quickly becoming recognized as the go-to CDN for the streaming of high-quality, large-scale news, entertainment and sporting events,” said Steve Miller, president and CEO of Highwinds. “Our partnership with Octoshape, which has included the streaming of such live events as the Presidential Inauguration, the Michael Jackson Memorial Service and now the 2009 PGA TOUR Playoffs, continues to grow to support the future of online video. Octoshape’s live streaming solution is a perfect complement to our robust CDN infrastructure and live delivery services.”

“The streaming infrastructure offered by Octoshape is designed to deliver high quality video, DVR, and instant on playback to global audiences,” said Scott Brown, CEO of Octoshape U.S. “Events of this quality and scale only come from the magic combination of ‘Class A’ production and technology integration like that of PGATOUR.COM, our proven, leading-edge technology and Highwinds’ high-performance CDN.”

Video Podcasts Are One of the Quickest Ways to Get Content On-line

2009-10-09T20:30:00.006-04:00

Video Podcasts are one of the quickest ways to get content on-line. If you need to start putting videos on-line you should consider this approach. Today is a new day for video editors. Many video editors and professionals are now being tasked with getting streaming content on-line along with the continuation of other video production duties. In order to simplify your workflow you should consider creating a Video Podcast. You can go this route if downloadable streaming videos work for your delivery and if you can sell your organization on the benefit of having videos available for view in iTunes, on Video iPods and on iPhones.

Once your Video Podcast is set-up the process for updating new video content is easy.

If your are fortunate to have a version of Sorenson Squeeze 5 Pro around which supports compression presets for Video iPods, updating on-line content becomes a very quick and simple process. Since you can use Squeeze's automatic FTP feature there's short list of what you'll need to do to get your content on-line:

Here's a short tutorial of the process for adding videos to your Video Podcast.

Step 1. Import your video into Sorenson Squeeze 5 Pro
Step 2. Apply one of the Video iPod presets
Step 3. Apply the appropriate filters for encoding

Step 4. Apply the Copy to FTP filter to your video source

Step 5. Double click the Copy to FTP filter to adjust the settings

Step 6. - Now that the Copy to FTP dialog is open you can adjust the settings. Using this feature will automatically transfer a copy of your output file to your web server after encoding. To use this feature you have to have an FTP account set-up for uploading videos to your web server. Go ahead and fill out the required information which includes: User Name, Password, Host and Path to your videos. Once your information has been typed in click the Test button and you should see a message that displays "Test was successful"

Step 7. - Once encoding is complete your videos will be automatically uploaded to your web server. Open up Blogger or the tool you're using as the blog to your Video Podcast. Add the URL for your video. Look at the image above to see how to add your URL information. Once you save and publish your blog page your video will be available via your Video Podcast. Sometimes it might take a few minutes to appear.

It's that simple. Now you see why I say Video Podcasts are one of the quickest ways to get video content on-line.

Digital Rapids Unveils New Features and Storage Options for TouchStream

2009-10-08T13:32:00.005-04:00

Digital Rapids -- the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences -- demonstrated new enhancements for the award-winning TouchStream live video streaming appliance at the 2009 IBC Conference and Exhibition.

TouchStream delivers Digital Rapids' renowned streaming video quality and reliability in a fully self-contained, portable appliance with unparalleled ease of use. Software controls are accessed through an intuitive touch-screen interface with integrated video monitoring, eliminating the need for laptops, keyboards, mice and separate monitors. Flexible features allow refinement of the incoming source and the addition of branding to the outgoing stream, while models supporting multiple formats -- including VC-1 and H.264 compression formats for Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash technologies -- provide easy adaptability to varying project requirements.

New features include customizable, password-protected function locking. Administrators can configure a custom set of interface controls to be locked with a password, letting them limit the functions available to less experienced users to as little as desired -- even just start and stop. Taking 'one-click streaming' a step further -- to no clicks at all -- TouchStream can also be configured to begin streaming with the most recent encoding parameters upon power-up, without user interaction.

Two new storage options have also been introduced for TouchStream, supporting its ability to simultaneously archive live streams to files for subsequent on-demand use. Complementing TouchStream's existing support for external USB or IEEE-1394 storage devices, new internal hard drive and removable storage options allow the addition of archive storage without the added physical space requirements of external drives.

Digital Rapids is also gave IBC attendees a sneak preview of future functionality in TouchStream, including a Web browser-based remote control interface that looks virtually identical to the unit's local interface.

"Industry and customer response since we began shipping TouchStream has been phenomenal, but we aren't content to rest on that success," said Wesley Thiessen, Product Manager, Digital Rapids Corporation. "Our new enhancements continue to make TouchStream even easier and more flexible, particularly in multi-user environments where operators have varying degrees of experience."

Wowza Media Systems Nominated for the Third Consecutive Year in Streaming Media's Readers' Choice Awards

2009-10-08T11:40:00.004-04:00

Wowza Media Systems, the media server software company, announced that the company has been selected as a nominee in two categories in this year's Streaming Media's Readers' Choice Award. The Wowza Media Server 2 Advanced is in the running for the Best Streaming Innovation category which is designed to acknowledge a product, technology, or service that most changed the streaming landscape in the past year. In addition, Wowza will once again be competing in the Best Server Hardware/Software category, which the company won last year.

This is the third consecutive year that Wowza received nominations for Streaming Media's prestigious Readers' Choice Awards. In 2007, as an upstart, Wowza won recognition against Adobe and Microsoft. In 2008, the company received the title Best Server Hardware/Software and was a finalist in the Best Streaming Radio Solution category.

"The ongoing recognition by the Streaming Media community is a reflection of our focus and our ability to consistently deliver high-performance software," said Dave Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-Founder, Wowza Media Systems. "These awards are particularly meaningful because the voters represent the professionals that are using these products to stay ahead of the curve in the business of online video and audio. We are looking forward to the announcement of the winners at Streaming Media West in November."

Voting for the awards is now open at www.streamingmedia.com/readerschoice/ and will remain open until October 16. The finalists in each category will be announced on October 23, 2009 and the winners will be revealed at Streaming Media West on November 19, 2009. For more information on the awards and the categories, visit www.streamingmedia.com/article.asp?id=11372.

Adding Video MIME types to Windows 2003 Server for Downloadable Streaming

2009-10-07T22:11:00.012-04:00

For those that are using the Windows 2003 Server and you desire to use the formats such as Flash (.FLV), and MPEG-4 and H.264 (.mp4) for download streaming you'll need to add these MIME types to your server before you can stream your content.

Here's a quick tutorial on how to do it:

Option #1 for Adding MIME types- at the Global Level

If you need to add a MIME type for a Web Server that uses IIS such as Windows 2003 Server first go to Administrative Tools and choose Internet Information Services (IIS). Once you get in the IIS Window you can add your MIME type by selecting the local computer and choosing the Action pull-down menu and selecting Properties.

Next go in and add your MIME type by clicking the MIME Types button.

Once in the MIME types dialog you can add your MIME type by clicking the New button and adding the format extension plus the MIME type. For example, for Flash Video you would type in .FLV for the extension and video/x-flv for the MIME type.

Option #2 for Adding MIME types - At the Web Directory level

For adding a MIME type at the Web Directory Level you go to Administrative Tools and choose Internet Information Services (IIS).

Select the Web Sites Folder in the IIS Manager and choose the Action Pull-down menu and select Properties.

Click the HTTP Headers Tab and go in and select the MIME Types button on the bottom of the dialog.

Now you can click the New button and add you MIME type. Use the same process you used for adding a MIME at the Global level.

Limelight Networks Introduces LimelightDELIVER XD and LimelightCONTROL XD

2009-10-06T23:39:00.006-04:00

Limelight Networks, Inc. introduced LimelightDELIVER XD and LimelightCONTROL XD-advanced services that take advantage of patent-pending Adaptive Intelligence in the recently introduced XD platform. These new service innovations provide Limelight Networks customers with unprecedented levels of control and performance from their content delivery service.

“With this introduction, Limelight Networks has brought true innovation to the core of the CDN market. LimelightDELIVER XD and LimelightCONTROL XD harness the power of our global network platform to make real-time decisions about delivery based on the unique characteristics of each request. Through these new services, Limelight can enable content publishers to meet the growing need for high-performance global delivery and for actionable information to tune an online business,” said David Hatfield, senior vice president, Limelight Networks, Inc.

LimelightDELIVER XD is a next-generation, high-performance delivery service that leverages the Adaptive Intelligence technologies that are part of the new XD Platform. Adaptive Intelligence enables the LimelightDELIVER XD service to provide the best possible user experience under any circumstance, by surveying last mile conditions on a request-by-request basis and then tuning origin, cache, and delivery subsystems on-the-spot. This end-to-end customized approach differs from other delivery services that focus only on identifying the server best positioned to deliver content.

“In our initial tests of LimelightDELIVER XD, we saw high-performance, consistent delivery across a variety of content types and geographies. We’re excited about the positive impact this will have on page loads, site responsiveness, our customers’ buying experience, and the overall benefits that it will bring to our online business,” said Carter Lee, vice president, technology operations, Overstock.com, Inc.

LimelightDELIVER XD offers shorter start-to-finish delivery times, provides massive scalability to handle peak loads and flash crowds, and provides more consistent performance regardless of geography, user network capacity or Internet conditions. This means customers will be able to increase conversion rates, lengthen viewing or gaming times and provide higher-quality end-user experiences for video, music, games, social media, software, and entire websites.

LimelightCONTROL is a new, advanced management and reporting suite that enables customers to exercise more control over their content delivery service. This new service suite replaces the former LimelightEXCHANGE portal and includes an upgraded user interface, enhanced reporting that includes real-time data on Internet conditions, granular control over storage utilization, and more.

The flagship service, LimelightCONTROL XD, offers advanced management applications that help to increase efficiency, reduce expenses, improve the user experience, and provide deep insight into performance of an online business. The service includes customer provisioning of services, custom control over CDN storage options, and the innovative Internet Health Monitor which provides customers with insight into potential sources of end user experience issues, collected in real-time by millions of globally distributed user agents that are part of the XD Platform.

Testing Encoding Speed vs. Quality Setting in Episode

2009-10-05T23:43:00.015-04:00

As if Telestream's Episode wasn't already fast enough, there's a way to make you encoding jobs go even faster. Here's some information from a quick test I did on Encoding Speed vs. Quality Setting in Episode.

Here's the source file that I used for encoding:

Video Format: QuickTime

Frame Size: 640 x 480

Codec: DV

FPS: 30

Audio: 44.100 kHz

16 bit Stereo

Duration: 30 seconds

I used the default H.264_Medium compression setting in Episode Pro which uses a 2-pass VBR compression method. For the first encode with the Encoding Speed vs. Quality setting set to 90 my video took 40 seconds to encode. On my second encode I adjusted the same compression setting and switched the Encoding Speed vs. Quality setting to 10. The video took 27 seconds to compress. Now when comparing the quality of both of my output files the video encoded using a quality setting of 10 still looked really good in terms of quality. Most would never notice the difference in quality. This is good news for those that need to compress files fast with Episode but don't won't to loose quality.

Nero Introduces New, Customizable Platform for PC-to-Device Connectivity and Content Management

2009-10-04T23:25:00.003-04:00

Nero, creators of liquid media technology, unveiled Nero MobileSync for smartphones, the first iteration of its universal, hardware-agnostic platform of fully customizable PC applications for mobile handset, Netbook, gaming console and Ultra-Mobile PC manufacturers. While current industry offerings are tied to a specific handset manufacturer, Nero MobileSync for smartphones is designed to allow the management, sharing and creation of content between the desktop, the mobile handset, and the Web regardless of mobile device.

