ON24 Announces Full Windows 7 Support

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."

ViewCast Announces Support for Microsoft IIS Smooth Streaming

ViewCast Corporation, a developer of industry-leading hardware and software for the transformation, delivery and management of professional quality video over IP and mobile networks, announced support for Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS) Smooth Streaming content delivery platform for Microsoft Silverlight. Working seamlessly with the IIS Smooth Streaming advanced, HTTP-based adaptive streaming technology, select Niagara streaming media encoders will enable media companies and consumers alike to take advantage of bandwidth-optimized, high-definition (HD) content streamed over the Internet.

IIS Smooth Streaming enables content creators and delivery networks to stream video on
demand (VOD) and live events to consumers’ PCs in the highest possible quality - including true HD (720p) - transparently adapting video stream quality to accommodate users’ available bandwidth without freezing or buffering the stream. This approach ensures that users can enjoy the highest possible quality online viewing experience, while enabling media companies to provide a consistent, seamless viewing experience that extends average viewing times and associated revenue opportunities.

“IIS Smooth Streaming technology is an exciting advance for media streaming applications, bringing media companies and consumers one step closer to realizing television-caliber programming definition and continuity via the Internet,” said Dave Stoner, ViewCast President and CEO. “By supporting IIS Smooth Streaming technology with our Niagara streaming media encoders, we’re enabling our customers to seamlessly scale their media streaming applications to meet the unique requirements of their viewers. But we’re also demonstrating to the marketplace the importance of our technology. As advancements like Microsoft IIS Smooth Streaming generate growth in Internet video programming, they also generate new interest and growth in our technology. ”

“Microsoft is committed to bringing next-generation media experiences to the Web via IIS Smooth Streaming and Silverlight in order to provide the scalability and quality of service that media companies require to grow their online video businesses,” said Steve Sklepowich, group product manager for Silverlight at Microsoft Corp. “Microsoft is enabling ViewCast to realize the full promise of true HD via Microsoft’s adaptive streaming platform, providing direct benefit to their customers.”

ViewCast Niagara streaming media encoders 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.

NAB Follow-up for Streaming and Compression Tools

Here's a Follow-up for Streaming and Compression Tools at NAB 2009. Most of the buzz this NAB was surrounding Microsoft's Smooth Streaming and its implementation in various tools. This looks to be very exciting and allows automatic adjustment to lower or higher datarate for live and on-demand streams. The quality of the streams is impacted by the bandwidth available.

Inlet Technologies has some tools that have implemented the Smooth Streaming for on-demand and live streaming. They also have a tool that provides great post encoding video analysis and called Semaphore. The tool has been out for a while but now it's included in their Armada encoding product that provides large scale encoding. By large scale encoding I'm talking about hundreds and thousands of files being encoding. The tool can do checks at the end to make sure there were no technical issues like dropped frames, audio loss, etc. There are far to many features to list in this blog post. Make sure you visit the Inlet website.

Wowza Media Systems will have a new release of their server that supports Smooth Streaming and Silverlight. I can't wait. The next release will also allow live streaming to the iPhone. Amazing! Check out there website. We'll that's enough for this post. Time to catch a plane.

Wowza Combines Flash, Silverlight, iPhone, RTP and MPEG-TS Compatible Streaming Capabilities in a Single Server

Wowza Media Systems, maker of the #1 rated Wowza Media Server Pro streaming software for Flash, is taking the capabilities of its server beyond Flash with a NAB preview of the industry's first multi-protocol media streaming platform that combines Flash, Silverlight, iPhone, RTSP/RTP, and MPEG-TS compatible streaming in a single server. The preview will take place April 20-23, 2009 at NAB booth C1362 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

This sneak peek at the new platform, dubbed Wowza Media Server Pro Advanced, represents the first step towards realizing Wowza's vision of unified infrastructure server software that enables streaming from any codec, over any protocol to any player or device, served from any operating system.

The NAB demonstration will showcase Wowza Pro’s award-winning Flash streaming capabilities, currently deployed by over 20,000 worldwide licensees, along with a preview of smooth streaming to Silverlight, HTTP streaming to iPhone, RTP/RTSP streaming to the QuickTime player, and MPEG-TS streaming in full HD to IPTV set-top boxes.

"Our sole focus on media servers enables Wowza Media Systems to empower the industry with infrastructure grade server software that doesn’t constrain content delivery to a specific OS, protocol, player or device," commented David Stubenvoll, CEO and Co-Founder, Wowza Media Systems. "Also, being mindful of the economic and environmental climate, it is our goal to facilitate the unification of the media streaming infrastructure in such a way that generates significant operational and cost benefits for our customers."

The company plans to make Wowza Media Server Pro Advanced commercially available in the second half of 2009. Pricing will be announced at a later date. All purchases of Wowza Media Server Pro Unlimited editions after April 8, 2009 are eligible for a free upgrade to Wowza Media Server Pro Advanced. Interested parties can pre-register for the Wowza Media Server Pro Advanced preview release at www.wowzamedia.com/advanced.

To see the live preview of Wowza Media Server Pro Advanced platform, visit Wowza at NAB booth C1362, April 20-23, 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Niagara 7500 Makes Debut at NAB 2009

High-definition video streaming reaches a new level of quality and performance with the Niagara 7500 from ViewCast. Making its debut at NAB 2009, the Niagara 7500 simplifies the complex workflows associated with the transformation and delivery of high-definition video to IP and mobile networks. The Niagara 7500 features a sleek, innovative touch control interface with contextual menus that streamline and simplify the operation of this high-powered, dual quad core streaming appliance.

