Akamai Unveils the Akamai HD Network

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

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

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

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

“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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.”