Nero MobileSync for smartphones will help both mobile handset manufacturers and network carriers differentiate their user experience, increase their revenues via sales and advertising channels to the desktop, and better maximize the PC as the hub of the connected digital home – all without having to make costly investments in desktop application development.

“The ability to easily move content between the desktop, the Web and the handset has the potential to become a source of competitive differentiation in the mobile marketplace,” said Irene Berlinsky, Research Analyst, IDC. “Consumers increasingly want to access personal content across multiple screens –such as the PC, TV, and wireless phone – and Nero MobileSync positions Nero as a player in the fixed-mobile convergence space.”

Nero MobileSync is based on Nero’s decade of experience in providing PC-based solutions to address the digital content needs of consumers worldwide. With its vision of enabling liquid media, a strategy to support the creation and distribution of content anytime, anywhere and on any device, Nero has a track record of platform neutrality and a standards-based approach to development that breaks down the barriers caused by proprietary applications.

"Nero MobileSync has been created with the understanding that success in the portable device marketplace comes from the ability to quickly and easily unify the islands of digital content that consumers are creating on their various devices," said Udo Eberlein, CEO, Nero AG. “We are providing the complete infrastructure needed for the seamless transfer of this content between devices. This allows network carriers and manufacturers of handsets, Netbooks, and Ultra-Mobile PCs alike to differentiate their user experience and maximize revenue opportunities while fulfilling our vision for the liquidity of digital content.”

By allowing users to easily move PIM, music, videos and photos of their choice between the mobile handset, the desktop and the cloud, Nero is providing an opportunity for distinct financial benefits to select network carrier and handheld device partners. Nero MobileSync allows partners to select from a wide range of components, including customizable User Interface and workflow, that can be integrated into existing applications and that leverage Nero’s core multimedia technologies.

Adding Videos to YouTube Favorites

2009-10-03T18:24:00.004-04:00

If you need to add videos to your YouTube Favorites it's a simple process. Navigate to your Uploaded videos in your YouTube account and click the check box for the videos that you would like to add to your Favorites.

Once you have selected your videos you will see new options available in the Add to drop-down menu. From the drop-down menu click the Favorites option. Now your videos will be added to your YouTube Favorites.

On2 Technologies Licenses VP6 Video Decoder Technology to videantis

2009-10-02T23:11:00.004-04:00

On2 Technologies announced that videantis has licensed its VP6 video decoder source code for implementation in the videantis v-MPx programmable processor platform.

videantis makes flexible IP cores for advanced multimedia applications. With its optimized proprietary instruction set and parallel processing capabilities, the videantis v-MPx platform supports the implementation of high-performance video and image processing tasks using software updates instead of hardware changes. The v-MPx platform is used in customer integrated circuits ranging from mobile applications to home entertainment, automotive, and surveillance products. videantis's technology is fully proven in working silicon and FPGA prototyping systems.

"We're excited that videantis customers will have the best playback experience for high-quality VP6 content from their favorite video sites," said Matt Frost, interim CEO at On2.

"With the addition of On2 VP6 to our codec portfolio, our customer's products that use the videantis v-MPx processor platform are now able to access a wide range of popular, high-quality internet video with a simple software upgrade instead of a full silicon re-spin," said Young-Hun Kluge, VP of Sales & Marketing at videantis.

videantis v-MPx processor platforms featuring On2 VP6 are available for licensing immediately.

Episode Engine for Split and Stitch Encoding on the Mac

2009-10-01T23:11:00.013-04:00

Organizations and companies can consider Telestream's Episode Engine for Spit and Stitch encoding on the Mac. This encoding feature is one of the coolest I've seen because it takes advantage of cluster encoding. With Episode Engine you can build your own cluster with computers and XServes on your network. For those that are interested in high volume ultra fast encoding on the Mac platform using your internal network, Episode is definitely something to consider. With Telestream's Episode Engine you can submit a video file to one of your designated Watch folders and then Engine can divide the video up amongst the encoding nodes in your cluster. This makes the encoding process for each file much faster. You could literally have 5 Xserves working on encoding one 30 or 60 minute video file. So encoding 50 videos goes much faster than real time.

Here's a glimpse of what Split and Stitch looks like. The above image shows the video file divided into 8 sections and then each part can be sent to a node. Once all of the 8 sections have finished encoding the file is brought back together into one file. Split and Stich is great for long form content and for those that want to get video content on-line in the shortest amount of time.

Akamai Unveils the Akamai HD Network

2009-09-30T13:15:00.003-04:00

Akamai Technologies, Inc., the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced the Akamai HD Network, its next generation video delivery offering and the first platform to deliver HD video online to viewers using Adobe Flash technology, Microsoft Silverlight, and to the iPhone, at broadcast-level audience scale. The Akamai HD Network is the only solution that supports live and on-demand HD streaming with a highly-personalized and interactive online experience that matches and complements HD television.

As a first-of-its-kind streaming platform, the Akamai HD Network is designed as one, comprehensive HD network reaching multiple playback environments and devices, including Flash, Silverlight, and the iPhone. Leveraging the global breadth and scale of Akamai's globally-distributed EdgePlatform of more than 50,000 servers, the Akamai HD Network enables content providers to deliver more HD content than previously possible - due to its wide-scale distribution in 70 countries and increased throughputs in more than 900 networks.

The Akamai HD Network is a streaming platform that leverages the following functionalities: Adaptive Bitrate Streaming - Unique network and player streaming process that is designed to enable uninterrupted playback at HD bitrates that seamlessly adjusts to fluctuations in available bandwidth to provide the best quality possible for each user; Instant Response - Immediate response to viewer interactions with the video player, including sub-second time-shifting (such as pause, rewind, seek and play commands) video startup times, and seamless stream switching; HD Video Player - Open, standards-based video player for faster time to market; HD Player Authentication - Authenticates player for all three environments ensuring only authorized players access content.

"Seeing is believing," said Paul Sagan, President and CEO, Akamai. "With the Akamai HD Network, we are revolutionizing the way content traverses the Internet with a new approach to bringing an HDTV-like experience online. We're entering a different online world, where many content owners and publishers need to deliver HD-quality video to a much wider online audience, with a higher level of interactivity for consumers. Delivering 'web-quality' content to 'web-sized' audiences is one thing, but delivering HD-quality content to broadcast-scale audiences is another."

Akamai has helped pioneer the delivery of HD content online, having worked with leading entertainment, sports, and news businesses. Two key trends have made it necessary to now evolve how streaming media is delivered on the Internet. First, online audiences have grown to broadcast scale. Second, those viewers are demanding higher quality content. Studies show that when higher quality video content is offered, viewer engagement time increases. Supporting this level of traffic requires a global network that can manage millions of simultaneous users streaming very high bitrate content. The Akamai HD Network was designed for large-scale broadcasters and film distributors looking to increase audience engagement and to expand revenues by complementing traditional mediums, such as TV and DVD, with the Internet.

The Akamai HD Network offers adaptive bitrate streaming capabilities across playback formats that are specifically optimized to work with Akamai's HD EdgePlatform for the fastest and most consistent video bitrate switching - enabling an instant and uninterrupted viewing experience for consumers even at the highest bitrates. Leveraging Akamai's entire HTTP footprint, video over Akamai's HD Network is delivered from servers closer to audiences around the world. As a result, Akamai can more tightly control the amount of time the player needs to buffer before switching streams. The shorter the buffer, the faster the stream can adapt and respond to changing end-user conditions. The result is intended to create a seamless HD quality video experience – with little to no buffering.

"We are excited to see Akamai's commitment to HTTP adaptive streaming as the future of online video delivery, as we have worked closely over the past year to build a robust end-to-end media delivery platform with IIS Smooth Streaming and Silverlight," said Steve Sklepowich, director for Silverlight at Microsoft Corp. "Together, we've proven that these true HD experiences can dramatically increase online viewing times for broadcasters. In addition, Microsoft's ability to deliver live and on-demand protected streams with Smooth Streaming and Silverlight, along with enhanced interactive experiences, such as multiple camera angles, alternate language tracks and in-stream data feeds, have raised the bar for online delivery using HTTP."

"Adobe works closely with Akamai to optimize Flash Media delivery on Akamai's network for the benefit of our mutual customers," said Jim Guerard, Vice-President and General Manager, Dynamic Media at Adobe. "We're pleased that customers who already leverage the Flash Platform as the number one video format online will now enjoy increased scalability and quality gains as a result of utilizing Akamai's vast edge infrastructure via HTTP video streaming."

Downloadable Streaming Basics

2009-09-29T22:56:00.003-04:00

Another form of streaming is called downloadable streaming which is different than that of real-time streaming because the video files are placed on a regular web server. With downloadable streaming you can deliver the highest quality file because you can use encoding methods such as 2-pass VBR to vary the bit rate so that higher quality can be achieved over parts of the video that need it more. Since downloadable streaming videos are a file-based download where they don’t have to go through the user’s bandwidth pipe, the bit rate at various parts of the video can peak high. This is different than that of a CBR or a Constant Bit Rate encode. Downloadable streaming videos are great for short form content. With this type of streaming there is also an option to do a quality based encode where the compressionist can determine the quality that they want to achieve on a video file. It's important to note that when viewing a downloadable streaming video a copy does get placed on the viewer's computer but is one of the easiest ways to deliver streaming videos on the internet.

New Envivio 4Caster C4² Encoding/Transcoding Platform Boosts Performance

2009-09-28T14:08:00.007-04:00

Envivio, Inc. introduced 4Caster C42, the second generation of the company’s Convergence Series video encoding/transcoding platform. 4Caster C42 uses the performance of the latest generation Intel multi-core server processors to deliver better quality video, make more efficient use of bandwidth and enable delivery of high definition (HD) video services to all three consumer screens. The 4Caster C42 joins the 4Caster C4 in the Convergence Series, building on the features of its precursor and giving service providers flexibility to tailor their video headend to match their requirements.

“The competitive pressure to deliver more entertainment options, to more subscribers, at the best possible quality, continues to mount,” said Envivio CEO Julien Signès, “yet bandwidth remains precious. 4Caster C42 drives performance and flexibility far beyond platforms based on ASIC hardware. As a result we can offer significant improvements in both video quality and bitrates. By simultaneously supporting multiple networks and many different consumer devices, 4Caster C42 enables an operator to meet the highest consumer expectations–including top quality HD service—on any viewing screen.”

The enhanced performance of 4Caster C42 extends the capabilities of the codec technologies developed by Envivio to further enable delivery of the best quality video within the tight bandwidth tolerances of different networks and applications. The new Envivio Extreme HD compression is exclusive to 4Caster C42 and enables operators to deliver a best-quality HD experience to IPTV subscribers using just 4 Mbps. For Internet TV, even lower bitrates are possible and can be combined with adaptive bitrate technologies such as Silverlight Smooth Streaming HD, Flash HD and Apple adaptive streaming to enable quality delivery over networks with no guaranteed QoS. 4Caster C42 supports all Envivio compressions levels for IPTV, Mobile TV and Internet TV.

Intel engineers have incorporated specific video compression routines submitted by Envivio into the IPP library of the latest generation Intel Xeon processors. The C42 compression engine benefits from these optimizations which provide the performance needed to deliver high quality HD video for the most demanding network scenarios.

