Spinnaker Supports Live Streaming to iPhone

Inlet Technologies, the leading provider of live streaming and on-demand solutions for digital media, announced that the company is one of the first encoding technology providers to publicly demonstrate and support live streaming to the Apple iPhone. Inlet was the first to showcase iPhone streaming at Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference last month in San Francisco.

Using iPhone OS 3.0 and the latest release of Inlet’s Spinnaker live streaming solution, real-time streaming of live sports, news or other events can now reach an iPhone. Additionally, capabilities similar to Apple’s Stream Segmenter will be built directly into Spinnaker, simplifying the customer’s workflow and eliminating additional hardware from the system. The level of interoperability provided by Spinnaker allows content creators to stream live to the iPhone in popular formats including H.264 video and HE-AAC audio. These new advances enable any broadcaster, sports league or entertainment provider to deliver live content to the iPhone with a minimum of effort.

“We are proud to add this to a long list of industry ‘firsts’ from Inlet. By supporting live streaming to Apple’s iPhone, Inlet is once again at the forefront of the digital media revolution. The iPhone is clearly a pervasive consumer device, offering compelling opportunities to reach viewers.” said John Bishop, senior vice president of strategy and business development, Inlet Technologies. “This also reflects our continued commitment to helping companies increase the reach of their content, in any format to any screen, through intelligent media infrastructure solutions.”

Inlet’s Spinnaker family of live streaming appliances delivers stunning picture quality (in HD or SD), allowing content creators to offer viewers a “living room” experience over the Web. Spinnaker supports all of the major formats, including H.264, VC-1, Silverlight and Flash VP6, and allows content creators to stream multiple formats simultaneously from one source. Spinnaker is ideal for live sports, as it can create real-time highlights without the need for additional file preparation. Users can switch between multiple games or multiple camera angles during a single event. URLs or captions, such as scores and statistics, can also be inserted directly into the live stream. Spinnaker also offers calendar-based scheduling (ideal for recurring events), 24/7 reliability, and is designed to be used remotely, in fleets, or locally.

In addition to support for streaming to Apple’s iPhone, Spinnaker also includes support for other adaptive streaming protocols, including Microsoft Smooth Streaming and Adobe Dynamic Streaming. Other updates include multi-encoder synchronization and numerous audio enhancements.

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.

Wirecast 3.5.1 has Flash Live Streaming Support

Telestream's Wirecast encoding tool version 3.5.1 was already an amazing tool for live streaming but things just got better. Now Wirecast has support for Flash streaming in the H.264 flavor. This brings a much needed improvement for those doing live encoding on the Mac platform. One catch is you'll need to have an Intel based Mac to have the new Flash encoding support. PC users also benefit from the latest release but it's not as important because PC users already have live encoding tools such as On2 Flix live and Flash Media Live Encoder to choose from. Both On2 Flix live and Flash Media Live Encoder are not available on the Mac platform. So, certainly the Wirecast 3.5.1 release will make Mac folks happy. Buffering is also much better with this latest version. For those doing live encoding with Wowza Media System's Wowza Media Server Pro you can improve your buffer times for Flash Streaming by going with Wirecast over using QuickTime Broadcaster. Many thanks to Telestream for the much need Flash Live encoding support for Mac users.

On2 Adds Support for JavaFX Video to Flix

Following the launch of Sun's JavaFX 1.0 platform, which introduces On2 Video as the cross platform video codec for JavaFX applications. On2 Technologies, Inc., a leader in video compression solutions, announced that support for JavaFX video has been integrated into its On2 Flix line of encoder products. On2 Flix currently is the only video encoding solution capable of outputting JavaFX video.

Renowned for performance and compatibility, On2 Flix video encoders range from desktop applications for consumers and professionals to server side encoding platforms for enterprise. Accepting the broadest range of video formats, in addition to JavaFX video, On2 Flix encoders also support VP6-E and VP6-S video for Adobe Flash Player 8 and 9, 3GPP-compliant mobile video, and H.264 video for Apple iPhone iPod and offer the most complete solution for creating and publishing web video.

The JavaFX 1.0 is the expressive platform for building rich internet applications (RIA) with immersive media and content, across all the screens of your life. It includes a runtime and a suite of tools that web scripters, technical designers and developers can use to quickly build and deliver the next generation of rich interactive applications for desktop, mobile devices, TV, and other platforms. For more information on the JavaFX family of products visit http://www.javafx.com

"The launch of JavaFX 1.0 is a significant milestone in our multi-year agreement with Sun" says Matt Frost, Chief Operating Officer and Interim CEO of On2 Technologies "On2 now brings video capability to the Java platform, the global standard that powers billions of devices from TVs to mobile phones, and our Flix encoding tools provide the Java community with the tools needed for creating and publishing high quality JavaFX video."