Digital Rapids -- the leading provider of tools and solutions for bringing television, film and web content to wider audiences -- announced support for Microsoft Silverlight 3 in Digital Rapids' comprehensive range of studio encoding, transcoding and live streaming systems. Silverlight 3 support further extends the proven abilities of Digital Rapids' award-winning solutions for delivering unparalleled, high-quality, live and on-demand online video experiences.Silverlight 3 is the newest version of Microsoft Corp.'s powerful platform for creating and delivering rich Internet applications (RIAs) and media experiences on the Web. Digital Rapids' solutions will enable content owners and distributors to take advantage of the video-related enhancements and features in Silverlight 3 to deliver rich, high-quality online viewing experiences.
Highlights of the new feature set include support for Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7) Smooth Streaming, an HTTP-based platform that enables adaptive delivery of live and on-demand content to Silverlight-based video media players. IIS7 Smooth Streaming dynamically detects the best quality a viewer can receive based on their current bandwidth and local computer conditions, seamlessly switching between multiple streams at different bit-rates to deliver consistent, high-quality viewing experiences up to true HD even under changing connectivity and playback conditions. Live and on-demand IIS7 Smooth Streaming support will be available in the upcoming version 3.1 software for Digital Rapids' StreamZ and StreamZHD encoding systems. IIS7 Smooth Streaming will also be available in updates of the Digital Rapids Transcode Manager enterprise-class transcoding software and select models of StreamZ Live dedicated streaming encoders.
Silverlight 3 also augments its existing support for the VC-1 video format and Windows Media Audio with new native support for H.264 (also known as AVC, or MPEG-4 Part 10) video and AAC audio, allowing users to choose their preferred compression standard. Digital Rapids' encoding, transcoding and streaming solutions offer robust standard or optional support for H.264 and AAC encoding.
"As consumers raise their expectations for Web video and the surrounding experience, it's imperative that content owners and distributors create offerings that increase viewer engagement. The enhancements in Silverlight 3 bring Web viewing experiences far closer to the quality and reliability expectations of television while wrapping them with rich interactive capabilities, and we're pleased to support these new features in our solutions," said Brian Stevenson, Director of Product Management, Digital Rapids Corporation. "Support for live and on-demand IIS7 Smooth Streaming is a natural extension of our systems' long-standing ability to create outputs in multiple formats, sizes and bit rates simultaneously, and extending our H.264 encoding capabilities to Silverlight lets our customers choose the format that best serves their multi-platform distribution strategies."
"Microsoft is pleased that Digital Rapids is supporting Silverlight across its encoding, transcoding and streaming portfolio," said Steve Sklepowich, group product manager for Silverlight at Microsoft Corp. "The addition of Silverlight 3 support in Digital Rapids' hardware and software solutions, together with support for HTTP-based Smooth Streaming, enables users to experience true stutter-free HD online via efficient, automated media production workflows."