In addition to the comprehensive suite of pre-processing tools found in 4Caster C4, the new 4Caster C42 leverages its increased processing power to add support for H.264 over IP input as well as spatial de-noising filters for HD content that corrects visual errors from HD video sources.

MediaMesh from Digital Rapids Wins STAR Award at IBC 2009

2009-09-27T22:36:00.004-04:00

Digital Rapids -- the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences -- announced that the company's new MediaMesh content distribution system is the recipient of a 2009 STAR (Superior Technology Award Recipient) Award given by the editorial staff of TV Technology Europe magazine at the 2009 IBC convention.

The STAR Award (Superior Technology Award Recipient) is designed to celebrate and showcase the preeminent technological innovations available to the broadcast industry. TV Technology Europe's editor reviewed a variety of products, examined the technical applications and their overall contribution to the industry, and then chose 25 winners.

"STAR awards are given to interesting new products that help a user save money or accomplish a task in an easier way," said Mark Hallinger, Editor of TV Technology Europe. "The products selected help advance the industry -- some were chosen because of technical novelty or innovation, some because they filled an important gap in the production or transmission chain, and some because they were just cool products."

"Reducing costs, streamlining operations and broadening distribution reach were themes that we heard repeatedly from content providers throughout the IBC show, and are all objectives that MediaMesh was designed to help our customers achieve," said Brick Eksten, President of Digital Rapids Corporation. "We're pleased that TV Technology Europe has recognized the benefits of MediaMesh, and honored to receive this award."

MediaMesh combines a robust, scalable delivery framework with full-featured, flexible receiving appliances, providing efficient distribution of digital media between content providers, contributors, aggregators and distribution partners. Enabling delivery of HD, SD and Digital Cinema content over terrestrial IP networks and satellite, MediaMesh significantly lowers delivery costs while streamlining the tapeless delivery of content ranging from ad spots and promos to syndicated series and long-form features. MediaMesh RX receiving appliances provide powerful functionality at the endpoints of the digital distribution chain, with integrated review, inventory management, transcoding, re-packaging and playout.

Wedding and Event Videographers Capture Top Quality Encoding, Workflow Solutions from Sorenson Media

2009-09-26T18:32:00.004-04:00

“Sorenson Squeeze saves me so much time-and the finished product looks great,” said Glen Meiners, owner of Beyond Video LLC, in Tucson, Arizona. “I can batch encode video files into different formats and sizes and Sorenson Squeeze can output to anything I need. While Sorenson Squeeze is processing files in the background on my computer, I can continue to edit video in another program. And Sorenson Squeeze custom filters make my videos look great on the Web.”

Professional videographers know Sorenson Squeeze is the digital video encoding software that delivers top quality video for multiple uses, including the Internet, DVD and iPods. Among video professionals, Sorenson Squeeze is the gold standard. It is an intuitive, beginning-to-end workflow solution enabling independent editors, producers and filmmakers to easily deliver video of the highest quality in all of the most popular video formats, including HD for MPEG-2, Flash, VC-1 and H.264 formats.

Delivering products with the highest video playback quality delights customers and leads to referrals. “Whenever I do a wedding, I put a trailer on my Web site and traffic increases. It’s very important for trailers to look good,” said wedding videographer Alan Robinson, owner of Bonnie Blink Productions in West Chester, Penn. “I use Sorenson Squeeze to create top quality Flash video for my Web site. Several colleagues have commented on how good my Web video looks and I recommend Sorenson Squeeze to them.”

Sorenson 360 is an Internet video publishing platform that simplifies the work-lives of busy professional videographers. Working seamlessly with Sorenson Squeeze, Sorenson 360 enables videographers to easily encode and quickly upload video of the highest quality onto their Web sites. It also allows them to post completed, password-protected final-cut versions of their videos for customer approval. Customers watch their final cut in the highest quality online instead of having to drive to the studio or wait for a DVD.

“Sorenson 360 VDN is a great way for professionals to showcase their work and to gain complete control over formatting and appearance of their online video,” said Eric Quanstrom, Sorenson Media vice president of marketing and strategy.

Recording Videos With Wirecast on the Mac

2009-09-25T23:53:00.009-04:00

If you're Recording videos with Wirecast on a Mac the formats that you can save to are QuickTime .mov, Flash .f4v and MPEG-4 .m4v. The Record to Disk option is great way to archive your content to disk. You can save the files for archiving or later playback from a Streaming Server.

Telestream Recognized as a Top 10 "Innovation All-Star" as Part of the 2nd Annual New California 100 Conference

2009-09-25T00:04:00.002-04:00

Telestream has been recognized as one of ten 2009 California Innovation All-Stars and was honored at the 2nd annual New California 100 conference on September 22 in Sacramento. The New California 100 conference is a joint effort of Golden Capital Network and Hamilton Lane. The All-Star Awards are officially endorsed by the California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency. The Innovation All-Stars are receiving special honors as a special subset of the New California 100 companies as they exemplify some of the most innovative companies in the state, representing California's commitment to innovation, entrepreneurship, and workforce competitiveness.

"California is a leading region in the world for technological innovation, so to be considered among the top ten companies this year is very meaningful to us," said Dan Castles, CEO of Telestream. "Receiving this award validates our continuous focus on innovation and fuels our motivation to keep pursuing this approach."

The companies were selected from over 400 nominations from throughout the State of California to receive this prestigious recognition. The All-Star selection committee was comprised of angel investors, venture capitalists, successful entrepreneurs, and conference sponsors. The selected ten businesses were recognized during a luncheon awards ceremony on September 22, 2009 at the New California 100 Conference in Sacramento's Sheraton Grand Hotel.

"These innovators are powerful job-creating machines," said Jon Gregory, CEO/President of Golden Capital Network. "We believe innovation and entrepreneurship are the drivers of economic growth in California and these Innovation All-Stars are models for our state."

In addition to the ten Innovation All-Stars, 100 companies in total were recognized as part of the 2009 group of New California 100 companies. These businesses are market-leading technology companies who have been selected based on the uniqueness of their innovation, competitive advantages, and job and economic impact on California's economy now and into the future.

Setting Up An Encoding Workstation

2009-09-23T22:20:00.006-04:00

Setting up an encoding workstation is one of the best things you can do if you're going to be encoding a lot of videos. An encoding workstation is a computer set-up with compression software installed and its primary task is to encode videos. Now a lot of times when organizations start encoding content they'll encode videos on the same workstation that is used for video editing. This presents a problem because it's hard to get other work done during the encoding process. When you set up an encoding workstation it solves the dilemma because all of your encode jobs can be sent to the encoding workstation. Video editors can continue to edit and encoding can occur all at the same time.

You should avoid the tendency to install additional software and use your encoding workstation for other functions. It really defeats the purpose. Granted to have an encoding workstation you have to make the investment in the workstation, compression software, RAM, and extra hard drive space but it's worth it. A good tip is to leave your encoding workstation on all the time so encoding can occur. Of course you have to shut the computer down every once in a while but that's not a big deal. So, make sure you invest in an encoding workstation to make your encoding process easier.

Boxer Systems to be Exclusive UK Distributor for Kulabyte

2009-09-22T15:56:00.006-04:00

Kulabyte Corporation, the leading developer of live HD Flash encoding solutions is proud to announce the signing of its newest authorized reseller, Boxer Systems.

Boxer Systems, provider of professional representation, distribution and systems integration services, serves technology leaders in the broadcast, film, post-production and television industries. With an impressive track-record, Boxer has provided numerous companies the tools and development required for industry success. Its customers range from high end and middle range film and post-production facilities to broadcasters, corporates and production companies across the UK and Ireland.

Boxer is known for its unique ability to build and maintain strong relationships with its customers. As a result of consistent professionalism, understanding, integrity and excellent supporting structure, Boxer has gained a high level of confidence and esteem in its marketplace.

Boxer’s Director of Technology Marc Risby said “We are very happy to be working with the team at Kulabyte. Their HD FLASH streaming and capture products output fantastic looking pictures that will undoubtedly give our customers a competitive edge as the UK market continues to adopt HD.”

This exclusive reseller agreement with Boxer will allow the UK and surrounding regions to have authorized, professional products and services of all Kulabytes offerings and systems.

Fox Latin American Channels Launches Online VOD Service with Brightcove

2009-09-20T23:13:00.005-04:00

Brightcove Inc., the leading online video platform, announced that Fox Latin American Channels has chosen to build its online VOD service on the Brightcove platform. Brightcove is enabling Fox Latin American Channels to deliver more than 800 hours of premium, advertising-supported, long-form video content in Spanish and Portuguese from some of the network's most popular shows through its Mundo Fox portal (http://mundofox.com/la and http://mundofox.com.br/br). In the short time since launching the new online VOD initiative on June 16th, Fox Latin American Channels has already generated 1.5 million unique users and 2.5 million page views for Mundo Fox.

"We're proud to expand our online video offering to include premium and long-form content particularly as demand from consumers and advertisers grows throughout Latin America," said Pablo Silva, vice president of global online publishing of Fox International Channels. "This is not about just publishing videos online," added Silva. "Our long-term goal is to become one of the most popular and profitable video destinations in our markets, propelled by our flagship TV properties and brands as well as platforms such as Brightcove."

Brightcove's long-form delivery capabilities enable Fox Latin American Channels to deliver up to HD-quality full episodes and clips of popular series like 24, Family Guy and Burn Notice from a range of channels and properties, including 20th Century Fox, Fox, FX and National Geographic. Brightcove also provides the best user experience possible by optimizing video delivery for any end user network condition.

"We're excited to work with Fox Latin American Channels as they continue to expand their long-form on-demand offerings, which include some of the most highly sought after entertainment programming on the Web," said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove's chairman and chief executive officer. "Fox Latin American Channels continues to be at the forefront of innovation when it comes to online video and on-demand viewing, and we're proud that the Brightcove online video platform has been chosen to support their ongoing efforts in Latin America and around the world."

Fox Latin American Channel runs and operates channels, websites, original production and monetization for a variety of network brands in Latin America, including Fox, FX, Fox Life, Fox Sports, Fox News, National Geographic Channel, National Geographic Music, Universal Channel, Hallmark Channel, Utilísima, SPEED Channel, Baby TV Channel, .Fox Networks, BienSimple, Fox Toma 1 and Fox Telecolombia. Fox Latin American Channels and Fox International Channels are wholly owned by The News Corporation Limited.

DivX Acquires AnySource Media

2009-09-18T19:37:00.005-04:00

DivX, Inc. a digital media company, today announced it has acquired AnySource Media LLC, creator of a leading Internet Television streaming platform that allows users to directly connect their TV to a wide variety of content and services on the Internet, enabling hundreds of virtual on-demand channels.

"Internet TV will transform the landscape for media distribution and advertising as we know it," stated Kevin Hell, Chief Executive Officer, DivX, Inc. "The AnySource streaming platform combined with our high-quality device certification program and our deep relationships with both consumer electronics companies and Hollywood studios puts us in an enviable position in this rapidly emerging market. We look forward to bringing these two great teams together to realize our open, consumer-focused vision for digital media as it moves to a connected world."

