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.”