The unit features SD and HD SDI video inputs, balanced/unbalanced analog and AES/EBU digital audio, and eight stereo pairs of embedded SDI audio inputs. Users can switch on-the-fly between incoming SD and HD video, and stream in multiple bit rates and resolutions simultaneously in Microsoft VC-1, Silverlight, and H.264 Flash Live. The Niagara 7500 includes powerful video preprocessing tools such as closed-caption rendering, de-interlacing, and inverse telecine. Users can control multiple Niagara 7500 systems remotely with the included Niagara SCX Pro management software. Further, a robust SDK for application customization is also available, making the Niagara 7500 an ideal choice for the most demanding professional broadcasting applications. If you want to stop by the Viewcast booth they'll be at Booth #SL6020 (South Hall).

Microsoft Releases Silverlight 2

Microsoft Corp. announced the availability of Silverlight 2, one of the industry's most comprehensive and powerful solutions for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser. Silverlight 2 delivers a wide range of new features and tools that enable designers and developers to better collaborate while creating more accessible, more discoverable and more secure user experiences.

"We launched Silverlight just over a year ago, and already one in four consumers worldwide has access to a computer with Silverlight already installed," said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. "Silverlight represents a radical improvement in the way developers and designers build applications on the Web. This release will further accelerate our efforts to make Silverlight, Visual Studio and Microsoft Expression Studio the preeminent solutions for the creation and delivery of media and rich Internet application experiences.

Highlights of new Silverlight 2 features include the following:

.NET Framework support with a rich base class library. This is a compatible subset of the full .NET Framework.

Powerful built-in controls. These include DataGrid, ListBox, Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar controls and more.

Advanced skinning and templating support. This makes it easy to customize the look and feel of an application.

Deep zoom. This enables unparalleled interactivity and navigation of ultrahigh resolution imagery.

Comprehensive networking support. Out-of-the-box support allows calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS and standard HTTP services, enabling users to create applications that easily integrate with existing back-end systems.

Expanded .NET Framework language support. Unlike other runtimes, Silverlight 2 supports a variety of programming languages, including Visual Basic, C#, JavaScript, IronPython and IronRuby, making it easier for developers already familiar with one of these languages to repurpose their existing skill sets.

Advanced content protection. This now includes Silverlight DRM, powered by PlayReady, offering robust content protection for connected Silverlight experiences.

Improved server scalability and expanded advertiser support. This includes new streaming and progressive download capabilities, superior search engine optimization techniques, and next-generation in-stream advertising support.

Vibrant partner ecosystem. Visual Studio Industry Partners such as ComponentOne LLC, Infragistics Inc. and Telerik Inc. are providing products that further enhance developer capabilities when creating Silverlight applications using Visual Studio.

Cross-platform and cross-browser support. This includes support for Mac, Windows and Linux in Firefox, Safari and Windows Internet Explorer.

Microsoft and Akamai Innovate on Consumer Video Experiences Using Silverlight

Microsoft Corp., the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions, and Akamai Technologies Inc., the leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced plans to enable high-definition (HD) quality experiences on PCs. Akamai will release a beta version of a new service, powered by Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Silverlight, to deliver rich Internet applications via the world's largest HTTP edge network.

Microsoft is introducing new Web server technology, called Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7.0) Smooth Streaming, that gives consumers instant start-up times and no buffering by adapting the quality of the video stream in real time based upon changing connectivity speed. This enables companies to boost brand awareness and advertising revenues by extending average viewing times. They can also benefit from unprecedented network scalability using distributed HTTP-based Web servers.

"Smooth Streaming is an evolution of proven Silverlight technology that has powered global online events," said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft. "Our objective has always been to provide a platform that enables next-generation media experiences on the Web. Together with Akamai, we will take that a step further by offering a consistently superior adaptive streaming experience on a global scale."

Akamai will be building upon this innovative technology with a new service, Akamai AdaptiveEdge Streaming for Microsoft Silverlight, which will be deployed across the company's globally distributed network to bring a solution with HD scale to media companies worldwide. The service is expected to be available to select Akamai customers in a beta release in early 2009. Akamai AdaptiveEdge Streaming for Silverlight will leverage IIS Smooth Streaming, which offers a simple-to-manage approach for adaptive streaming, and will be an upcoming feature of IIS7 Media Pack. IIS7 Media Pack brings media-specific features such as bit-rate throttling and playlists to Web servers. This powerful solution is enhanced by the compelling experiences and rich interactive applications enabled by the Silverlight player.

"We've seen firsthand the growing demand for HD online content among our customer base," said Tim Napoleon, chief strategist, Digital Media at Akamai. "In a broadcast model, typically the experience is consistent across 100 percent of the viewing audience. The challenge is that capabilities in the online world vary greatly for each user. Adaptive streaming allows the video to adjust to the audience, maximizing each user's experience. We believe that this technology, combined with an open video player solution that embraces existing development and ad standards, will allow us to offer the scale and reach needed to grow the business of online video."

"Users expect TV-quality video when they go online; anything less just doesn't make the grade anymore," said Will Richmond, broadband video analyst and editor/publisher of VideoNuze. "Especially in the HD era, premium video providers are recognizing that quality is king and as a result are accelerating their shift to more robust delivery infrastructure. And the payoffs are clear: higher-quality video drives longer viewing sessions, greater engagement and improved monetization opportunities."