Based in Malvern, PA, AnySource Media has developed a software solution that can support e-commerce transactions and enable rapid navigation and seamless playback of hundreds of virtual on-demand channels directly via HDTVs, Blu-ray disc players and other consumer electronics devices such as mobile phones. The AnySource Internet Video Navigator(TM) enables online video on a living room TV and easy access to Internet-based videos, music, photos, games and data content at the touch of a button through a standard remote control.

"AnySource is a solid strategic complement to DivX," said Mike Harris, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, AnySource Media, and who has joined the DivX management team reporting to Kevin Hell. "We are very excited to join DivX to redefine the TV viewing experience for millions of consumers, leveraging DivX's technology and vast ecosystem which now includes more than 200 million DivX devices shipped into the market."

Total consideration for the acquisition is $7.5 million, paid in cash at closing, and additional cash payments up to $7.5 million payable over three years upon the achievement of certain technical, and revenue and distribution milestones.

"The acquisition of AnySource's technology platform and the addition of their talented team advance our development schedule by at least one year," said Dan Halvorson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. "For the remainder of 2009, the acquisition will increase our headcount and integration costs by approximately $1.3 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, net of taxes."

Wirecast Fix for Windows and QuickTime 7.6.4

2009-09-17T19:31:00.003-04:00

There is a new version of Wirecast available that fixes the incompatibility issue with Wirecast for Windows and QuickTime 7.6.4 For your convenience you can download the latest version from: http://www.telestream.net/download-files/wirecast/3-5/Wirecast-3.5.5.exe.

Limelight Networks Provides Mobile Services for MLB.com

2009-09-16T16:42:00.006-04:00

Limelight Networks, Inc. announced that since the start of the Major League Baseball (MLB) season, the company has provided mobile audio streaming services to MLB Advanced Media for the award-winning MLB.com At Bat 2009 application offered on the iPhone and iPod touch.

“Limelight Networks is pleased to be working with MLB Advanced Media to help make the game more accessible to fans in more places by enabling a great mobile baseball listening experience in MLB.com At Bat 2009,” said Peter Coppola, vice president, product management, Limelight Networks, Inc.

The MLB.com At Bat 2009 application enables fans to listen to live broadcasts of every Major League Baseball game without blackout restrictions through the final game of the World Series. The application also includes MLB.com Gameday, which shows detailed pitch-by-pitch information, and a continuously-updated MLB scoreboard.

RipCode On-Demand Transcoding Brings Video to AccessU2's Property By Phone

2009-09-15T22:23:00.006-04:00

RipCode, Inc., the leader in transactional video transcoding announced it has partnered with AccessU2 to deliver on-demand property videos to virtually any mobile device – enabling ‘anytime, anywhere, any device’ viewing of agent profile and virtual tour property videos.

AccessU2 Mobile Solutions, LLC, a pioneer in mobile marketing for real estate, and its patent pending product, Property By Phone, are revolutionizing property information delivery by providing the same experience to a buyer's cell phone that virtual tours have delivered to websites. The Property By Phone application lets clients dial a toll-free number listed on the property sign or in print advertising, entering a displayed property code. After making a language selection and confirming the cell phone number, an SMS text message description of the property, up to 10 photos, and a streaming video link are presented nearly instantly. Agents receive a text message of the cell phone capture at the same time. If the client selects the video link, RipCode’s TransAct solution automatically discovers the mobile device type, retrieves the source video file, transcodes the file for the best video playback experience for that particular mobile device, and streams the content within seconds of request – all through its innovate and unique On Demand Transcoding technology. Clients can even set an appointment instantly to view the listing by connecting with a live operator 24/7, who can book an appointment, and text the confirmation and full contact info back to the consumer and agent.

“Adding video viewing to Property By Phone improves the buyer’s purchase experience and enables agents to build those all important relationships faster, especially when they can deliver an agent profile video instantly. It is simply not enough to deliver a text message and photos any longer,” said AccessU2’s Founder and CEO, Kenneth O’Hanlon. “The ability to deliver video instantly enables endless marketing opportunities for brokers, agents, and real estate suppliers, the likes of which the industry has never been seen before. RipCode’s solution lets us deliver these videos to virtually any mobile device prospective buyers may carry – without us having to pre-format our entire video library for each device when only a small subset may actually be required for a given site. Multiply that activity times thousands of properties and buyers, and you can see why this approach is advantageous.”

“We are excited to see one of our flagship innovations – on demand transcoding – penetrate the world of enterprise and consumer mobile video delivery,” said Neal Hartsell, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management for RipCode. “What AccessU2 is doing for real estate buying and selling is creative, advanced, and indicative of the growing expansion of mobile video beyond entertainment and into business and consumer productivity, a trend that is set to explode worldwide in the coming years.”

Digital Rapids to Showcase New Technology and Share Expertise at IBC 2009

2009-09-14T11:22:00.005-04:00

Digital Rapids -- the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences -- is bringing more than just advanced technology to this year's IBC Conference and Exhibition, September 11-15 in Amsterdam. In addition to the IBC debuts of new and enhanced solutions in stand # 7.G41, Digital Rapids will be sharing its expertise with attendees both at the stand and in free sessions in the IBC Training Zone. Digital Rapids systems have also been chosen to power the encoding of content for the IBC TV News website and mobile delivery for the sixth consecutive year. For first time, IBC TV News will feature live streaming of news updates on the Web, complementing their on-demand news clips.

Digital Rapids' award-winning TouchStream portable live streaming appliance will also be featured alongside the Datpresenter rich media webcasting service and software from Datmedia in stand IP511 in the IBC IPTV Zone.

"We believe it's important to offer IBC attendees more than just the chance to experience our technology and products. Robust, versatile and efficient solutions are as important as ever with customers' shrinking budgets and increasing audience expectations, but technology is just part of what media organisations need to meet these challenges. Customers are looking to us for expertise, guidance, and the flexibility to meet their unique needs," said Clive Vickery, Managing Director, EMEA and Asia at Digital Rapids.

"With a range of activities to share our solutions and knowledge both in and beyond our stand, we can help attendees learn how to maximise new revenue opportunities with the flexibility, efficiency and cost-effectiveness they need to come out of the economic storm stronger than ever. "

QuickTime 7.6.4 Not Compatible with Wirecast for Windows

2009-09-13T20:20:00.004-04:00

The new version of QuickTime, v7.6.4, is not compatible with Wirecast for Windows. Telestream is working on resolving the issue but until it is fixed, you should not update to the new QuickTime.

Action Football Extreme Announces Partnership With NiFTy

2009-09-12T15:02:00.004-04:00

Action Football Extreme (AFX) and Network Foundation Technologies (NiFTy) announced an agreement to broadcast the AFX inaugural 2010 season games and events on the Internet.

AFX, a new international entertainment and professional sports league which will have teams throughout all of Europe, is offering a new style of American football which is designed as fast paced, hard hitting, exciting entertainment that fits with the style of sport played in the European markets today. The football match will be the background for AFX “Events,” combining a wide choice of professional entertainment, music, dance, extreme sports, and many other initiatives that encourages fan interaction.

Currently finalizing negotiations, AFX will reveal several major sponsors in an upcoming league press conference. The AFX management team includes well known names such as Ernest Givins, James “Brock” Olivo, Ken Harvey and Phil Hickey. Hickey will head league operations and media relations.

“Providing global online broadcasts of AFX Events is a very important part of our mission statement,” said Gregory Anderson, Executive Director of the AFX league. “It complements our regional TV and radio coverage, ensuring that fans anywhere in Europe and around the world can follow their teams.”

“We are really looking forward to the opportunity to carry the 2010 AFX inaugural season online,” said Marcus Morton, NiFTy’s President and co-founder. “AFX is a great compliment to our broadcast family, especially for football fans, who have enjoyed NiFTy’s broadcasts of arena football 2 (af2) for two seasons now.”

Working with Videos in Sorenson 360

2009-09-11T23:19:00.016-04:00

Today we'll be discussing working with videos in Sorenson 360. Now if you thought Sorenson Squeeze was an amazing compression tool, wait until you get a load of his big brother for video delivery Sorenson 360. When looking at the available features of this tool since its May release it boasts a lot of excitement right out of the box. Many times individuals and organizations that want to host videos on-line have to set-up a server for the video delivery but Sorenson 360 takes that job off your plate because it is a Video Delivery Network.

Let's now look at the Video section in 360.

After logging into Sorenson 360 you can click on the Video tab to access your videos.

On the main page of the Video section you can get a quick snapshot of the Video Title, Description, Format, Upload Date, and Number of Views. You can also sort through the videos that are Live, Retired and in the Trash. Sorting by Upload Date, Title and Number of Views is another option.

Now, let's look a little bit further into the features in the Video section of Sorenson 360.

If you click on one of your videos you'll get access to many other items. You can choose a Player Style, Player Size, copy Embed Code and copy a Permalink. In this area you also have the option to Edit Title, Edit Description and Password Protect videos. If you want to make a video Live, Retire it or Trash it this is where you'll do it. Lastly, this area will give you quick access to video metrics and settings used during encoding. Wow, and that's only the Video section of Sorenson 360.

To get more hands-on instruction on using Sorenson 360 attend one of our 2-Day Video Streaming and Compression classes. It'll be featured in Day 2 of the Authoring track.

Training for Video Streaming and Compression in Europe

2009-09-10T14:38:00.006-04:00

On-site training for Video Streaming and Compression is available in Europe. In addition to making our training classes available In-class and On-line, Freeman Compression Inc. will be available to come and train your organization in Europe. This can provide a tremendous cost savings because organizations won't have to pay for their employees' travel to the U.S. Our full list of training classes will be offered in Europe.

Organizations will be able to choose from any of the following classes or have them grouped together:

2-Day Video Streaming and Compression Training
1-Day Sorenson Squeeze Training
1-Day Episode Pro Training
1-Day Wirecast Live Streaming Training
1-Day Wowza Media Server Pro Training (PC)
1-Day Wowza Media Server Pro Training (Mac)
1-Day Sawmill Professional Training

If you'd like to have Freeman Compression Inc. train your organization in Europe or in another country give us a call by phone at 407-477-5837 or E-mail us at info@freemancompression.com

Teradata Chooses Abacast

2009-09-10T11:37:00.007-04:00

Abacast, the industry leader in Hybrid CDN Services, announced that Teradata has licensed Abacast’s Live Peer-Assisted Delivery Service and ImageSync presentation software. The licensed Abacast servers are used for distributing live Windows Media video internally to over 5,000 Teradata employees.

Abacast’s enterprise-ready Live Peer-Assisted Delivery Service enables Teradata to broadcast live events including leadership communications, earnings announcements, and other strategic updates from members of the senior management team to its employees throughout the world.

“Abacast’s enterprise-targeted, peer-assisted video solutions have enabled us to incorporate important and informative live and on-demand presentations into our employee communications practice,” said Diana Bolden, Vice President of information technology (IT) at Teradata. “We are now serving high-quality and cost effective live video to our employees.”

Abacast’s Live Peer-Assisted Delivery Service is an enterprise-ready, licensed version of the software that powers Abacast’s industry-leading hosted live distribution service. As a licensed server running in an enterprise, Abacast Live effectively provides a software multicast solution by combining the security and control of unicast technology with the efficiency of peer-assisted delivery. The result is a secure, resilient, and stable network that delivers high quality video to thousands of simultaneous users while using significantly less network bandwidth and server capacity.

Abacast’s ImageSync software enables the streaming of live video synchronized with Microsoft PowerPoint slides. The synchronized video and slides are presented live to the end user in a unified player and also simultaneously archived for later, on-demand playback.

“Abacast’s Live Peer-Assisted Delivery provides enterprises with a tangible and significant ROI over multicast solutions and IT infrastructure upgrades,” said Jim Kott, Abacast Co-President. “It’s rewarding in these times to provide an enterprise video delivery solution with such a high ROI without sacrificing one bit on video quality.”

Studio Hamburg MCI Selects Telestream for Tapeless Workflows

2009-09-09T11:26:00.004-04:00

Telestream announced that Studio Hamburg Media Consult International (MCI) selected its Pipeline and Episode products for a major tapeless IT workflow project that was recently completed for Studio Berlin Adlershof (SBA), the new technical operator of TV.Berlin and Hamburg 1 in Germany. Telestream’s Pipeline Quad network video capture system and Episode Engine Pro transcoding server software provide the speed, quality and automation needed for time-critical news workflows at these facilities.

Telestream products play an important role in tapeless workflows,” said Martin Brosthaus, Product Manager at Studio Hamburg MCI. “Pipeline Quad allows edit while ingest which speeds the video capture process. Episode Engine Pro provides broad support for all required formats and delivery of high-quality output at incredible speeds.”

Installation was completed at new premises for TV.Berlin which began operation in May 2009. Hamburg 1 underwent a complete facility redesign which went live in July. The tapeless IT workflows at both facilities are virtually identical, incorporating an Apple XSAN production environment and a high degree of automation.

“Studio Hamburg is one of the largest TV and film production facilities in Europe. We are pleased that Episode and Pipeline were chosen to play such a key role in this state-of-the art tapeless workflow,” said Barbara DeHart, VP of Marketing at Telestream. “These products are ideally suited to provide the speed, quality and level of automation required for this project.”

The central component for ingest is Telestream’s Pipeline Quad four-channel network video capture system which is automatically controlled by various ingest workstations via standard LAN technology. Pipeline control software provides scheduled recording or crash recording of live sources as well as log and capture from tape sources. A key Pipeline advantage is that all four channels can be accessed from any computer on the network. The ability to record open QuickTime files is an important feature, allowing edit while ingest for time-critical workflows.

Episode Engine transcoding also plays an important role in these tapeless workflows for editing in different formats and providing the required DV format for the playout servers. Raw material and reports are transcoded on a largely automated basis with the help of Episode presets and watch folders. A low resolution browse copy is created in parallel for the editorial system. Episode provides a variety of input interfaces such as file monitors, FTP monitors and watch folders which allow easy integration in mixed Windows and Apple network environments.

According to Brosthaus, “Episode Engine and powerful Apple hardware provide a cost-effective and easy-to-operate solution for professional transcoding workflows in time-critical news environments like TV.Berlin and Hamburg 1.”

Max Below, Head of Studio Hamburg MCI Product, adds “Modern components which can save
resources, such as the network-based Pipeline and Episode Engine, make completely new methods of automation possible.”

Pipeline and Episode Engine are being demonstrated at the International Broadcasters Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam September 11-15, 2009 in Telestream Stand 7.C19.

Frisco Fire Department Uses Innovative Streambox Video Technology

2009-09-08T15:22:00.007-04:00

The Frisco Fire Department (FFD) in Texas is using state-of-the-art Streambox video technology to better manage emergency operations and effectively deploy resources. With Streambox ACT-L3 video transport systems deployed onboard its emergency response vehicles, the fire department is able to transmit live video from a fire or other incident back to the City of Frisco’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). The video provides the EOC with a comprehensive view of unfolding emergencies.

Serving a rapidly growing city of 102,000 north of Dallas, the FFD previously relied solely upon radio transmissions from firefighters at the scene to understand the specifics of an incident. Then a couple of years ago, employees from a local TV station suggested FFD look into streaming video as a tool to gaining better intelligence about developing emergencies. FFD quickly realized Streambox would be an invaluable tool for providing a bird’s eye view of emergencies, and for helping multiple city departments coordinate resources when a quick response is necessary. “Now, our EOC staff can proactively deliver the required response based on what they see, rather than having to wait for someone to describe the scene to them,” said FFD fire chief, Mack Borchardt. “Judging from our success with streaming video I believe the technology holds great potential for other fire departments across the country.

Currently, the FFD has equipped its special operations and hazardous materials (haz-mat) vehicles with mast-mounted cameras and Streambox SBT3-7100 systems, which encode the video for transmission over low data rate Verizon 3G wireless connections. Streambox decoders play out the video, including thermal and infrared imaging, to command at the scene and back to the central fire station’s EOC.

The Streambox solution is particularly valuable for incidents which require a coordinated response from multiple city departments. In a recent example, a natural gas line ruptured near a main thoroughfare creating a hazard for traffic and the surrounding area. With a view of the scene from the hazardous materials vehicle, the EOC was able to see the full extent of the hazard and quickly coordinate a response with police and traffic control personnel. Subsequently, rush-hour traffic was safely and efficiently rerouted. Being able to view live video from accidents, fires, and other emergencies provides an additional perspective which significantly impacts the ability to deploy the necessary resources and coordinate potential evacuation plans.

With the initial success of the Streambox technology on the Special Operations and haz-mat trucks, the FFD plans to deploy more encoders/decoders on a new command vehicle that will arrive at the department in August. The new truck will provide an on-site command center and will be capable of streaming video simultaneously to the EOC and to either the haz-mat or special operations trucks.

“It was crucial for us to deploy a reliable and easy-to-use streaming solution so our firefighters can turn their full attention to the emergency at hand,” said Paul Siebert, assistant chief of the FFD. “With Streambox we are able to get set up and start transmitting video in a matter of minutes – and every minute counts in an emergency.”

“The Frisco Fire Department’s use of Streambox video technology is a great example of the value our solutions bring to emergency operations,” said Bob Hildeman, chairman and CEO of Streambox. “It clearly demonstrates the reliability and performance of our products and solutions over low cost, low data rate IP network connections.

Encoding for a Video Podcast

2009-09-08T00:46:00.008-04:00

When encoding for a Video Podcast keep in mind you're encoding for a Web Server. Why? Video Podcast videos and audio files are technical downloadable streaming files. The downloading process mostly happens behind the scenes while you're performing other tasks. Video Podcast files are great in that you can provide them at very high quality since you're targeting iTunes, Video iPods and iPhones.

Now, there's no reason why you shouldn't be using 2-Pass VBR or Multi-pass encoding when compressing your Video Podcast files. Many times because of time you can opt for 2-Pass VBR encoding since Multi-pass generally uses about 5-6 passes.

Magnify.net Selects the Highwinds CDN

2009-09-06T21:16:00.002-04:00

Highwinds Network Group, Inc., a multiplatform IP services and content distribution provider, announced a content delivery partnership with video publishing platform developer Magnify.net. Magnify.net has selected the Highwinds CDN to deliver the video assets of its 60,000 customers to online audiences. Magnify.net’s extensive customer roster includes a number of customers currently running on the Highwinds CDN, including New York Magazine, Bicycling Magazine, Zappos.TV, Etsy.TV, Reader’s Digest Taste of Home, BlogHer, and Cookstr, among others. These customers benefit from a comprehensive video solution that integrates Magnify.net’s video management platform and consistent player controls with Highwinds’ reliable and efficient video delivery services.

“Magnify.net’s fast-growing customer base increasingly requires video delivery solutions that can be customized to meet individual publisher needs. Searching for a best-of-breed CDN solution that was built on the latest self-serve technology, we determined that Highwinds had a unique combination of services and capabilities,” said Steve Rosenbaum, CEO of Magnify.net. “In particular, the strength of the CDN’s global points of presence, combined with powerful reporting and analytics, made it the best choice for our fast-growing network.”

The Magnify.net platform powers the multi-source video publishing experience for all content producers and the playback experience for all online viewers regardless of where video originates: professional, web-discovered or user-generated. It offers tools for uploading, reviewing and sharing videos, creating playlists, reporting on usage, and monetizing video content. One consistent video player environment, including easy-to-use controls, together with comprehensive video management features are used for all types of online video through the Magnify.net solution. The platform encodes all video in H.264, and through this new partnership, delivers customers’ videos over the Highwinds CDN, with the high level of quality users expect in today’s Video 2.0 world.

Highwinds enables Magnify.net to provision their own accounts on its CDN, while tailoring all accounts to the delivery needs and requirements of its individual customers. Highwinds is known for providing this unprecedented level of command and control over its CDN, which is enabling Magnify.net to propagate all video from its entire customer base across the Highwinds CDN at its own pace and discretion. With the Highwinds CDN backing all video managed and syndicated through Magnify.net’s platform, Magnify.net’s customers benefit from an all-in-one, truly streamlined approach to creating a high-quality online video community.

“As video moves to center stage, Magnify.net has provided a best-of-breed platform for premium publishers. We’ve monitored their growth, and have watched them continue to offer market-leading solutions around multi-source video aggregation, curation and publishing,” said Steve Miller, president and CEO of Highwinds. “Their customers now have access to the global reach and massive scalability you would expect from a top-tier CDN. And we also bring to the table intuitive self-service controls to effectively manage accounts, robust reporting and analytical tools to gauge video effectiveness, and complete invisibility to Magnify.net’s customers.”

Testing On-demand Streaming with the Wowza Server

2009-09-05T21:53:00.007-04:00

Testing On-demand Streaming with the Wowza Server is quick and straightforward. On the Wowza Media Server Pro you'll find a folder called FastPlayVideoStreaming inside the examples folder. Once you're inside the FastPlayVideoStreaming folder you'll need to start the install.bat application.

Next inside the client folder open the fastplay.html file.

With the fastplay.html open you'll see rtmp://localhost/fastplay displayed under Server and Extremists as the Stream name. If you don' have an IP Address assigned to the server just click the Play button and the Extremists.flv should play. If you have the Wowza Media Server Pro running in debug mode you should see some activity taking place as the stream plays.

Envivio Announces SilverLiveTV

2009-09-04T22:26:00.003-04:00

Envivio Inc., announced the immediate availability of the first complete encoding and Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected distribution solution optimized for Microsoft Silverlight 3. Designed for evaluating, developing and deploying premium live and on Demand video services, Envivio SilverLiveTV™ provides operators and content owners with a comprehensive solution for delivering high-value, feature-rich video entertainment to consumers.

SilverLiveTV enables operators to offer PC and Mac users multiple channels of video content over wired and wireless networks. It ingests analog or digital sources and simultaneously encodes and encrypts the content using Envivio’s video processing enhancements and DRM interfaces. Advanced Quality of Service management maximizes reliability and ensures consumers a great viewing experience. Embedded Microsoft Windows Media and Silverlight DRM, powered by PlayReady content protection, guards the entire lifecycle of high value streamed content from the head-end to the consumer device over IP networks.

“Demand for entertainment, particularly premium-caliber services, on PCs and mobile devices is steadily increasing,” said Steve Sklepowich, group product manager for Silverlight at Microsoft Corp. “Envivio encoders and their support for the advanced features of Silverlight 3 enable operators and content holders to pursue the benefits of delivering these services to consumers.”

Wirecast Live Streaming Great for Churches

2009-09-03T15:21:00.008-04:00

Wirecast Live Streaming is a great option for Churches. With limited budgets Churches can get the benefit of having a full video production studio on their desktop. Usually when you do a full scale production a video switcher is needed but Wirecast actually becomes that switcher. This gives you a very inexpensive option to switch from videos for playback, camera sources, and presentations. Wirecast includes a Preview and Program window so you can see which sources are in Preview and which ones are in Program (Live).

Now with using a tool such as Wirecast for Live Streaming you can think about your production for your Live Streaming event in a more professional way. You need to plan on having a Director to switch your event and you should have a Producer that maps out all of the activity happening during your event. Next, the Producer should create a script that has all the speakers that will participate in the Live Streaming event. He/She should also document all the cameras and sources to use during the production. Lastly, the easy part is to follow the script and use Wirecast to do your switching.

Video Streaming and Compression Training Schedule

2009-09-03T12:17:00.008-04:00

1-Day Wirecast Training (PC)

March 1, 2010
April 1, 2010

1-Day Sawmill Professional Training (Mac)

March 6, 2010
April 2, 2010

1-Day Sawmill Professional Training (PC)

February 24, 2010
March 24, 2010
April 21, 2010

1-Day Sorenson Squeeze 6 Training

March 10, 2010
April 20, 2010

2-Day Video Streaming and Compression Training (PC)

February 25 -26, 2010
March 25 -26, 2010
April 22-23, 2010

1-Day Wowza Media Server 2 Training (PC)

February 27, 2010
March 27, 2010
April 24, 2010

1-Day Wowza Media Server 2 Training (Mac)

February 3, 2010
March 2, 2010
April 28, 2010

1-Day Episode Encoder Pro Training

February 9, 2010
March 31, 2010
April 30, 2010

Call Freeman Compression Inc. at 407.477.5837 or contact us by E-mail at info@freemancompression.com to register for a class.

Upcoming On-line Training

1-Day Wirecast Training (PC)

March 29, 2010
April 16, 2010

1-Day Wirecast Training (Mac)

March 23, 2010
April 17, 2010

1-Day Sawmill Professional Training (Mac)

March 26, 2010
April 19, 2010

1-Day Sawmill Professional Training (PC)

March 3, 2010
April 17, 2010

1-Day Sorenson Squeeze 6 Training (PC)

March 13, 2010
April 25, 2010

1-Day Sorenson Squeeze 6 Training (Mac)

March 30, 2010
April 29, 2010

2-Day Video Streaming and Compression Training (PC)

March 11-12, 2010
April 15-16, 2010

2-Day Video Streaming and Compression Training (Mac)

March 4-5, 2010
April 5-6, 2010

1-Day Wowza Media Server 2 Training (PC)

March 22, 2010
April 7, 2010

1-Day Wowza Media Server 2 Training (Mac)

March 30, 2010
April 14, 2010

1-Day Episode Pro Training (Mac)

March 16, 2010
April 27, 2010

Call Freeman Compression Inc. at 407.477.5837 or contact us by E-mail at info@freemancompression.com to register for a class.

1-Day Sawmill Professional Training

2009-09-02T22:51:00.011-04:00

Class Summary: This Sawmill Professional training is designed to teach you how to take advantage of one of the best tools for analyzing log files. With this tool you can analyze log files from Streaming Servers, Web Server, Apache Servers, Firewalls, FTP servers and many other devices. You'll learn great tips for unlocking all the great features of Sawmill Professional by turning hard-to-read logs into easy-to-read tables. Our Certified Instructor will teach you how to process your log files. Learn how to resolve domain names, create custom reports, filter out unimportant database fields and gather data from specific cities and states. This training will also teach you other invaluable topics on log file analysis . When providing streaming videos on-line it's important to be able to justify the need for streaming services to CEOs, Supervisors, Marketing Managers, TV Station Managers and other Professionals. Sawmill Professional helps you do that by providing detailed information about viewers, bandwidth usage, errors, most popular viewing days and many other items. This class is available In-class, On-site and On-line. Contact us at 407.477.5837 or E-mail us at info@freemancompression.com for more details about this training class.

In this training students will also learn:

How to Create Customized Reports
How to Resolve Domain Names
How to View Session Paths
Where to Locate Web Server and Streaming Server Log Files
How to Analyze Web Server and Streaming Server Log files
How to Analyze Apache Server, Firewall and FTP Server Log files
How to Use Filters for Remove Unwanted Data in a Report
How to Process Specific Time periods

Featured Software for Class

Class Overview

1. Sawmill Set-up

This portion of the class will walk students through the process of setting up Sawmill Professional. Students will learn how to set up Profiles for various log types. You'll learn how to add additional users, specify the folders where your log files are located and how to add DNS information to resolve Domain Names. This portion on the class will also teach you how to add a customized name for a report.

2. Interface Overview

Get a feel for the Sawmill landscape as you learn where the most important interface items are located. This training module unlocks details about all the key areas that you'll use in building your reports. You'll learn about items such as: View Reports,View Config, Users, More Options, Log Filters, Admin, Database Info and other items.

3. Locating Web Server and Streaming Server Log Files

Before you can analyze your log files you have to first be able to find them. In this training you'll learn where to find log files for a Web Server, Windows Media Streaming Server, Quicktime streaming Server and Wowza Flash Streaming Server.

4. Processing Web Server Logs

During this training you'll learn how to set up your profile for performing log file analysis of Web Server log files. In addition to learning how to process files from a web server you'll also learn about the available database fields that can be found when processing web server logs.

5. Processing Streaming Server Logs

You'll learn how to set up your profile for performing log file analysis of Streaming Server log files. In addition to learning how to process files from a streaming server you'll also learn about the available database fields that can be found when processing and web server logs. You'll also learn about the differences in information found on a web servers and streaming servers.

6. Processing Apache Server Logs

Sawmill Professional is great for processing Apache Server log files. Learn how to create reports that contain hits, pageviews, Spiders, Worms, Errors and other data. You can also gather information on the Web Browsers and Operating Systems your viewers use. This class will teach you how to gather information about Authenticated Users, Search Engines, Referrers, Broken Links and Server Responses.

7. Processing Firewall Logs

This portion of the training will teach you how to create reports using your Firewall log files. You'll learn how to gather important information about who is attempting to connect to your server. In the class, we'll create reports that provide information on Source IP Addresses, Destination IP Addresses, Source Ports, Destination Ports, and Session details.

8. Processing FTP Server Logs

In this training module, our Certified Instructor will show you how to create detailed reports for activity occurring on your FTP server. Your report will include details on User Names, File Types, Client IPs, Sessions, and Errors. These reports are great for making sure only authorized users are connecting and downloading files.

9. Resolving Domain Names

In your reports under Client IPs with the default settings, your IP Addresses will be displayed in tables only as numbers unless you resolve the Domain Names. You'll learn where to add you DNS information so that when you create you reports you can see the Domain that viewers are coming from. This is an extremely valuable feature of Sawmill Professional.

10. Utilizing Filters

It's great to take advantage of using filters in Sawmill Professional. With filters you can choose not to include certain database fields and items in your report. For example, if you don't want to include a certain Domain Name or IP Address in your report you can make sure the information doesn't get included by using a filter. In this part of the class you learn about all the great tasks you can perform by applying filters.

11. Creating Customized Reports

If you have specific information that you would like to get out of your report on a regular basis, you can create a Customized Report. You can name the report and only include those items that you're interested in. You can even take your Customized Reporting to a whole new level by adding a Menu Item name on the left hand sidebar. This is an amazing feature and our 1-Day Sawmill Professional training class will teach attendees how.

12. Understanding Session Paths

Viewing Session Paths is one of the coolest features of Sawmill Professional. This is a very important feature that Marketing departments might be interested in. Learn how to view session paths in this training module. What's unique about viewing Session Paths is that you can see which videos users are viewing and then see where they go after viewing one particular video. This is helpful because you can see the activity of your streaming viewers after they view certain videos.

13. Getting City, State and Country Demographics

Users can process web server and streaming server log files right down to the City to get the information they need. If you have specific cities that you want to target with a streaming media campaign, you can see if your videos are being viewed by individuals in those particular cities. Let this class show you how to get statistics on cities as well as states and countries.

Sawmill Professional can also process Microsoft Exchange Server, McAfee, Cisco, Coldfusion, Interscan, NetGear, Novell, Oracle, Symantec, Watchguard, and Windows Event logs. In total the application supports 819 log formats.

1-Day Sorenson Squeeze Training

2009-09-02T19:18:00.009-04:00

Class Summary: This Sorenson Squeeze training is designed to give you a better understanding of Sorenson Squeeze and help you with future encoding projects. Sorenson Squeeze is one of the best kept secrets and this class will help you unlock its many benefits. In addition to learning about the Sorenson Squeeze 6 interface, students will learn about the different video input options, how to compression to various formats, how to compress content for video ipods/video podcasts, how to adjust compression settings and the process for encoding a DVD inside the Sorenson Squeeze application. Our Sorenson Squeeze 6 Training class is available In-class, On-site or On-line. This class is great for Videographers, IT professionals, Video Editors, Producers and other Media Professionals. Contact us at 407.477.5837 or E-mail us at info@freemancompression.com for more details about this training class.

In this training students will also learn:

How to encode to QuickTime, Real Media (PC only), Flash, Windows Media and H.264
How to encode Real-time and Downloadable streaming videos
The process for encoding numerous videos using Watch Folders
How to FTP files to a Streaming Server or a Web Server inside Squeeze
How to upload encoded videos to a Sorenson 360 account
The process for capturing video within Sorenson Squeeze 6
How to set-up filters for encoding projects
How to encode linked Flash .FLV and .SWF files and stand-alone .FLV files

Featured Software for Class

Class Overview

1. Interface Overview

Your instructor will show you the different features of the interface to get you familiar with the Sorenson Squeeze 6. This part of the class will cover Video Input, Filters, Format & Compression Setting, Batch Tree, Details, Sorenson 360, Publishing, and Preview Windows.

2. Video Input Options

For this training module you will learn how to use the different video input options. Learn how to input stand-alone videos, use watch folders and capture video all within the Squeeze application. You can input several stand-alone videos for batch encoding or encode a large amount of videos for hands-free encoding. Capturing videos from a video camera or video deck with Sorenson Squeeze 6 is one of the application's greatest benefits. Learn how this is done in this portion of the class.

3. Encoding Downloadable Streaming Videos

You will encode videos for downloadable streaming in formats such as: QuickTime, H.264, Windows Media, Real Media and Flash. This part of the class will teach you how to get the quality you desire for your downloadable streaming videos by teaching you how to adjust the various Format & Compression Settings for your desired format in Sorenson Squeeze 6. Learn how to take a compression preset and customize it for better quality.

4. Encoding Real-time Streaming Videos

Learn how to encode hinted QuickTime and H.264 videos for a Streaming Server. You will also learn how to encode Real Media, Windows Media, and Flash videos for real-time streaming. This portion of the class will inform you on different tools to use when compressing your videos for Streaming Servers.

5. Compression for Video iPods, Video Podcasts and Audio Podcasts

Students will learn how to compress video content for Video iPods, Video Podcast and Audio Podcasts using Sorenson Squeeze 6. Participants will learn how to adjust their compression settings to get high quality results. The instructor will also show you how to get encoded videos onto the Video iPod and how to display them onto your TV. This class will teach you which codec to use for compressing your videos for Video iPods, Video Podcasts and Audio Podcasts with Sorenson Squeeze.

6. Format and Compression Settings

This training module will cover the details of adjusting the different presets under the Format and Compression Settings. Learn how to set parameters such as: Data rate, Sample Size, Sample Rate, Encoding Method, Frame Size, Frame Rate and Key Frame Every. This portion of the class will help demystify many of the compression settings in Squeeze.

7. Working with Filters

You will learn how to adjust your filters for your compression projects. Learn when to use Deinterlace, Noise Reduction, Normalize Audio, Hue, Brightness, Contrast, and Cropping filters. You will learn how to apply filters to your videos as well as specifying a default filter for all compression jobs.

8. Using Publishing Filters

Students will learn how to utilize the various Publishing Filters such as Copy Output to Local and Copy Output to FTP. You'll enjoy this portion of the class as you learn how to simplify the web authoring process by automatically sending your files to their delivery destination. Using the Publishing Filters will greatly improve your compression workflow.

9. Encoding and Authoring a DVD inside Squeeze 6

This portion of the class will show you how to encode and author a DVD directly inside the Sorenson Squeeze application. Instead of using a DVD authoring tool to make your one-off DVDs you'll learn how to use Sorenson Squeeze, saving your a tremendous amount of time.

10. Encoding Linked Flash .FLV and .SWF files

Students will work through the process of creating linked Flash .FLV and .SWF files for displaying videos inside the .SWF media players that come inside of Sorenson Squeeze. You'll learn how to select your player and adjust video playback. The instructor will also show you how to author your Flash Linked .SWF amd .FLV files on-line and as well as how to force users to a website after the video finishes playing.

Inlet Technologies Gains Momentum as Premier Provider of Encoding Technology for Live Sports Streaming

2009-09-02T10:38:00.002-04:00

Inlet Technologies, the leader in live streaming and video-on-demand solutions for digital media, announced it is powering the live online streaming of many of the world’s most prestigious sporting events, establishing the company as the go-to provider of encoding solutions to enable sports-related content on the web.

Inlet has powered the streaming of some of the world’s most widely-viewed sports events such as the Roland Garros French International and The Championships, Wimbledon tennis tournaments, the A1GP and Indy 500 motor races, Major League Baseball, the NCAA Division I Men’s College Basketball Tournament (a.k.a. March Madness), Italian FIFA Confederations Cup soccer matches, as well as the recent Tour de France cycling race.

Inlet also powered the streaming of the World Swimming Championships, the World Championships in Athletics, and 91st PGA Championship golf tournament to Apple® iPhone™ and iPod® touch® users. Inlet is also working with XOS Technologies to encode live and on-demand sports content for an NCAA Division I conference.

“The Spinnaker 5000 was so easy to set up and use that we were able to get our first encodes under way within minutes of receiving our first unit,” said Steve Quinn, CTO, XOS Technologies. “Video and audio quality has been outstanding and the level of support we have received from Inlet has been top notch.”

Although the ability to stream online content has been around for quite some time, many content owners are just beginning to view live and on-demand streams of sports events as an interactive complement to the traditional broadcast experience. In a recent article, PC World’s Ian Paul notes that the ability to watch sports online is a privilege that many are willing to pay for. Viewership statistics also support the fact that sports programming is indeed one of the fastest growing segments for streaming content on the Web. A study by The Conference Board and TNS shows that of the nearly one-fifth of American households who use the Internet to watch television broadcasts online, sports was one of the top five types of shows viewed online.

“There has been an exponential increase, especially within the past year, in the number of sports organizations looking to expand their reach by streaming events over the Internet,” commented Neil Selvin, president, Inlet Technologies. “Our work with some of the early adopters, such as Major League Baseball, has proven the success of implementing a complementary Internet model to drive new revenue opportunities through ad insertions, subscription-based viewing, and other means.”

Inlet’s SpinnakerTM family of encoding solutions is especially well-suited for live sports as it provides broadcast-quality streams over the Internet to any device. With its built-in support for adaptive streaming protocols, including Microsoft Smooth Streaming and Adobe Dynamic Streaming, Spinnaker generates high-quality streams with exceptional quality that enhances online viewing of live sports action. Inlet was also one of the first encoding technology providers to publicly demonstrate and support HTTP adaptive streaming to the Apple iPhone, opening even more opportunities for content creators to generate revenue and build viewership.

Users benefit from the ability to experience their favorite sporting event in an entirely new way - on their device of choice. The viewing experience has become much more interactive and personal, backed by exceptional video quality with DVR-like capabilities, instant replay, and no stuttering, buffering, or other interruptions. Users can easily switch between multiple games or camera angles. URLs or captions, such as scores and statistics, can also be inserted directly into the live stream.

“Inlet has been instrumental in helping us pursue our strategy of putting live baseball games on every device that has a plug or a battery,” said Joe Inzerillo, senior vice president, multimedia & distribution of Major League Baseball Advanced Media. “When we wanted to upgrade MLB.com At Bat 2009™ to allow us to deliver live streams of games to the iPhone and iPod touch, Inlet was immediately able to help.”

Retiring Streaming Videos in Sorenson 360

2009-08-31T22:22:00.009-04:00

One of the features I love in Sorenson 360, Sorenson Media's tool for content delivery, is the ability to easily retire streaming videos when you no longer want your video content on-line. This is great if you have Sorenson 360 videos posted on your blog or on your website and you no longer want the content available for viewers.

To retire a video first select the video from within your Live videos.

On the bottom of the next window that displays, click the Retire button. Now that your videos are retired they will no longer be available wherever you posted your embed code.

Sorenson Spark Video Decoder Licensed for Transactional Video Transcoding Solutions

2009-08-29T15:56:00.004-04:00

Sorenson Media announced that RipCode, the leader in transactional video transcoding, has licensed the Sorenson Spark Software Developers Kit (SDK) to integrate and distribute the Sorenson Spark video decoder in its suite of industry-leading video transcoding solutions. With the addition of Sorenson Spark, RipCode customers will be able to seamlessly transcode and deliver the largest installed base of online video across multiple platforms, including mobile devices, the Web and Internet television.

Sorenson Spark is the industry’s most ubiquitous video codec and was the first codec used in Macromedia Flash, now Adobe Flash. The decoder exclusively enables the playback of hundreds of millions of videos on the Internet, including those on YouTube, the single largest online video destination site today. The Sorenson Spark SDK allows developers to integrate the Sorenson Spark decoder into a wide array of programmable chipsets, semiconductors and server-based transcoding solutions.

An appliance-based, infrastructure solution, RipCode simplifies the complexity of video delivery and enables customers to extend delivery of video content across multiple channels, without requiring specialized handset applications or video players, and without the need to pre-transcode content for each device. Built to address the high-availability needs of today’s new media market, RipCode’s On-Demand and Real-Time Stream Transcoding solutions enable the cross-marketing of content over a variety of channels including mobile video, Internet video and IPTV – for the greatest flexibility in expanding video delivery and increasing revenue opportunities.

“Sorenson Spark is important to our customer base, and particularly for customers who want to take advantage of our on-demand transcode capability – which allows large libraries of legacy content to be made available rapidly and cost effectively to mobile and Web devices,” said Neal Hartsell, vice president of marketing at Ripcode.

“RipCode has established itself as a leader in the video transcoding industry, and our new partnership underscores Sorenson Spark’s unique value of providing access to the complete world of Internet video,” said Peter Csathy, president and CEO of Sorenson Media. “Whether on the Web, TV or a mobile device, consumers want to view all online video content and cannot do it without the Sorenson Spark codec.”

Desktop Presenter Helps Provide Live Streaming with PowerPoint

2009-08-28T00:24:00.006-04:00

Many might not know it but Telestream's Desktop Presenter helps provide Live Streaming video with PowerPoint. The tool works with the popular Wirecast Live Encoding tool from Telestream. Wirecast is available for both PC and Mac users. With Desktop Presenter you can display screen activity, powerpoints and .PDFs from your desktop So, if you need to show a PowerPoint Presentation during your live streaming event, install Desktop Presenter on the workstation that you will be presenting from. If the workstation is on the same network as your Wirecast Live Encoder you can pull the Desktop Presenter application up from the computer it's running on. It will have an IP Address assigned to the Desktop Presenter. Once you see the Desktop Presenter application running inside you Wirecast Live Encoder, you can put the source in preview and call it up as a source. You can then switch back and forth from your Powerpoint to the Presenter giving the presentation.

Telestream Unveils ScreenFlow V2.0

2009-08-27T21:15:00.006-04:00

Telestream announced version 2.0 of its award-winning ScreenFlow screen recording software for the Mac. Customers will now have the ability to easily upload and directly publish screencasts to YouTube. ScreenFlow Version 2.0 also adds advanced editing capabilities and elegant transitions across clips. In addition, V2.0 customers will receive free Flip4Mac WMV Studio, providing Windows Media export directly from within ScreenFlow. Named “Best Screencasting Application” at Macworld 2009, ScreenFlow is a cost-effective software toolkit that makes it easy for software developers, trainers, educators, and bloggers to capture, edit and deliver professional-quality screen recordings and video tutorials for the Web. ScreenFlow enables users to easily create training and promotional videos that enhance learning experiences, presentations and product demonstrations.

“ScreenFlow has been the recipient of four prestigious innovation awards to date. There’s no doubt that we changed the game in video screen capture when we released this product over a year ago,” said Barbara DeHart, VP of Marketing at Telestream. “We are committed to continuing the innovation that products such as ScreenFlow and Flip4Mac bring to millions of Mac enthusiasts worldwide. We think they will be as excited as we are with the YouTube and advanced editing capabilities, plus even more format support.”

Using a unique screen capture system, ScreenFlow records the contents of a user’s desktop while simultaneously capturing video and audio in real time. Powerful features allow users to highlight areas of the screen, add effects, show keystrokes and combine existing media into their screencasts. An easy-to-use timeline interface provides powerful post-production editing capabilities, allowing users to easily enhance their video productions.

Version 2.0 adds advanced editing capabilities that allow users to adjust the speed of clips during the recording and editing process. A full range of elegant new 2D and 3D transitions include page-curl, ripple, flash, swipe, cross-dissolve, dip to black or white, and more. Usability enhancements make it easier to access, move and manage stored project files in document packages, giving users more control over their media pieces. Productivity enhancements such as new keyboard shortcuts for resizing the timeline make editing even faster. In addition to all the new features, ScreenFlow V2.0 customers will receive Flip4Mac WMV Studio (value $49) through the end of 2009 to enable export of Windows Media content directly from within the ScreenFlow application.

The recipient of two Apple Design Awards in 2008, ScreenFlow continues to take advantage of the latest Apple technology, including Snow Leopard developments, to optimize ScreenFlow quality, performance and usability on the Mac OS X platform. ScreenFlow also received the Best Mac OS X Leopard Application and Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application Design Awards from Apple in 2008.

Chips&Media Licenses Sorenson Spark Video Decoder

2009-08-26T12:16:00.008-04:00

Sorenson Media announced that Chips&Media has licensed the Sorenson Spark Software Developers Kit (SDK) to include the Sorenson Spark video decoder in Chips&Media's optimized video IP. Chips&Media video technology provides multi-standard video codec support for consumer multimedia devices, including mobile phones.

Sorenson Spark is the industry's most ubiquitous video codec and was the first codec used in Macromedia Flash, now Adobe Flash. The decoder exclusively enables the playback of hundreds of millions of videos on the Internet, including those on YouTube, the single largest online video destination site today. The Sorenson Spark SDK allows developers to integrate the Sorenson Spark decoder into a wide array of programmable chipsets and semiconductors. The kit is designed to provide Sorenson Spark decoding on any platform, including custom silicon.

The optimized Sorenson Spark decoder will be bundled with Chips&Media's video IP that will be designed into Chips&Media’s customer chipsets to deliver high performance video applications on low power consumer multimedia devices. Some of the industry’s largest semiconductor and mobile device manufacturers rely on Chips&Media technology to efficiently playback video content.

"We are thrilled to be able to include the Sorenson Spark decoder in our video technology offering," said Steve Kim, president and CEO at Chips&Media. "Our end customers have been asking us for a hardware optimized implementation of the Sorenson Spark video decoder. We are now positioned to offer this to our customers who will have access to the millions of videos on the Internet that can only be played back using the Sorenson Spark decoder."

"Our Sorenson Spark decoder is the ideal addition to Chips&Media's optimized silicon IP offering," said Peter Csathy, president and CEO of Sorenson Media. "This partnership is the latest in a series of licensees who see the Sorenson Spark decoder as a necessary part of mobile phones and other multimedia devices. With Chips&Media’s large customer base of semi-conductor manufacturers, even more consumers will have access to the widest and deepest base of online video content."

ViewCast Supports Streaming to Adobe Flash

2009-08-22T14:20:00.004-04:00

ViewCast Corporation (OTCBB: VCST), a developer of industry-leading solutions for the transformation, management and delivery of digital media over IP and mobile networks, today unveiled the Niagara® 2120, a low-cost, easy to use streaming media appliance that supports H.264 streaming via the Adobe® Flash® platform. The compact and portable Niagara 2120 provides professional-quality performance and reliability for organizations in corporate, government, education, worship and athletic settings seeking a plug-and-play platform for streaming video content across enterprise networks or over the Internet.

“The Niagara 2120 delivers exceptional value and powerful capabilities that enable customers of all levels of technical expertise to quickly and easily stream high quality live and on-demand video,” said ViewCast President and CEO Dave Stoner. “With seamless support for H.264 streaming, the Niagara 2120 expands ViewCast’s leadership in the streaming media appliance market and equips customers to leverage ViewCast’s industry-renowned capabilities on the Adobe Flash Platform.”

“ViewCast solutions based on the Adobe Flash Platform enable the delivery of rich, real-time media experiences to an ever-growing audience of consumers that rely on Adobe Flash technology for high quality video over the Web,” said Bill Rusitzky, senior director of global media alliances for Adobe. “The Niagara 2120 is the latest example of ViewCast’s continued technological innovation and commitment to providing high-performance video streaming solutions based on Adobe Flash technologies.”

The Niagara 2120 shares many of the same advanced features found in ViewCast’s other professional-grade streaming media encoders, and is optimized for simplified set-up and operation. Featuring a built-in Web interface to enable streamlined management from anywhere on the network, the compact, self-contained unit is ideal for location streaming applications and also fits easily into any production control room. Users simply set the desired streaming parameters via the intuitive Web interface, then initiate one or more streams simultaneously from the front panel “Stream” button.

The Niagara 2120 enables organizations of all sizes, and those with limited budgets, to stream live and on-demand sports, educational and training content, corporate events and more to an expansive Web-based audience, which in turn creates marketing and sponsorship opportunities that can increase revenue streams. With support for H.264 streaming to the Adobe Flash Platform, customers are afforded high-performance streaming capabilities across a broad range of bandwidths to elevate the quality and impact of their Internet video programming.

The Niagara 2120 comes standard with ViewCast SimulStream® technology, which enables a single video source to generate several video streams simultaneously – in multiple resolutions and bit rates - with each stream configured differently for laptops, cell phones, or mobile devices. ViewCast’s Niagara SCX® streaming media management software is also included with the Niagara 2120, enabling centralized set-up, monitoring and control over multiple systems positioned anywhere on the network – all from a single desktop.

Like all Niagara appliances, the Niagara 2120 features image scaling, cropping, de-interlacing, inverse telecine and closed caption rendering capabilities. The Niagara 2120 provides flexible connectivity options including component, Y/C (S-Video), and composite video inputs, as well as balanced and unbalanced stereo audio.

ViewCast at IBC 2009ViewCast will be demonstrating the Niagara 2120 at IBC 2009 in Amsterdam, September 11 - 15. The company will also be demonstrating its Niagara 7500, a powerful, feature-rich streamingappliance for Web-based delivery of high-definition video, specifically designed to simplify the most demanding professional broadcasting applications. Visit ViewCast at IBC #IP323.

2009-08-20T16:41:00.003-04:00

In an effort to offer more choices for live video streaming, Telestream announced release of Wirecast™ 3.5.3 webcast software. Wirecast is a live video production tool that allows users to easily create real-time and on-demand broadcasts for the web. Version 3.5.3 adds Flash® media streaming through Akamai, a leading content distribution network (CDN).

“Customer response has been overwhelming to the recent support in Wirecast for Flash streaming,” said Barbara DeHart, VP of Marketing at Telestream. “We are pleased to extend this support to include Flash streaming through Akamai, giving users more choices for streaming their video broadcasts to audiences located anywhere in the world.”

2009-08-18T00:18:00.003-04:00

HSN (hsn.com), the leading interactive lifestyle network and retail destination, announces the launch of a dynamic new application (“app”) for the Apple® iPhone™ and iPod® touch®. The 45 million subscribers to the devices who download the HSN Shop App now have the ability to view HSN programming 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, throughout the US. The launch creates the e-commerce industry’s first live-video “3-screen experience,” enabling consumers to browse and shop the network’s 35,000-plus array of products from home or on the go.

All the engaging highlights that HSN and hsn.com users enjoy are packed into the clever app, available for download at both the iTunes App Store and hsn.com. Live, ‘round-the-clock HSN TV (along with a library of original videos), the HSN Today’s Special, Items Recently Aired, and the many hosts, featured designers and their tens of thousands of products are among the familiar and favorite hallmarks of HSN programming that will be available through the mobile experience. Additionally, the HSN Shop App brings with it a set of new features, including the interactive shake2shop, which, with a simple shake of the device, generates random product recommendations as well as deals and promotions targeted at HSN’s mobile customers.

“Our customer is fashionable and discerning, and thrives on information, ideas and discovery,” says HSNi CEO, Mindy Grossman. “HSN strives to be the true multichannel experience, and this new iPhone app now allows our customer to take HSN with her, anytime, anywhere, and be that reliable, ‘on-the-go’ resource for lifestyle information she craves.”

The HSN Shop App also makes for a seamless transactional experience, allowing the user to call HSN directly or use the device’s browser to purchase an item. Items can also be saved for later purchase, or emailed to a friend.

While the HSN Shop App is supremely navigable and user-friendly,hsn.com will soon feature a tutorial that walks all new users through the app’s various fundamentals and features. To insure the optimal experience, the app will also evolve based on customer feedback.

“HSN truly leads the way in total convergence of its media technologies,” says Brian Bradley, EVP/ GM, HSN Online & Advanced Services. “The loyalty of our customer base has been predicated in large part on a unique ability to engage them in all aspects of their lives, and the addition of a mobile ‘third screen’ opens up an entirely new dimension for interaction.”

Inlet Technologies’ SpinnakerTM live streaming appliance provides the encoding backbone for the HSN Shop App’s streaming video. Spinnaker fully supports Apple’s HTTP adaptive streaming, which reduces buffering and other interruptions to create an exceptional viewing experience and diminish latency, helping HSN customers move through the purchasing process quickly. Inlet, the leader in advanced encoding solutions for new media, has been a HSN web streaming partner since 2008.

At launch, the HSN Shop App will be marketed via on-air promos run throughout HSN TV programming. Other promotional efforts will follow.

The HSN Shop App arrives amidst HSN’s ongoing multichannel convergence effort, which includes expansion of its Shop-by-Remote service and complete transition to high-definition (HD) format.

Astream wins Best Streaming for the 3nd year running

2009-08-16T12:55:00.005-04:00

ISPA judges select Astream as Best Streaming Host for 2007 & 2008 & 2009. Astream, the Streaming Solutions Provider founded in 1999 has for the 3rd year in a row, won the coveted award for ‘Best Streaming Host’ at the 11th Annual UK Internet Industry Awards, held at the Marriot, Grosvenor Square, London.

The ‘Internet Event of the Year’ is attended by senior members of the industry as well as members of the government. Judges from organisations including: NetSumo, thinkbroadband.com, Computeractive, Web User and Ovum voted Astream’s customer service and server delivery as the best. ISPA said, “Competition for finalists’ places was particularly fierce this year with a record amount ofentries from companies across the Internet sector. The announcement of the finalists followsthree months of rigorous testing of entrants by ISPA’s technical testing partners, Epitiro”.

As well as customer service, support, value for money, product variety and distribution capabilities, the testing process included network measurements of video availability and performance, including stream connection time, rebuffering time, average stream bandwidth, packet loss, packet out of order and non-cached download speed.

Astream’s Managing Director Alex Wolfe said, “We are delighted to have maintained our position as number one in the industry and have strived to release new additions to our offering including online transcoding, a leading edge statistics and reporting portal, as well as a new eshop. We intend to continue to exceed customer expectations moving forward”.

Making Video Adjustments Encoding with MPEG Streamclip

2009-08-14T22:55:00.004-04:00

Making video adjustments encoding with MPEG Streamclip is a huge benefit if you need to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation or volume. The is an invaluable benefit if you have audio that was recorded low during the video recording process and you need to increase the volume. Imagine being able to fix the audio on 50 to 100 video clips while converting to QuickTime, Windows Media or iPod video. Well, that's what MPEG Streamclip can do.

Using the Batch List you can include all of your desired videos to convert and apply your desired video adustments to all output video clips.

Akamai And Turner Sports Bring Live Streaming

2009-08-14T00:24:00.003-04:00

Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leader in powering video, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced today it will serve as the exclusive live video streaming provider to Turner Sports for the official PGA Championship App available on the App Store. The 91st PGA Championship will be held August 13-16 with 18 hours of television coverage on TNT complemented by four video streams of live coverage exclusively on PGA.com.

The PGA Championship iPhone App for the iPhone and iPod touch supports Turner Sports’ integrated broadcast strategy of combining traditional television coverage with online and mobile components to provide fans with a multiplatform experience. "Turner Sports is known for its innovation in presenting content across multiple platforms, and this is another example of that strategy," said Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist for Digital Media at Akamai. "Organizations like Turner Sports are leading the charge with live streaming and taking the fan experience to a whole new level to mobile devices. Streaming the PGA Championship live to the iPhone and iPod touch brings a personalized and high-quality experience to even more golf fans, no matter where they are. With increasingly better connectivity over WiFi, we've reached the point where high definition experiences are no longer limited to the PC."

Variable bit rate streaming benefits the consumer by enabling a high fidelity viewing experience at any bitrate - critical for mobile video as viewing conditions vary dramatically between carrier edge networks to 3G to WIFI. Using Akamai HTTP Streaming for iPhone and Inlet Technologies SpinnakerTM solution to deliver live and on-demand content, content owners can enable higher-quality video experiences at near HD bitrates over WiFi and 3G.

"Inlet works closely with Akamai to ensure our live encoding service for mobile applications works seamlessly across the Akamai network to provide for the optimal live video experience," said John Bishop, senior vice president of strategy and business development, Inlet Technologies. "Working with Akamai we are able to provide a smooth end to end process for content providers to make it easier to deliver next generation video experiences – such as variable bit rate streaming."